Haiti: The U.S. Military Steps Up to the Plate (UPDATES)
Jan 15th, 2010 | 27 responses
As is usual in most international disasters, the United States of America is leading the world in providing humanitarian aid to the victims of the Haiti earthquake. And, as always, the U.S. military is spearheading such relief efforts.
The following are headlines and excerpts about some of these efforts that have appeared in various publications during the past 48 hours.
Military Times:
Up to 10,000 U.S. troops will be off Haiti’s shores by Monday to help distribute aid and prevent potential rioting among desperate earthquake survivors, the top U.S. military officer said Friday, as President Obama pledged long-term reconstruction help to Haitian President Rene Preval.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said the total American presence in and around the beleaguered country could rise beyond 10,000 as U.S. military officers determine how much assistance may be needed in the days ahead.
In a joint news conference at the Pentagon with Mullen, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the primary goal is to distribute aid as quickly as possible “so that people don’t, in their desperation, turn to violence.” He suggested that the U.S. is aware of perceptions it could have too-high a profile in the ravaged country.
::
The arrival off the Haitian coast of the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, a ship laden with helicopters, essentially provides a “second airport” from which aid can be delivered to the stricken capital, Crowley said.
::
Mullen said the hospital ship Comfort, with hundreds of medical professionals and medical support, should be off the Haitian coast by the end of next week.
Military Times:
Hundreds of U.S. troops and an aircraft carrier have arrived for the Haiti relief effort, and the commander on the ground said Friday that food, water, medicine and other emergency relief supplies are being rushed to victims.
Thousands more troops and sailors were en route.
::
The aircraft carrier Carl Vinson also arrived off Haiti’s shores overnight carrying 19 helicopters, and it started flights off its deck in the morning, officials said.
The carrier also has water-purifying equipment and three surgical operating rooms, and can do medical evacuations as well as ferry supplies and people to and from land.
The arrivals added to more than 300 military personnel who had arrived as of Thursday and amounted to the first major influx of military from the United States, which has taken the lead in world efforts to assist the devastated country.
The U.S. Southern Command said there were about 8,000 personnel from America’s armed forces either on site or on the way as of Friday morning.
Fort Bragg was sending another 800 troops Friday and will have a full brigade of some 3,500 on the ground by the end of the weekend. Another big ground force was expected late this weekend — the amphibious assault ship Bataan amphibious assault ship got underway overnight from Naval Station Norfolk, Va., and was stopping Friday to pick up Marines in North Carolina on its way.
The Navy hospital ship Comfort was to leave Baltimore on Saturday with some 250 medical staff, stop in Florida to pick up 300 more people and be off Haiti on Thursday.
Danger Room,Wired.com:
When a devastating earthquake struck Haiti on Tuesday, it knocked out the control tower at Port-au-Prince airport. A team of Air Force special operators has now reopened the airport — and is working to keep things running so that more relief can arrive.
The 23rd Special Tactics Squadron, 720th Special Tactics Group, is overseeing air traffic control at Port-au-Prince airport…Air Force special operators have thus far rescued seven people from collapsed buildings…Other military assets are on their way, including a contingency response group from Air Mobility Command.
Wall Street Journal:
The first Navy ship, the USS Higgins, arrived in Haiti Thursday morning, joining a small number of Coast Guard cutters that arrived on Wednesday.
::
::
The Pentagon appointed a three-star general, Lt. Gen. P.K. Keen, the deputy director of the military’s Southern Command, to head the rapidly expanding U.S. military relief effort in Haiti, which is shaping up to be one of the biggest American humanitarian missions in decades.
Gates rules out airdropping aid for fear of riots
Stars and Stripes:
Top defense officials have ruled out airdropping food, water and medical supplies over Haiti, fearing that chaos would be the unintended result.
“It seems to me that without having any structure on the ground, in terms of distribution, that an airdrop is simply going to lead to riots as people try and go after that stuff,” said Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday.
::
A force of between 9,000 and 10,000 U.S. servicemembers is on its way to Haiti, said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
A large portion of those troops will remain on ships off the island’s coast, but the Defense Department is “poised” to send more ground forces if the head of U.S. Southern Command and the commander on the ground feel it’s necessary, Mullen said.
U.S. troops’ primary mission will be to deliver relief supplies, not provide security, Gates said.
“The key is to get the food and the water in there as quickly as possible, so that people don’t in their desperation turn to violence,” he said.
The 2,000 Marines headed to Haiti are capable of conducting a variety of missions ranging from humanitarian relief to combat operations, said Capt. Clark Carpenter, a spokesman for the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.
The Marines are expected to arrive off Haiti next week.
Washington Post:
The U.S. military now has a 24-hour-a-day airlift underway. The White House said a large shipment of food will arrive Saturday. Three U.S. military helicopters were scheduled to fly in Thursday from the neighboring Dominican Republic loaded with water, medical supplies.
::
::
The United States dispatched a company of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. But the Pentagon said that only 329 U.S. military personnel were on the ground Thursday.
The USS Carl Vinson, the Navy carrier — loaded with 19 helicopters — was scheduled to arrive Friday. And the hospital ship, USNS Comfort, was preparing to get underway.
Coast Guard cutters have begun to remove people and ferry supplies, and more are steaming toward Haiti.
As of late Thursday, the Coast Guard had flown out more than 100 Americans, including injured and nonessential U.S. Embassy personnel. Eighteen other people with severe injuries — major lacerations, fractured skulls and other broken bones — were taken by helicopter.
Baltimore Sun
Rumbling trucks and beeping forklifts carried supplies to the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort Thursday as crew members hustled to get the enormous white vessel ready for a Saturday departure to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
With its giant red cross insignia, 250 hospital beds and military medical staff of 560, the Comfort is preparing for its biggest humanitarian mission in at least 20 years, Capt. James Ware said.
::
The ship is expected to arrive Jan. 21 at Haiti, where it may anchor a mile or more offshore and treat patients flown in by the Comfort’s two helicopters. Workers in the ship’s four operating rooms and eight intensive-care units will be busy treating up to 200 patients a day.
::
The floating hospital is one of two in the Navy fleet. The USNS Mercy is based in San Diego.
Arizona Daily Star:
The airmen in the 79th Rescue Squadron were eager to help the victims of the earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday.Once they received their opportunity, they wasted no time making an impact.
The rescue squadron, based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, was on its way to the devastated country within five hours after receiving the call Wednesday afternoon.
And it was only a matter of minutes — eight to be exact— after landing in Haiti before they were in the sky heading back to the United States.
During that span, the squadron dropped off more than 13,000 pounds of military vehicles and equipment they picked up at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina…
Politics Daily:
Within hours of the earthquake Tuesday…the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson was speeding toward Haiti with a deckfull of helicopters for ferrying relief supplies, and the Pentagon had sent in a team to take over, secure, and operate the badly damaged national airport. [The Vinson has now arrived off theHaitian coast---see an earlier excerpt]
U.S. military aircraft also were flying in emergency communications gear to bypass Haiti’s ruined telephone system and ferrying in assessment teams from the Pentagon and the U.S. Agency for International Development to figure out what’s needed and how to get it.
::
Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, who heads U.S. Southern Command, the regional military organization, said Wednesday he may ask that a task force of warships and 1,200 combat Marines, organized as a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), be directed to Haiti. A MEU, embarked on ships with helicopters, humanitarian supplies and construction equipment, could be a key component of reconstruction projects in Haiti.
Or the Marines could be directed to quell violence and keep order.
UPDATE I January 16
From the UPI:
Control of the Port-au-Prince airport, central hub for the huge international relief operation, has been given by Haiti to the U.S. military.
===
Some 4,200 U.S. military personnel have arrived in Haiti for earthquake relief efforts with 6,300 more scheduled to arrive this weekend, officials said.
Officials of the U.S. Southern Command told Pentagon news services late Friday that they have established Joint Task Force Haiti under the command of Army Lt. Gen. P.K. “Ken” Keen and are working with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, international relief organizations and local responders to provide search and rescue, distribute aid and assess damage to key infrastructure.
They said the airfield at Port-au-Prince is now open 24 hours per day and has a capability of handling 90 aircraft per day.
Meanwhile, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Higgins have arrived off the Haitian coast in support of the task force. Southern Command officials said the Vinson is hosting 19 helicopters flying airlift missions in support of relief efforts and delivering more than 30 pallets of relief supplies for distribution to affected areas.
The Pentagon also said the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, with more than 2,200 Marines, is scheduled to arrive in Haiti Monday with heavy-lift and earth-moving equipment and additional medical-support capabilities.
UPDATE II
The Washington Post, January 16:
With 1,000 troops on the ground, and more stores of food, water and equipment on the way, U.S. officials confronted the staggering and complex task of reviving the tortured nation, where the unemployment rate was 70 percent before this week’s calamity.
The State Department said that a Navy carrier arriving here was carrying 600,000 daily rations of food, and that an additional $48 million in food assistance would be made available, enough to last several months. An estimated 100,000 containers for water are being shipped in, along with four water-purification systems, and the Pentagon said as many as 10,000 troops could be deployed.
::
Officials said the situation at the airport — named for Haitian patriot Toussaint L’Ouverture — had improved since Thursday, when private planes would arrive unannounced and low on fuel. They had to be allowed to land because of the risk that they would crash, but other planes were waved off, said Air Force Master Sgt. Ty Foster.
“The air flow is a lot better. We have good communications now,” he said.
U.S. Air Force special forces were assisting with air-traffic control, and a U.S. military AWACS plane was overhead to help manage air traffic. Other officials said the airport could handle only up to 90 landings and takeoffs a day.
::Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, deputy commander of the U.S. Southern Command, told reporters at the airport Friday that “it’s going to take a significant international effort” to help Haiti recover.
“It will take days to get help to all the particular places we need to,” he said.
Keen said U.S. helicopters from the USS Carl Vinson, which had arrived offshore, were dropping water supplies to areas of Port-au-Prince on Friday.
27 Responses to “Haiti: The U.S. Military Steps Up to the Plate (UPDATES)”
It is a rather sad commentary when our armed forces are pre-positioned, ready and more easily deployed to foreign disasters then our own. I speak of New Orleans.
The Navy had a ship in the Gulf of Mexico which carried helicopters and had many operating theaters, yet many people died because it was never used to much effectiveness.
That was indeed sad. And, it has nothing to do with the Posse Comitatus Act, or any other act or law.
[As is usual in most international disasters, the United States of America is leading the world in providing humanitarian aid to the victims of the Haiti earthquake. And, as always, the U.S. military is spearheading such relief efforts]–
They didn't lead into or stay long in Somalia. They were never seen in Angola, Rwanda, Sierra Leon, Mozambique, Ethiopia, the Congo, Chad or Sudan. Generally not that much at all in operations before 2004 save for Somalia. Nearly all of that has been since 2004. I would say this Haiti disaster is pretty much the biggest U.S. military relief assistance since Somalia. There are several relief operations of various sizes ongoing right now that the U.S. is not part of. If the U.S. is not part of it then neither is the U.S. Military. So in my opinion that is a bit of misleading statement.
Not that all this wonderful expensive machinery and man power wouldn’t be greatly appreciated if offered.
Yes, I could not understand how a city with access to deep water was only supported by land. Color me bitter.
There is sixty miles of river between NO and the sea. After the storm it was probably full of crap. However there were all those areas in Plaquemines parish that the carrier could have been used for search and rescue. It may have been used to rescue offshore oilfield workers that simply didn’t make the news. Lot of them out there.
For those who think, and who wish to think ahead:
“They didn't lead into or stay long in Somalia.”
It's interesting to go beyond speculation on the political motives behind the US assistance to Haiti (which include pleasing the Black Caucus, the stereotypical cariatures of liberals who want to misuse the military as feel-good social workers, the “peaceniks” who want to buy the goodwill of everyone else in the world, or those driven by perverse guilt at US success who believes we “owe” aid to everyone else, but which also include the more realistic guesses that Obama actually “just” wants us to be a “good neighbor” for foreign policy purposes, notably in this hemisphere, truly wants us to help a nation and neighbor in obvious distress, and perhaps wants to improve on our efforts as compared to the past and to his predecessor).
Somalia, the best-known failed state in addition to Haiti, has other lessons for us. Not that we'll run into terrorists in Haiti, though we may have to pacify the nation. The more important lesson Somalia teaches us (another nation also does; read on) is that we have to ask what we'll want to do in Haiti, not only now, but later. We have no strategic interests there, but will some want us to engage in “nation-building,” nevertheless, perhaps as a show or demonstration project of what Obama and the Dems can achieve (by managing or leading the effort)?
It's an important question to ask ourselves not only because we're likely to have to answer it at some time, but because George W. Bush campaigned vowing not to engage in nation-building, in large part due to our experience in Somalia earlier. However, the occupation after the war in Iraq and the nature of our occupation of Afghanistan, is a nation-building effort (even if called “reconstruction” or something else like “development”). It may be tempting for Obama and the Dems to undertake this kind of effort (with a related goal of bettering what Bush began and oversaw elsewhere), especially given the past history with Haiti (the Dems have wanted to help this nation, or its government, before) and now with the commitment to participation in the relief mission, with a presumed leadership role. They even may be able to exploit what is done this year, and planned for later, as campaign material.
When and how will our effort end in Haiti? What all, all, will we do there? It's not too early to ask.
“There is sixty miles of river between NO and the sea.”
Sixty dredged miles. Deep water ships routinely go in and out of refineries there.
But even if the wash had shortened things up, the ship I am talking about had no reason to come near the shore.
The “Marine Ships.” First built during the Korean War, they were further refined during Vietnam and now we are on the third generation. I've only been aboard the Vietnam era ships.
They are designed to carry many thousands of Marines off the coast of some place, chopper them into position, then pick up the ones that are shot up and operate on them in surgical theaters.
The one I got a tour of, the “Iwo Jima”, on the East Coast, named after a famous Marine battle could carry 3,000 Marines stacked 4 high in bunks. Huge mess decks to feed them. Huge shower facilities. Same as the “Okinawa” in San Diego.
But those ships were second generation. Now they are even bigger. Three times bigger. Ugly things, nicknamed “The Shoe.” One was exercising in the Gulf. Supplies were in Tampa. Refueling ships, the UK operated Pear Leaf and the Apple Leaf were in the Caribbean.
Take my word for it . . . things could have been done.
I have only gone back about 20 years for examples of U.S. military roles in foreign disaster and foreign humanitarian assistance. They may not all have been that gigantic or brilliant, but here are some of them:
The United States' Response to the South Asia Earthquake
A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan on October 8, 2005. An estimated 74,000 Pakistanis died, 70,000 were seriously injured, and over 2.8 million were left homeless…The U.S. response was immediate and massive. Within 48 hours of the earthquake, the first CH-47 Chinook helicopters arrived from Afghanistan. At the height of disaster relief operations, the U.S. Army provided 21 CH-47s simultaneously…
October 2009: — After a 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated Padang, Indonesia…unknown by most, on Oct. 2 the first foreign military aircraft to deliver humanitarian aid to the affected region would be a 17th Special Operations Squadron MC-130P Combat Shadow from the 353rd Special Operations Group stationed at Kadena Air Base, Japan, carrying more than six tons of relief supplies and 25 international relief workers.
During FY 1994, 60 countries benefited from U.S. DoD humanitarian assistance, which included four major humanitarian operations. These operations included:
• Rwanda. Humanitarian operations in support of Rwandan refugees included logistics, airfield management, and water purification. By the end of FY 1994, 1,250 airlift sorties moving over 15,500 tons of humanitarian assistance supplies had been completed.
• Former Yugoslavia. The United States completed over 1,800 sorties that landed nearly 29,500 tons of food and humanitarian assistance supplies in the former Yugoslavia. In addition, over 1,200 U.S. sorties airdropped nearly 11,500 tons of relief supplies in Bosnia and Croatia.
• Cuban and Haitian Migrants. Operations undertaken by the U.S. armed forces facilitated refugee and migrant processing, refugee camp construction, and camp management in response to the Haitian and Cuban migration emergencies.
• Northern Iraq Relief. DoD funds and oversees a relief program for the Kurds and other minorities of northern Iraq. For FY 1994, this program included the provision of more than 40,000 tons of food as well as heating fuel, medical supplies, and basic construction and agricultural materials.
Following a devastating cyclone in May 1991, Operation Sea Angel employed U.S. Marines returning from Operation Desert Storm to provide humanitarian assistance in Bangladesh following a cyclone that killed nearly 150,000 people. The operation focused on restoring damaged and destroyed infrastructure so that relief aid could be delivered to those cut off in severely impacted coastal areas
Then there was the November 1991 Bangladesh cyclone, the worse ever, in which the US military also provided relief efforts
The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier was deployed to the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, following the devastating December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
During the decade, 1982-1992, The U.S. military played its part by providing life-saving disaster relief from Kurdistan to Afghanistan.
“Since the Cold War ended, the USG has intervened in several humanitarian crises requiring
broad interagency support. These encompass responses to major natural disasters, including a
devastating cyclone in Bangladesh, Hurricane Mitch in Central America, and severe flooding in
Mozambique. In Iraqi Kurdistan, Somalia, Rwanda, and Kosovo, and in Afghanistan.”
A Joint task Force provided relief efforts in Somalia as part of Operation Restore Hope from December 1992 to May 1993. The USG responded to the complex emergency in Somalia with an airlift of food in July 1992 and with Operation Restore Hope in December, when the situation continued to worsen. The U.S. military joined other military to aid Somalia. 18 U.S. service members died in a humanitarian operation that “ helped save 200,000 lives and can be judged a humanitarian success.” (DLS has some quizzical comments on this “adventure.”)
1999, Operation Shining Hope to aid refugees fleeing from Kosovo.
Operation Support Hope, a 1994 United States military effort to provide immediate relief for the refugees of the Rwandan Genocide and allow a smooth transition to a full United Nations humanitarian management program. The inhabitants of the camp consisted of approximately two million Hutus, participants in the genocide, and the bystanders, who had fled in anticipation of Tutsi retaliation. On July 22, 1994 President Clinton announced Operation Support Hope. Two days later, American joint task forces were airlifted to Goma, Zaire; Kigali, Rwanda; Entebbe, Uganda; and Mombasa, Kenya
In the fall of 1998, Hurricanes Georges and Mitch struck the Western Hemisphere. The USG responded to both storms with major relief efforts that included a major military role. Hurricane Mitch was especially severe and caused tremendous damage and loss of life in Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Military Foreign Humanitarian Assistance operations were conducted by the U.S. military.
Operation Atlas Response, previously named Operation Silent Promise, was the U.S. military’s response torrential rains and flooding in southern Mozambique and South Africa that left over
500,000 people displaced and affected 5 million persons in one of the world’s poorest countries.
JTF efforts were focused on the distribution of relief aid and with providing aerial assessment.
I am sure there are many more, both before and after 1992, but ity's getting late, I am getting old, and thus I’ll let you do the research, now that I got you started.
The bottom line, and I stand by it, the U.S. and its military have always been at the forefromt of humanitarian and disater relief efforts. But, hey, feel free to quibble. It is a free country.
After Katrina, USS Iwo Jima and Tortuga followed the storm in spite of heavy seas and were pier-side in New Orleans by Sept. 5. These are Amphibious Assault ships similar to Bataan and Carter Hall that are now getting underway for Haiti. We were lucky that the Carl Vinson was at sea and could respond quickly to Haiti.
You have misunderstood me here.
I don't want to take anything away from the military, but what you have listed is only the humanitarian emergencies that the U.S. Military participated in. There were and are a hell-of-a-lot more for the same time period. Many starting before U.S. Military involvement and lasting long after. Most the U.S. Military never participated in at all.
The way you wrote this, is as if the U.S. Military did it all, beginning to end. As if the U.S. Military was the first to come, solved the problem, then left with the problem solved. Its just not true.
I'm not going to critically piece apart each example of U.S. Military humanitarian service above. I just want you to realize that the U.S. Military has not “spearheaded as usual” all the humanitarian emergencies in the last 5,10, 20, or 200 years. You lead people to believe that the U.S. Military is doing it all.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by TMV and dmf, Karen. Karen said: RT @TMV: Haiti: The U.S. Military Steps Up to the Plate: As is usual in most international disasters… http://bit.ly/6olGb3 [...]
I'm glad and proud to see the US military take such an active role in helping with disaster relief. Much more noble and productive than throwing brave troops into a meatgrinder out in some stupid desert because a bunch of chickenhawk politicians want to pretend at being warriors.
Please don't parrot the Limpbaugh drivel. Suffering dosen't know any skin color or politics…
[It's interesting to go beyond speculation on the political motives behind the US assistance to Haiti (which include pleasing the Black Caucus)--]
That is ridiculous.
I undertstand, FT. But I also hope that you'll understand that when a person is proud of a group of people (e.g. our military) and their achievements and overemphasizes their accomplishments (e.g. “always spearheding” instead of perhaps, “often,” or “usually”), is is not necessarily because the person intends to “mislead.” Trust me…
Thank you
But that is the very contention much of the world has with the U.S.. It leaves the impression of self grandstanding. Of not recognizing the efforts of the other’s contributions. Sort of along the lines of why you choose not to use the term “third world countries”. It's the impression that the term leaves behind that you are concerned about. It's just a conscious choice to be careful with our words and it is noble.
Can you list out the names of those killed in relief work over the past twenty years? You see, we spend the most money when we choose to do relief work, but we do not spend the most lives.
My thanks and admiration to those civilian relief workers
LOL
“Please don't parrot the Limpbaugh drivel.”
Don't waste time with the real-world, brain-stem-level Limbaugh-hating drivel, or other substituting of junk when a rebuttal is out of reach, or impossible.
(CORRECTED.)
“That is ridiculous.” [sic] “No, it doesn't.” [sic] Et cetera –
This isn't your day or weekend, is it? [shaking head]
________________________________
[...] once again the last resort of the devastated, and has the biggest, swiftest response under way. Haiti: The U.S. Military Steps Up to the Plate (UPDATES) | The Moderate Voice Always question those in authority……. I see evidence of the missing link all the time [...]
What's the matter DLS, can't feel the love anymore?
Thanks again Dorian for this. I'd have to say that it's another one of those matters; if a person isnt plugged in to the sources about our military and reserves huge work during Katrina, then well, a lot of people who werent there only know what they read, often narrowly read. I dont know what the answer is for not having better sourcing and I came in as post-trauma worker only after 2000 folks from NOLA were transported here to old Lowry AFB. They told story after story about rescue and care by so many kinds of people, different races, and religions of rescuers… military, civil guard, coast guard, navy, army, civvie air, national guard, police officers, neighbors. I wince when people say all the police ran away. Same when people say no one came to help NOLA and the rouges. Most certainly did. Brownie, insofar as he could, did also. What didnt happen was quickness. But, then having been on mission to Armenia and Mexico City earthquakes, most citizens who have neverr been in a huge disaster in their home town, dont realize it's not just a matter of packing your duffle bag and going. There's a command. It has to be followed to not produce more mayhem. But again, not sure we are very good at explaining protocols to the public. Just my .02 worth.
Good notes, dr. e.
As to the critics and the cynics who are beginning to stick their heads out–I am sure there will be many more later–who are already bitching (excuse my English) why things aren't going like clockwork: Pardon me, but endeavors of this magnitude don't go smoothly under perfect conditions. Now, add to the earthquake disaster and destruction itself, the pouring of help into a single badly damaged airport from a fifty or more different nations, hundreds of organizations (there were already 10,000 nongovernmental organizations working in Haiti) and thousands of people, and the melding and coordinating of these efforts and people, the urgency involved, the lack of communications and totally collapsed infrastructure, the fact that half the government got killed or injured, along with their facilities destroyed and is thus barely functioning, the desperation of the people, frantic rescue efforts running against the clock, the security concerns (looting, possible riots, violence, lawlessness, authority pretty much broken down, potential anarchy, etc., etc), the fact that the port was destroyed, the fact that a lot of aid and relief has to come overland through the Dominican Republic ( a tortuous 12-28 hour journey), the possibility of disease, the fact that over a hundred thousand people may have perished and potentially millions are or will be homeless, etc, etc., excuse me if some of the aircraft are not getting in and out “on schedule,” excuse me if things have not gone very smoothly. Hopefully they will be more to the critics’ satisfaction in a few days. Maybe, maybe not.
However, I still thank from the bottom of my heart all those, without exception, on the ground there who are working their butts off to help the Haitians, many risking their health and possibly their lives, while we back home from our comfortable couches can criticize and bitch why the water or the food or the medicines are not getting to those in need fast enough.
[...] flanked by his predecessors, of one of the “largest relief efforts in our history”. (This blog has more [...]
[...] Haiti: The U.S. Military Steps Up to the Plate (themoderatevoice.com) [...]
[...] Haiti: The U.S. Military Steps Up to the Plate (themoderatevoice.com) [...]