En Passant

The lie of  US ‘humanitarian’ intervention in Haiti becomes clearer by the day. 

American authorities have suspended flights of critically injured or sick Haitians to the US. Why?

The Miami Herald sums it up:

The key issue that led to the halting of the military airlift that was bringing critically injured Haitians to the United States for treatment is cost.

So let me get this right. The US has suspended flights, which means according to one estimate up to 100 could die in the next 48 hours, because neither the State nor Federal authorities in America want to pay for it.

That same article quotes one doctor as saying treatment of 50 Haitians to date could cost between $50,000 to $100,000 each. That totals at most $5 million.

The country that bailed out its banks with $1 trillion dollars can’t afford a few million to save the lives of Haitians?

This of course is the same country that has ships stopping Haitians fleeing to the United States.

The US presence in Haiti is not an intervention; it is an invasion. It has nothing to do with helping the Haitians; it has everything to do with restructuring Haiti in the interests of the bonus bludgers in Wall Street and their ilk across the country.

It is about providing a springboard for deepening the neoliberal experiment with the Haitian economy, and preventing the Haitians from re-electing left-wing leaders prepared to challenge American imperialism’s destruction of the Haitian economy.

This is how the Conservative US think-tank the Heritage Foundation put it (before they pulled the comment from their website):

The U.S. response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti earthquake offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s…government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States in the region.

The other thing this cancellation of flights shows is the crime against humanity that the US health system is. If you’re poor you don’t get treated.  That is as true of poor Americans as it is of Haitians.

What a rotten world we live in.