Another Fine Mess Bush Has Gotten U.S. Into

Today brings news of even more bloodshed in Haiti:

Records at Port-au-Prince hospital showed 17 people with gunshot wounds died on Monday, eight of them in the Cite Soleil seaside slum that is filled with Aristide supporters and street gangs, and three in Martissant, a western neighbourhood that has been a flashpoint in the recent unrest. That raised the toll to at least 46 killed since September 30.

The latest violence can be traced back to the US-backed September coup which removed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power.

While Aristide's government deserved much of the criticism it received, he was nevertheless Haiti's first ever democratically elected President. But because he was viewed as dangerously left-of-centre by the US government, he was always deprived of the investment that Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, so deperately needs. As a result, many would argue, Aristide's government never had a real chance of success.

Aristide was removed from power against his will by armed US soldiers, who flew him into exile in Africa. He immediately blamed the Bush administration for the coup, and his supporters have since become increasingly anti-American as tensions continue to rise.

Of more concern, however, is the adoption by Aristide supporters of tactics used (with debate-able degrees of success) against US forces in Iraq. The Haitian rebels have dubbed their campaign Operation Baghdad and have even dumped beheaded bodies in the streets. Despite this, they retain considerable public support, particularly in the wake of a devestating flood which left 200,000 homeless and over 2000 dead.

As one woman selling cherries on the sidewalk says:

"They drove out the (Aristide) Lavalas government, and nothing has changed... President Bush said he'd provide security, but he's getting soldiers killed in Iraq and now he's letting people get decapitated in our country."

Or as Colin Powell once put it: "You broke it, you own it."