Comments on: A Piece Of Africa Transported To The New World

By: Stephen W. Browne

Stephen W. Browne — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:35:59 +0000

IMHO one of the unexamined questions of the American Civil War, was how much the example of Haiti terrified the South at the prospect of universal manumission.

And if you like a good true adventure story, you could do worse than find the long out-of-print “and a few Marines…” by Lt. Col. John W. Thomason Jr. USMC, once known as “the Kipling of the Corps.”

He tells the story of one Sgt. Herman Henry Hannekin, who infiltrated the camp of a Haitian bandit ‘Charlemagne’ in blackface disguise.

At night when the bandit gang were gathered around a campfire, he threw an explosive into the fire and in the confusion, shot Charlemagne, threw his body over a horse and brought it back to base!

We all know imperialism is always and forever a Bad Thing – but damn, they don’t make ’em like that anymore.

By: Bob Harrison

Bob Harrison — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:33:19 +0000

“Poor as Haiti was, there was always some surplus to be appropriated.”
There is always “surplus” to be appropriated when “surplus” is defined by those doing the appropriation.

By: Myron Pauli

Myron Pauli — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:31:25 +0000

Here is what the late, great Warren Harding said on American Haiti policy in 1920:

“Practically all we know is that thousands of native Haitians have been killed by American Marines, and that many of our own gallant men have sacrificed their lives at the behest of an Executive department in order to establish laws drafted by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy. … I will not empower an Assistant Secretary of the Navy to draft a constitution for helpless neighbors in the West Indies and jam it down their throats at the point of bayonets borne by US Marines.”

The Assistant SecNav was FDR, a great fabricator of constitutions (and not prone to obey our own!).

Tax-cutter and surplus-generator Harding also said in 1920:

“America’s present need is…. not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality”

The trillions of aid given by the West to African dictators have made Africa worse. Our foreign policy should be for self-defense and keeping trade open – that would be far better than the unconstitutional combination of aid, interference, domestic food subsidies, etc. Sadly, I see no solution for Haiti other than internal self-improvement.

By: james huggins

james huggins — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:31:49 +0000

Let’s do what we are going to do in Haiti and get out. If we want to issue humanitarian aid in the future then let’s do so but send no more cash down there to be stolen by the authorities. (Not a bad idea for most of the countries sucking up American aid.) Looking at the way the US seems to want to move in to third world rat holes and try to make them democracy when they don’t want it, I see Haiti as a permanent albatross hung around our necks. Mostly to placate the black power structure here at home.

By: George Pal

George Pal — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:23:02 +0000

“We had better find something more potent and productive than charity.”

Why? How? When? Who? Prof. Landes’s history and diagnosis are well and good, the solicitude understandable, the remedy – he doesn’t know or will not say. I’ll say it for him.

Stop the charity – aid and investment; they are plunder and attract thieves, and, they are a narcotic. Then, either occupy the country or leave it to laissez-faire.

If it’s to be occupation, then set the country straight. This would take several generations, would be opposed by the population and by those who oppose the occupier. The cost, considering the base, would be too high. This is not an option for any but a superpower – or still believes it’s one.

If laissez-faire, then let the chips fall. This is probably not an option. Solicitude, being so abundant, and having its own narcotic effect, will not be ignored, which brings us full circle to charity, the efficacy of which is it is balm to the giver.