"Given the choice the people will back the strong horse against the weak horse" - osama bin laden
Abroad at Home; The Road to Panic
By ANTHONY LEWIS
Published: October 22, 1993
BOSTON— Of all the recent setbacks for American foreign policy, none is as damaging to President Clinton's credibility as the humiliation in Haiti. Events there raise urgent questions -- for him as for us -- about the quality of the advice he is getting, and of his own leadership.
The excuses offered for failure in Bosnia and Somalia are not available in Haiti. One cannot say, as is said of American inaction on the Bosnian genocide, that the first responsibility is Europe's. Mr. Clinton did not, as in Somalia, inherit an ill-thought-out policy from President Bush.
In Haiti the Clinton Administration created its own policy: to restore democracy by negotiation with the military usurpers. It convened the talks on Governors Island and pressed for the agreement reached there in July. It undertook to guarantee the agreed formula for the return of President Aristide on Oct. 30.
Then, when a rag-tag gang of armed thugs demonstrated against the landing of U.S. and Canadian soldiers, Mr. Clinton and his aides panicked. Instead of leaving the troopship there and telling the Haitian military to call off its goons, the Administration sent the ship away.
The message to the military rulers in Haiti was unmistakable: You can push us around easily; the United States Government is so afraid of its public opinion after Somalia that even you can intimidate it.
More "sending a message" :
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/22/opinion/abroad-at-home-the-road-to-panic.html?pagewanted=1
Abroad at Home; The Road to Panic
By ANTHONY LEWIS
Published: October 22, 1993
BOSTON— Of all the recent setbacks for American foreign policy, none is as damaging to President Clinton's credibility as the humiliation in Haiti. Events there raise urgent questions -- for him as for us -- about the quality of the advice he is getting, and of his own leadership.
The excuses offered for failure in Bosnia and Somalia are not available in Haiti. One cannot say, as is said of American inaction on the Bosnian genocide, that the first responsibility is Europe's. Mr. Clinton did not, as in Somalia, inherit an ill-thought-out policy from President Bush.
In Haiti the Clinton Administration created its own policy: to restore democracy by negotiation with the military usurpers. It convened the talks on Governors Island and pressed for the agreement reached there in July. It undertook to guarantee the agreed formula for the return of President Aristide on Oct. 30.
Then, when a rag-tag gang of armed thugs demonstrated against the landing of U.S. and Canadian soldiers, Mr. Clinton and his aides panicked. Instead of leaving the troopship there and telling the Haitian military to call off its goons, the Administration sent the ship away.
The message to the military rulers in Haiti was unmistakable: You can push us around easily; the United States Government is so afraid of its public opinion after Somalia that even you can intimidate it.
More "sending a message" :
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/22/opinion/abroad-at-home-the-road-to-panic.html?pagewanted=1