Haiti earthquake: France criticises US 'occupation'

reply to post by greeneyedleo


I agree.

I was listening to a radio program today, and they were discussing the unjustified criticism the US is taking in the Haiti disaster relief effort.

It seems some people get their jollies from criticizing the US no matter what they do.

The US does indeed deserve harsh criticism for much of their foreign policy, but Jeezus people, this is not the time or the place. Just let the soldiers help the Haitian people maintain order, bury their dead and rebuild their ruined country.

For once, the US military is being used as a force for good, so get off it.

reply to post by greeneyedleo


Woops.

Double post.



[edit on 18-1-2010 by kommunist]

Originally posted by JaxonRoberts
I would say that France is just a little 'sensitive' to the word occupation, then add to that the idea that France probably feels that if anyone should 'occupy' Haiti, it should be them... After all, it was theirs once upon a time...

Until I see a reliable source that states that the Haitian Government does not want US assistance, or wants the US to 'go home', this is much ado about nothing... Just France rattling their sabre...

as one oz tv watcher emailed into the news section;- "if it was an invasion anywhere they(US) would not pussyfoot around. they'd have troops and equipment on the ground all over the ground in rapid time." (approximate quote)
it does make me wonder , if they are so slick, why they did not begin loading helicopters with food and medicine whilst steaming to the port with their aircraft carrier. they could take off before the anchor dropped and be back before breakfast.
why divert a redcross plane and have them truck into haiti from next door? (dominican). and god help the haitians with katrina bush on the team.

on a lighter note, your signature cracked me up and my friends via email enjoyed it too.

Urban search and rescue teams called up to help find victims in Haiti are being decommissioned and told to go home. That includes a member of Indiana's Task Force One.

Bill Brown is very angry and upset with the US government. Brown, an Indianapolis Fire Department Battalion Chief and commander of Indiana Task Force One, has been waiting at Homestead Air Force base in Florida since Friday. He and other members of a special advance command response unit were supposed to fly in to Haiti, but he says they have been hampered by bureaucratic red tape.

Four other urban search and rescue teams, including one from Ohio, have been told to pack up and go home. The Ohio task force had more than 60 tons of gear loaded on to a C-5 transport plane and 80 members were prepared to get on another aircraft when they were told their services were not needed.

The reason given for decommissioning the teams is that there are not enough resources on the ground in Haiti to sustain them. But according to Chief Brown, the teams are self-sufficient and travel with food, water, generators, fuel and vehicles and don't need outside assistance.

it seems USAID, which is heading the American humanitarian effort in Haiti, says those teams of first responders are not needed.

www.wthr.com...

U.S. Military Blames Crowded Parking Lot for Diverted Planes at Haiti Airport

www.foxnews.com...

A full parking lot is the problem?

Is there only one parking lot in Haiti?

I know the French like to complain (sorry if there is any French people present ), but they are at least partially right.

Some things that explain somewhat the situation on Euronews (the news channel I watch)
euronews: Special report from Haiti
Aid and security – the problems facing Haiti
euronews hears the about the problems facing rescue workers in Haiti

Something I saw this morning on Euronews (when they show several European newspapers) was that tourist resorts some 100km from Port au Prince are still working as if nothing had happened and they were on a different country.

reply to post by ArMaP


I also heard that about the resorts and cruise ships that are nearby - but also heard that many of the employees of these places are Haitians. So at least they have steady income which they desparately need.

What if those resorts close? Then the Haitians working there will have no income.

Again, I think, damned if you do, damned if you dont.

reply to post by ModernAcademia


Perhaps it was your family over there, lying under all of the rubble, waiting for help and aid. Would you be ok with hammering out all of the details while people are over there dying? The way I look at it, lives come first. The people of the world call the US the policeman of the world, well this is the one time I am glad that we have that title. It is better to lend a hand rather than to criticize those doing so. We sent money to them(not a loan or grant), we just gave it to them. We sent more troops over there on a rescue mission more than any other country has. We have the most powerful government in the world, I think that they are more than capable of handling two things at once. All of this criticism on the US is nothing but unfounded attacks because they lack what it takes to be there when people need them. They are using this as a publicity event to try to further the anti-american propaganda.

Edit-France can kiss my ass.

[edit on 18-1-2010 by Common Good]

Something that a lot of people aren't keeping in mind is that Haiti does not have the airport infrastructure that is so common in the developed world. Operating an airport in ideal conditions is no joke, it takes a massive amount of resources and management. Destroy most of the support system and then begin flooding massive amounts of flights in, and naturally you are going to have problems.

Toussaint Louverture International Airport has only one runway, and people are expecting it to run more smoothly than Heathrow. It also now lacks a control tower, and I imagine many of the other facilities are in bad shape as well. Someone also asked if there was only one parking lot in Haiti. As far as cargo planes go, there are two parking ramps at that airport. And we're talking about remarkably small ramps here.



As you can see, the amount of parking space there is extremely limited. They're already quick turning aircraft as fast as they can, but ultimately cargo can only be offloaded so quickly, and only so many planes can park there. But the other issue that also slows things down is that refueling those aircraft is going to be extraordinarily slow down there. Not only is fuel probably lacking (which means aircraft without in flight refueling capabilities will likely have to make an additional stop elsewhere), I highly doubt that they have functional fuel pits there. Having to bring out a tanker truck dramatically slows down how quickly an aircraft can be refueled.

That airport was never meant for this kind of traffic, and exposing it to an Earthquake of that magnitude is not making things better. However military aircraft should take priority for the fact that those are the aircraft that are actually going to improve conditions there. From what I've seen and heard, they may be trying to add a second unimproved runway to the airport.

Most likely an unimproved dirt strip will probably be put down parallel to the already existing asphalt runway. This is something that the Air Force's contingency response wings are well trained at, and will allow Air Force C-17 and C-130 aircraft to have their own runway for use. Given that C-17's are flying in the majority of the cargo this will allow for far more cargo to be flown in and out. It's also likely that improvements are underway for the grassy areas adjacent to the paved parking ramp, which will allow those aircraft to be offloaded and possibly fueled elsewhere (if not they are capable of in flight refueling on the return trip), which will eventually free up space for other civilian aircraft.

I've personally worked with those contingency response guys and I can assure everyone that they know what they are doing. There is a reason behind all the madness that's going on down there. It's not a matter of trying to snub the French or other civilian relief, there simply has to be priority.

I wonder if they would be able to build a landing strip there within a couple of days to ease things up for the upcomming weeks.
Get some bulldozers out there and make some runways on the already devasted lands.
I dont know, just an Idea to make things run more smoothly?


Edit- I guess they are already working on that according to the poster above me.
Good for them for using their heads.

[edit on 18-1-2010 by Common Good]

www.af.mil...

It seems that alluminum matting is possibly going to be used instead of simply making a hard packed dirt strip. Admittedly I don't know anything about the process, but if they're doing something other than hard packing the dirt it means they likely intend to make these improvements available to aircraft other than just C-17's and C-130's.

That is the job of the US military and engineers, because Haiti will be in need of aid for a long time, is going to take up to 5 years for housing to be build, so right now I know that a landing for the port has been assessed.

People think that in a disaster things will move smoothly, no so when aid is coming from all over the world and nations wants to make sure that their aid is been taken care by the envoys from their countries.

I think the job done so far in Haiti is outstanding and without US intervention it would have been worst, no matter how good the intentions of all the nations involved.

And this coming from somebody that will bash anything coming from the government anytime.

The only thing I blame US is for not sending more troops intermediately.

reply to post by ModernAcademia

A full parking lot is the problem?

Is there only one parking lot in Haiti?

It was very clear if the entire article is read that the parking lot referred to is the plane parking lot. So many planes have come in, and are continuing to come that there is not enough room to park them all. They are trying to get them unloaded, and off as fast as possible at the moment. Unfortunately it isn't fast enough to avoid diverting some planes for a while.

This just boils down to the fact that people like to bash America no matter what they do. That is until their own homes are devastated for one reason or another, then they have no problem standing in line with their hands out.

I think we should take note of the governments who like to cry about evil America so that when some great need arises for help in their neck of the woods, we will know that we are not wanted and will be able to save our money, resources, & personnel.

cheese eatin surrender monkeys.
The french are the D student of the political world they dont make any sense. i am so glad im not the only one who thought of grounds keeper willy ya beat me to it DANG

The US is there......they have the resources and are best equipped to handle this. A country was destroyed and people need help.

I don't see France sending more help than the US right now. My anger is from countries bashing the US role while seemingly making this about the United States and not Haiti.

Perhaps if more people in the world looked at the larger picture, then we would eliminate this kind of talk.

Countries like France need to ask the question.....where would Haiti be without the US there now?

Same old same old rubbish.

A sentence in a foreign media publication echoing the opinion of a diplomat or expert in whatever field offends some people - even though the statement in question is completely justified with the current track record that the US has.. no offense meant - and a couple of dozen people fly off the proverbial handle and start generalizing a whole country and historical events which bear no significance to the story at all.

ITS ONLY A STATEMENT.. it wasn't made as an official political statement.. and it is justified. The world IS wondering why the US is moving up to 10,000 combat marines into the island after all.. and taking control over aspects where the UN has not agreed would be controlled by US forces.

Originally posted by Dermo
and taking control over aspects where the UN has not agreed would be controlled by US forces.

What makes you think the UN gets a say in it?

Exactly, makes you wonder what the whole earthquake was about especially with that thread showing something akin to the islands being mirrored in the sun just prior to the quake, and the HAARP is pointing at the sun alot doing its "ionsphere" work.

I mean, really. Think beach front for their new base of operations. They made them sign their air rights away indefinately giving them to the US. I believe this was murder of countless people, men women and children for their military base and control of this control, which will probably be treated like they do all their bases, a brothel.

It looks like nobody read the articles on the links I posted.

The biggest problem is not the airport, it's the distribution.

They don't have the conditions yet to clear the rubble (there may be survivors under the rubble), so the streets cannot be cleared. If the streets are not cleared then they cannot send trucks with supplies to the people. Then people start looting to get food and medicines.

But what is usually done in cases like this is that some distribution posts are made at some places to where the trucks and/or helicopters can go. Then the people is alerted to the presence of those distribution posts, and you can be sure that they get there faster than any truck would get to them.

But that has not been done, so the supplies are piling up on the airport, aeroplanes are getting diverted because there is no space at the airport and everything stops flowing smoothly as it should have been.

reply to post by Unity_99


You know, I am from the Island of Puertorico, do you know that US territory extent to PR and Virgin Island? actually the people of PR complain so much with the help of outsiders that the Vieques Island US base and the main Base in PR Roosevelt Roads were closed, guess what, Vieques Island citizens are now crying and complaining that it was not them the ones that wanted the base close but outsiders and big interest.

Now they have not jobs and no income.

Roosevelt' roads also left the town of Ceiba with not income and no jobs.

US have other bases in PR, until this day and growing up in the Island I never saw any brothers as you mention.





[edit on 18-1-2010 by marg6043]

reply to post by ArMaP


Many of us know the exact problem going on in Haiti, but as usual when an issue of how to bash the humanitarian efforts in Haiti by the US comes around, nobody wants to actually research the truth.

Human nature.