European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 3, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday june 3, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 21invasion of Haiti looms As a no win operation George f. Will president Clinton who feds our pain and wears mostly briefs and can to keep quiet recently rattled off Many reasons or perhaps pretexts for a splendid Little invasion of Haiti a to borrow the words of John May describing another Caribbean adventure the 1sus War with Cuba. So Here we go again. As with Bosnia Somalia and China the president is looking around for a dignified Way to climb Down from the moral High ground where he is not the first to find the wind cold and the Prospect unpleasant. His reasons for invading include Haiti is a in our and a flood of refugees May put to sea in a seaworthy boats jeopardizing their lives and reminding people that he called the Bush administrations resistance to haitian refugees cruel. And some drugs pass through Haiti err route to the United states. Many More drugs pass through puerto Rico and Haiti is now this hemispheres Only country governed by a military Junta that toppled an elected Leader. Here is a reason not to invade baseball. Lawrence Pezzullo former special envoy to Haiti notes something about the last . Invasion of that country we were there from 1915 to 1934 a and it still strikes me that its the Only place in the Caribbean that does no to play baseball. Every place else we left something behind. In Haiti we left and Here is a reason for abandoning the economic sanctions that Are the latest futility intended to convince the military leaders to restore president Jean Bertrand Aristide the sanctions Are killing people particularly children. Aristide May not be As unstable and unsavoury As Many . Officials believe but he did encourage violence against his opponents and his return to Power probably would do next to nothing to make Haiti democratic or prosperous. Nevertheless Clinton is being pushed into rashness regarding Haiti by various Liberal factions including the congressional Black caucus an important component of his shrinking Core support it is understandable Why the Black caucus is concerned about Haiti the worlds a be i can hit Haiti. t Bosnia i Quot vol amp / 7 v a. A Flasar. Oldest Black Republic and the product of the Only successful slave revolt in history. But that is insufficient reason for Clinton to offer an american version of the Brezhnev doctrine. That doctrine said the soviet Union would guarantee that communism once imposed would not be overthrown. The Clinton doctrine would be that the United states must guarantee that democracy once attained endures. That doctrine would be dubious to any Case but is inapplicable to Haiti. Mark Falcoff of the american Enterprise Institute says the idea of a a restoring haitian democracy is a a Radical Misnomer because a democracy even in the most limited sense has never existed there and Aristides return by no Means guarantees us indeed his survival there cannot be guaranteed. Suppose he were restored by . Force and then were assassinated. Of Haiti a 20 rulers a including two emperors and a King a Between 1843 and 1915, 16 were overthrown or assassinated what then would be the United states obligations under the Clinton doctrine remember when in 1963 the United states was complicit in changing South Vietnam a government by the Mux Der of president Ngo dunh diem the United slates became stuck to Vietnam a future. Sen. John Kerry a Massa Haiti Hawk says a by tolerating their Defiance and unrelenting brutality we have pm powered Haiti a military of if the United states docs not overthrow a dictator this a a toleration is tantamount to a a empowerment such Slippery language can put this nation on a Slippery slope to Many interventions and much a nation building a Haiti was the poorest nation in this hemisphere even before the .-led embargo began to bite the weakest haitians. Now while powerful haitians Prosper by making the embargo porous for goods for haitians with Money Kenneth freed of the los Angeles times reports from Haiti on 18-month-old Bobo Uson Mydlil and his three siblings. Their Mother says a they will All says freed a added to this is the sour irony of a . Policy that exempts the most powerful or haitian civilians supporting the coup from travel restrictions and asset freezing. On grounds that a they May be of use to us in the future As one . Official put of use to us that is As we continue our splendid Little adventure in nation building a project the Clinton administration evidently considers important enough to justify the slow killing of children. C Wasu Englon Post. Historians should be Civ in warring with Disney when word reached the nations capital that the first major Battle of the civil War was to be fought at Bull run a Little Stream near Manassas va., All of social Washington packed luncheon baskets and turned out in buggies to witness it. Hours Tater they streamed Back in panic. The rebels had won the capital itself was in danger. That first Battle of Bull run As Well As the second a y ear later sent a frisson of fear into the heart of the Union. Fast Forward 13 decades. A Little band of Well historians litigating greens Liberal columnists and self protective landowners have drawn together in paternalistic Protection rendering the principle of artistic expression weak and contemptible. Wait sometimes iconoclasm goes too far. Artistic expression its a commercial Disney theme Park a Magnet for hot dog stands and exhaust belching traffic ripping off the Public for s163 million in Road building costs just three Miles from the hallowed ground where an Alabama officer shouted to his troops a there stands Jackson like a Stone Wall a rally behind the virginians a yep. If Bull run Iii is to be merely a Battle Between history minded preservationists and profit minded land do clopers that s Fine environmental Impact will compete with the Benefit of thousands of new jobs Yul will result in a Compromise balancing property rights with zoning Powers. _ _ but if it is to be a clash of cultures with armies of William Safire elitists drawn up in vast array against the multitudes of average families that Lyndon Johnson used to Call a the pee Pul a then we have a War of taste worthy of the Field near which it will be fought. A theme Park is a fantasy no matter How frightening its plastic dinosaurs or appealing its cinderellas the Park is an idealized world. The critics say that Sok when you re marketing Mickey mouse but wrong a worse than wrong vulgar a when dealing witly anything As sacrosanct As american history. My colleague Russell Baker satirized the growing Success of theme Parks with his a theme family living artificial lives in a theme town All Nice and fake. My colleague Frank Rich dissected the a larger struggle Between theme Park America and authentic America a going overboard the Washington Post s Jonathan Yardley foam ugly denounced the conservatism opposed to the curtailment of theme Parks As a a Force for the diminution or elimination of barriers erected by government against the uncontrolled exercise of individual and institutional hold on again. Historians fear that the them Par kers As they move past fantasy lands and into the real past will deliberately falsify history. The professional historians worry that the wrong people Are going to interpret a a Over dramatize perhaps prettily a the reality of our past. Those historians Are right when they warn of the encroachment of any commercial Enterprise on Park lands set aside for reverential study of past wars on the limited ground of protecting historic Sites. But they arc intellectually arrogant when trying to Block the construction of a commercial project on the grounds that it might misinterpret the past. I thought Oliver Slone the film director was wildly Kooky in his film about Juk claiming that the entire government was involved in a vast conspiracy. But i would not join a movement to Block his filming of his nutty interpretation or in any Way censor it. He san artist expressing himself for fun and profit. Faced with in authenticity historians should compete with what they believe is the Way it really was. If they cannot persuade the developers to let them influence the portrayal of the past then they Are obliged to denounce fuzzy interpretations and to rebut the rewriting of history a and should their worst fears come True to picket Disney s America but they should not join the pretentious amalgam of self appointed arbiters of culture local zoning lawyers and Virginia a Fox Hunting set to Stop its presentation. Historians done town history some say that the alabamian who gave Stonewall Jackson his sobriquet was complaining that Jackson charge c new York
