Hti: Duped, not kidnapped

PM Patterson, Caricom, are you guys listening?

As Jean-Bertrand Aristide prepared to depart this destitute African capital for exile in Jamaica on Sunday, he charged in an interview that the United States had effectively duped him into leaving Haiti and his presidency on his final night in office last month.

The accusation of deception added a new layer to his longstanding complaint, lodged on his arrival here 13 days ago, that he had been the victim of an American-led "political kidnapping."

But it did little to clear up the question of whether Mr. Aristide willingly fled Haiti that morning, as the United States insists, or whether he was forced into exile against his will, as he implied.

Michael Wines, the author of the piece, is wrong that this statement of Aristide does not clear up whether he left willinglly or was kidnapped. If someone tells you something — truth or lie — and you act on it, you cannot blame your action on the party who told you the thing. After all, you have choice. Aristide could have chosen to stay when the U.S. spoke with him; he did not. The issue now is whether the U.S. lied to Aristide when they told him that they'd not protect him and his paid bodyguards. If Aristide left because he would be without protection, then he wasn't even duped. He was told the truth and made the best choice based on the truth he was given. If Aristide was lied to (duped) and decided to leave based on the lie, then he is still responsible for the choice he made because lying to or duping a person is not synonymous with kidnapping him. Either way, Caricom should withdraw its absurd U.N. request for an inquiry.

Aristide, Randall Robinson, the CBC have suckered you guys in the Caribbean who are dazzled by the blackness of these politicians. When a man's own friends leave him because they can't trust him, that should send a clear signal that he's radioactive. Aristide himself has begun to unravel his own kidnap lie. What's the next stage? Only Aristide knows.

I'm holding to my theory that Bangui asked Aristide to find someplace else to go because they were tired of his anti-U.S. lies. Jamaica, it's your turn. Here's hoping you can live with it.