Yankee, Go Home!

The abuse was inevitable. And, at the slightest accident (and we can be sure that there will be one), it will become still more pronounced. “Yankee, Go Home!” will doubtless be heard soon. For the moment, the “invasion” of Haiti by American imperialism has only just started to be denounced…

The first shot was fired by the French, after a dispute about runways at the Port-au-Prince airport. The latter is controlled by the American soldiers who-first to arrive, six days ago–were able to reopen an unusable airport. Despite this, fewer than 100 planes per day have been welcomed there to date.

In this case, a plane from Doctors Without Borders transporting a field hospital had to turn back, Saturday, without being able to land on runways that were apparently too congested. Yesterday, the organization affirmed that other planes flying in [the airport’s] service (between two and four, according to the sources) were also diverted.

Some political staff, judging the incident to be … political, in fact, relayed all this all the way to the French foreign ministry and in the French press.

The diplomatic difficulty was only just avoided. But the French media, for their part, vigorously kindled the flame of French anti-Americanism that has never been entirely extinguished. “Military takeover by Washington,” concluded L’Humanite. “America imposes its leadership,” added Le Figaro, which opened its web pages to furious readers. “Biggest colonizer of the world!” wrote one while cursing Washington. “Concealed invasion!” added another, thus aping Hugo Chavez. And finally, a new conspiracy is already circulating on the internet: the earthquake is a “fake,” staged by the CIA…

The only ones who would be as virulent about the presence of the United States in Haiti are certain voices on the American extreme right.

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And what would have been said, exactly, if the United States had not massively intervened in Haiti? It would have been said, “Of course, there is no oil there…!” Let’s call this the curse on America: hated if they intervene, hated if they don’t intervene.

It is the first case that we see today.

Due to the fact that the magnitude of resources dispatched by Washington is gigantic. Yesterday, American military personnel were to reach 10,000 soldiers, with hardware that includes an aircraft carrier, a hospital ship, an armada of other vessels, helicopters and land vehicles. Is it adequate? Is it sufficient? The Americans like others are going in a bit blindly (including at the airport, no doubt) since no infallible instructions exist on the subject of catastrophes.

The one sure thing is that no other nation in the world can–nor wants to, besides–carry out such a deployment. And, under the circumstances, it is revolting that this should nourish the old demons of ideological hate.