Haiti watch (III): A role for retired Special Forces?

[Snaquebite]

By Robert Maguire

Best Defense Haiti correspondent


http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts...special_forces

This is where the reflection on the prior role of the Special Forces comes in. The envisaged public works program -- a "Haitian Civic Service Corps" -- will require structure. It will require leadership that can impose a regime of 'tough love' much as occurred during the New Deal, when members of the US Forestry Service apparently played a key role in making sure that program participants showed up on time, became a disciplined work force, and got the job done. Haiti does not have much of a forestry service that can perform this role. Indeed, Haiti is going to require assistance in standing this kind of program and in managing it. Might some of those members of the US Special Forces who served in Haiti in the mid-1990's be interested in returning to Haiti to play a role in helping to build a new and decentralized country? Might they work alongside Haitian counterparts to help provide the tough-love discipline required?

I have worked on this idea of a national civic service with well-placed Haitian authorities even before the quake. They are keen on the idea. Yesterday, I had an opportunity to discuss the idea with a senior official in the Obama administration. There is considerable interest in it. Might there be interest from among 'our guys' who have been to Haiti; know and respect the country and its people; and are willing to try to make a difference in this time of Haiti's greatest need and, yet, perhaps of its greatest opportunity.

[JJ_BPK]

Interesting idea, Not sure the tuff-love part will work in the current PC environment.

Found this a bit further in, will need to find a copy.

Special Forces in Haiti

For those interested in an on-the-ground description of Special Forces in Haiti during the 1994/95, US-led, UN-sponsored intervention that restored elected government to Haiti see "The Immaculate Invasion" by Bob Shacochis. He provides great detail regarding the challenges faced in providing civil development in the outlying villages and how the U.S. Army Special Forces are uniquely qualified for this task. Indeed, this could very well provide a framework for post-earthquake Haiti

# Paperback: 432 pages
# Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); Reprint edition (May 1, 2000)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0140248951
# ISBN-13: 978-0140248951

Anyone ever see the after-action reports from 95??

[bravo22b]

Originally Posted by JJ_BPK

Interesting idea, Not sure the tuff-love part will work in the current PC environment.

Found this a bit further in, will need to find a copy.



Anyone ever see the after-action reports from 95??

I have a copy of that book I'll send you, if you have trouble finding it. I haven't finished it yet, but I could be done with it in a few days.

I picked it up for $1.00 at a book warehouse. I got it because it had some stuff on my unit when we were there, in early 1995. My memory is a little spotty 15 years later, but we worked with a couple ODA's, one that was on Ile de la Gonave, and one that I think was in Gonaives. We were based on the airfield in Cap Haitien.

[Box]

I did a few trips to haiti... the place was a nuthouse before the earthquake. We went with the HNP to arrest one guy... he was standing in a corner looking at us out of the corner of his eye... and was surprised that we caught him because he had taken an invisibility potion

I am sure the culture has come a long way in 15 years

Tragic doesn't begin to describe the situation in Haiti, but shy of providing disaster relief there isn't very much progress you can make in that country.

[Ret10Echo]

Originally Posted by Billy L-bach

I did a few trips to haiti... the place was a nuthouse before the earthquake. We went with the HNP to arrest one guy... he was standing in a corner looking at us out of the corner of his eye... and was surprised that we caught him because he had taken an invisibility potion

I am sure the culture has come a long way in 15 years

Chemlite juice counteracts invisibility potion...but I'm sure you knew that

I'm thinking that dude is one of the guys who got our of the collapsed prison and is invisible again. Only difference is, he's 15 years older.

Not sure how one recovers from being a Phrench colony

[Box]

When I was there in the early 90's there were places you couldnt even get to by motorcycle because of the lack of infrastructure...

I suspect they haven't made much progress. When we go to another country to help, our politicians are quick to remind us, we cant offend any sensibilities: how the fuck do you make progress when you cant sya "listen dipshit - your culture is a hundred years behind the rest of the world" stop shitting in your garden

...or at least wash the damn vegetables before you cut them up and toss them in the pot


Same in the middle east... its evil to own a TV set but its ok to shoot an AK-47 up in the air during a wedding?

Some people just refuse to set the rock down long enough to put on a flotation device...