Haiti

[Ingmar]

I have a pretty hard time seeing Al Qaeda's particular brand of angry resonating very well with a non-Muslim population.

[Azazel]

Al-Qaeda isn't organised like the Mafia, either.

It's worth watching the 3-part Adam Curtis documentary "The Power of Nightmares" for an interesting perspective on the "formation" of Al-Qaeda.

[Sky]

The US as a government has really not done that much over the decades for Haiti. NGOs and charities and religious groups have been the boots on the ground for most of that time. It is hard to say that "it's in the backyard" is enough.

Building codes? Dude... building codes take a WAY more complex level of government than Haiti has. Had. Haiti has trouble managing "police force" and "school" and "no slavery."

Did you mean to say New Orleans?

[NowhereMan]

The idea that Al' Qaeda could capitalise on this disaster in under say, 30 or 40 years is laughable. Really the more likely 'bad' outcome is Chavez and Cuba supply a lot of support and help and Haiti turns socialist with a very strong anti-American bent and that's very unlikely because if the US sees them making a concerted hearts and minds style play here they'll like double up the US support.

[WayAbvPar]

The point isn't that they will come in and convert the populace to radical Islam. There is a power vacuum with the government's infrastructure in shambles. They could easily import a few hundred people to run terror operations. Unless the US sent in a shitload of troops (with all our spare bodies laying around  ), who is going to stop them?

[Teleku]

The point isn't that they will come in and convert the populace to radical Islam. There is a power vacuum with the government's infrastructure in shambles. They could easily import a few hundred people to run terror operations. Unless the US sent in a shitload of troops (with all our spare bodies laying around   ), who is going to stop them?

They can already get away with that at any number of places in Latin America with highly corrupt and weak governments.  They need more than just "no government over site" to do what they do.  And anyways, Haiti would be the worst place for them to operate from as foreign troops are already moving in to secure the area (US troops are in control of the airport and are currently controlling ALL traffic in and out of the country).  Its an island and would become a prison.  They can operate out of places like Afghanistan and Somalia because once they do their training, they can slip across borders and fly to other places.  Getting off of Haiti right now as a middle easterner, especially if it became known that anything resembling AQ sent even one person to it, would be more like escape from New York.

[Righ]

AQ is an umbrella organisation willing to participate with extremists of almost any cloth. If they choose to use Haiti or any other country, it will be by supplying expertise to local extremists. The same goes for other major terrorism enablers - we are not fighting them on the ground directly but fighting their proxies among the Taliban and others. That's why fighting these folks isn't as simple as you make out. You can't just determine that they are or are not terrorists or their bankers just by looking at what they wrap around their heads. Also, this isn't going to happen today while the US has over 10,000 troops present. It may happen when international focus leaves Haiti as it will in a few months time.

[Rasix]

Jevhovah's Witnesses took this opportunity to share a Bible verse with me as it relates to Haiti.  I'm somewhat curious as what it was going to be (offensive or inspirational?), but as a rule I shoo them away as soon as possible.

[pxib]

Jevhovah's Witnesses took this opportunity to share a Bible verse with me as it relates to Haiti.  I'm somewhat curious as what it was going to be (offensive or inspirational?), but as a rule I shoo them away as soon as possible.

Signs of the apocalypse. They're always really eager for the end times so they can have their 1956 picnic table potluck while petting tigers heaven on earth that they see on the back of The Watchtower every month.

[Ingmar]

Haiti is an island country that has cut down like 98% of its forests. There is nowhere to hide there on the Haiti side, and on the Dominican Republic (where they actually at least have some trees to hide amongst) side the government is much more stable and our close ally. I really think this is all a bunch of crazy talk.

[Jimbo]

http://www.oas.org/en/

I still want to kick some of the Catholic Nuns and Amnesty International in the teeth for bitching about how we were just a bunch of thugs teaching the other countries to be thugs.  Anyway, Brazil took over from the French on the Peacekeeping role (the US helps stabilize but we rarely give our troops to UN Command).

Locally, three of our Firefighters are going soon to help, they have been going to Haiti before the quake on missions, and got approval to head out.  My company (which is the biggest Health Care Associaton in the USA) sucks...they never let us go, hell they denied me leave to go help in Katrina...

[Hoax]

http://www.oas.org/en/

I still want to kick some of the Catholic Nuns and Amnesty International in the teeth for bitching about how we were just a bunch of thugs teaching the other countries to be thugs.

I don't follow at all.  Who are a bunch of thugs?  America?  Teaching who what now?

There are some perspective links in this thread about how Haiti is fucked due to crazy amounts of debt and some tidbits about Haiti vs DR with regards to slavery.  Probably get most of it from Haiti's wiki page too for all I know.