Weird Protest

Today I went to the strangest political protest I think I've ever seen. It was a group of Haitians, or Haitian Americans, protesting in Prospect Heights. The protesters were pro-Aristide, and anti US-intervention. They claimed that the rebels were pawns of the CIA, and that somehow France was involved as well. In general, the opinion was that the whole rebellion was an anti-Aristide conspiracy on the part of the US and France, and a pretext for a military occupation of Haiti.

Now, I don't know a whole lot about the Haiti crisis, but I know enough to have made my head spin. Aristide was returned to power by the US, which used military force to help him regain control after a coup. Despite a very fishy parliamentary election, we have stuck by Aristide because he's our man in Haiti. This is the normal behavior of the US government, and is normally protested by those on the Left.

But here was the Marxist Left -- the only white people there besides onlookers like me were Reds -- supporting Aristide.

And, um, if we don't intervene militarily, Aristide is toast. The rebels have conquered most of the countryside and by all accounts are preparing an offensive against Port-au-Prince. They are gathering their forces, and also waiting to see what the US does. It seems clear that if we decide to stay away -- not unlikely, since this is just a mess and the last thing a president wants in an election year -- the rebels will depose Aristide and take over.

In other words, if you're pro-Aristide, you should be pro-intervention! So what the hell was going on?

Now, it's true that the US did announce a policy shift last week, from "We support Aristide" to "Aristide should step down and let elections happen." To me, and most observers, this was the Bush administration reading the tea leaves. We don't really care about Haiti; we just don't want a civil war on our doorstep and refugees inside. So, whoever wins, the government is now saying; just make this problem go away.

I felt at the protest as though the groups in charge could not release their metanarratives. I mean, your guy is there because the US supported him - deal with it. If all the pro-Aristide people in the world told the US to stay out, I am sure we would gladly stay out - and let the rebels win. It was almost as if the organizers of the event - Marxists, Castro supporters, etc. - didn't even bother to research the dynamics of this situation.

I felt like a Republican, standing there, wishing the crazy Left would release their "knee-jerk Anti-Americanism" for a minute to actually consider the issue. I stepped in dogshit, too.