There’s apparently a surge going on that’s not the one that the Senate is debating. Or, more accurately, failing to debate. The U. N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti is taking on the gangs that have been making life hell in Port-au-Prince:
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb. 5 — For years, street gangs have run Haiti right alongside the politicians. With a disbanded army and a corrupted wreck of a police force, successive presidents have either used the gangs against political rivals or just bought them off.
Recently, something extraordinary has occurred. President René Préval decided to take on the gangs and set the 8,000 United Nations peacekeepers loose on them, a risky move that will determine the security of the country and the success of his young government.
“We’re taking back Port-au-Prince centimeter by centimeter,†said Lt. Col. Abdesslam Elamarti, a peacekeeper from Morocco. “We’re pressing these gangs so the population can live in peace.â€
The offensive by the United Nations forces, who arrived here in 2004 after the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, began in earnest in late December. One of the fiercest battles took place on the morning of Jan. 25 with a raid by hundreds of United Nations forces on a gang hide-out on the periphery of Cité Soleil, this sprawling seaside capital’s largest and most notorious slum.
After a fierce firefight in which gang members fired thousands of shots, United Nations officials succeeded in taking over the hide-out, a former schoolhouse that gang members had once used to fire upon peacekeepers and to demand money from passing motorists. The United Nations said four gang members had been killed in the battle.
Other raids have followed, and though it is still too early to judge the operation, gang leaders seem to be on the run, and armored United Nations vehicles now rumble through the crowded streets of Cité Soleil.
The article goes on to quote alternative views that suggest that men in Haiti join gangs because they have no other alternatives.
It’s hard to imagine what alternative other than flight could be presented to the people of Haiti. The people are largely uneducated; the land is an ecological wreck; the violence and squalor discourages the obvious possible alternative—tourism. As things are gangs hold sway and increasingly turn to the international narcotics trade or other activities outside the law.
What is needed is a change in Haitian institutions and capital investment. 100 years ago. It was nearly 100 years ago in 1915 that Haiti was administered by the U. S. Marines, an occupation that would last almost 20 years.
In 2007, people in Haiti still ask for safety from “Papa Legba” and other voodoo deity’s.
Change ini institutions, capital investment is wasted by trying to go against the one and only God when he states clearing in His word, “Thou shalt not have other gods before thee.”
Look at history from beginning of time to present of nations (USA) that prospered as “one nation under God”, and those (Israel) that worshiped, talked to any other God than the maker of heaven and earth, had big time problems.
Are we really involved in the Haitian peacekeeping operation? I thought the US took a back seat to Brazil, which is currently leading the UN mission there.