Hti: Aristide's supporters attack Marines

U.S. Marines fought new gunbattles in Haiti as consternation spread on Friday in the poor, strife-torn nation over plans by ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to return to the Caribbean.
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The Marines, leading a 2,550-strong force of French, Canadian and Chilean troops, have fought at least a half dozen battles since they landed just under two weeks ago.

The gunmen are suspected of being Aristide supporters, enraged at the loss of Haiti's first democratically elected leader in what many of them fervently believe was a U.S. coup.

Also, this:

Hundreds of protesters marched Thursday through the downtown Belair neighborhood yelling, "Aristide has to come back! We don't want Bush as president!"

Shots were fired, some protesters pulled out pistols, police fired tear gas and a shootout between protesters and police ensued, witnesses said.

Two young men were killed and seven others were being treated for shotgun wounds, according to hospital officials.

In Port-au-Prince, opposition politician Paul Denis said Jamaica was making matters worse in Haiti. "If Aristide intends to come back to Haiti, we'll be glad to receive him so we can arrest him," he said.

The opposition wants Aristide to stand trial, accusing him of corruption and the killings of opponents by armed gangs.

Two points. One, the Marines are not the Army, and they don't make war or keep the peace the way the Army does. To give an idea about what Aristide's supporters are foolishly setting themselves up against, here's an excerpt from Return of the Marines by W. Thomas Smith, Jr.

Despite less armor than other American ground forces, the Marines were among the first to fight their way into Baghdad. And when intelligence indicated that foreign troops were coming to the aid of Iraqi diehards, Marine Brig. Gen. John Kelly stated, "we want all Jihad fighters to come here. That way we can kill them all before they get bus tickets to New York City."
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The reputation of Marines stems from a variety of factors: The Marine Corps is the smallest, most unique branch of the U.S. armed forces. Though it is organized as a separate armed service, it is officially a Naval infantry/combined-arms force overseen by the secretary of the Navy. The Corps' philosophical approach to training and combat differs from other branches. Marine boot camp — more of a rite-of-passage than a training program — is the longest and toughest recruit indoctrination program of any of the military services. Men and women train separately. All Marines from private to Commandant are considered to be first-and-foremost riflemen. And special-operations units in the Marines are not accorded the same respect as they are in other branches. The Marines view special operations as simply another realm of warfighting. Marines are Marines, and no individual Marine or Marine unit is considered more elite than the other.

Consequently, newly minted Marines believe themselves to be superior to other soldiers, spawning understandable resentment from other branches.
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As late as 1997, Assistant Secretary of the Army Sara Lister took aim at the Marines. "I think the Army is much more connected to society than the Marines are." Lister said before an audience at Harvard University. "Marines are extremists. Wherever you have extremists, you've got some risks of total disconnection with society. And that's a little dangerous."

Of course, the Commandant of the Marine Corps demanded an apology. Lister was fired. And Marines secretly said among themselves, "Yes we are extremists. We are dangerous. That's why we win wars and are feared throughout the world."

Thus, it is significant that the fighting force sent to Haiti is the Marines.

The second point is that the Marines' presence may well signal the Bush Administration's utter determination to get Haiti quieted, disarmed, and on the road to stability. Therefore, any civil strife fomented by Aristide and his supporters will be put down for the sake of a changed Haiti. That's why it is folly for Caricom to even entertain Aristide or to give him a forum. If Caricom is interested in Haiti as a viable and contributing entity in regional partnership, then they ought to do what is best for Haiti and not help Aristide foment violence that they will not send their own troops to quell.