Obama Gets It Mostly Right on Haiti, So Far

I admire Barack Obama for a lot of what he’s been saying and doing in response to the disaster in Haiti.

He’s reacted swiftly, he’s struck the right moral tone, and he’s pledged $100 million in aid.

But he hasn’t done everything right.

For one thing, he’s appointed George W. Bush to head up the U.S. relief effort there with Bill Clinton, the same George Bush who backed the coup that expelled Aristide, the democratically elected president, from Haiti.

And I’ve got a couple worries going forward.

What if the U.S. troops that Obama sent down to Haiti start doing not just relief operations but security operations? Are we going to see U.S. troops firing on looters in Haiti? I sure hope not.

And how heavy a hand is the United States going to use in rebuilding Haiti to fit the free market model so beloved in Washington?

As Naomi Klein has warned us on Democracy Now, the Heritage Foundation has already called for using this crisis to “reshape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy.”

The Heritage Foundation doesn’t care about the people of Haiti. It cares about ramping up U.S. corporate profits there.

We can’t let Haiti be another proving ground for Naomi Klein’s theory of “disaster capitalism.”

That won’t help the people of Haiti, who need help so badly today.

Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine. To subscribe for just $14.97 a year, just click here.