Let me paint you a picture. A picture of lawlessness, despair, hunger, and poverty, an ever-spiraling scene that never seems to get better or more peaceful. This is the scene of Haiti - a country that since the Assassination of its president in 2021, has been beset by a complete government collapse, the rise of gang violence in its place, and waves of electricity shortages and water shortages, a cholera outbreak and a widespread exodus from the country. To put it lightly - the situation in Haiti is grim. The Country has been stuck in this anarchic abyss since the 7.0 magnitude 2010 earthquake that destroyed much of the LEDCs infrastructure and housing, turning thousands of Haitians homeless overnight.
But why is it, you ask, that an intervention is the right solution over here? And it is understandable why people are critical of foreign interventions - especially an effort that would be led by the USA, being the major cultural, economic and military power. America’s previous interventions in the 21st Century left a terrible legacy. The Iraq Intervention and Afghanistan interventions created environments of terror, extremism and ultimately failed to create thriving and democratic states.
But, in my eyes, the situation in Haiti is fundamentally different. This is not a unilateral action taken by a country such as the USA - this would be a wide coalition of countries involved in military action, an action supported by the UN itself as a ‘rapid action force’ that together with Haitian police could shut down the presence of gangs. Notice here that this force would be working together with Haiti - and a much smaller action is required than the widespread interventions of Afghanistan and Iraq. And it is critical to know that the gangs are blocking the solving of other problems - for months they have been involved in the appropriation of humanitarian aid such as grain and fuel, as well as the kidnapping of journalists and aid workers who work to document and solve these problems. And of course, a peaceful solution to these gangs is out of the question - negotiating in good faith with criminals, on the international stage can legitimize this sort of banditry, and create even more instability.
The limited scale of this intervention is what most convinces me that this time, it would be different. We are talking about specific goals, specific targets, and overall, a specific mission. One function of a coalition is that a coalition must agree on what they are all doing - different members of course have different wants and capabilities to achieve them. A coalition necessitates that the intervention would be far more limited in scale. Furthermore, being an UN-endorsed mission, it would have to abide by international law and conventions - further limiting the scope of what is possible with it. So there is also no doubt that the highly specialised nature of the intervention would not morph into something larger - there are too many hindrances, too many limitations, and too much distribution amongst parties involved that it would stay as a simple ‘action force’ and nothing more than that.
There is also the rarer argument - that to intervene on a smaller scale would actually be more detrimental to Haiti and that direct regime change is needed. And whilst larger interventions by governmental coalitions - particularly those by the USA - were successful in establishing a new rule, their record on humanitarian grounds is more patchy. The invasion of Grenada by the US and six other Caribbean countries ended the factional conflict of the country and the imprisonment of political prisoners. The intervention in Chile however created one of the most brutal military dictatorships of the 20th century under Augusto Pinochet. This coalition would have responsibilities - namely helping restore law and order, and providing humanitarian aid to afflicted civilians. But the formation of a government and the direction of the country should be 100% guided internally. Let Haiti choose its own path - and let the world help it in starting the first step.
So, of course an intervention would be messy. It would be violent, complicated, and tremendously difficult even with the strongest of nations to pull it off. But, to let Haiti spiral further into its abyss, and to let its societal collapse be would be even more painful to ignore. Haiti is not a self-contained tragedy - it will ruminate further across the world in form of organised crime and perilous migrant crossings. The Haitian people have asked for intervention, for action from the world - and the world should give it. is a great incentive for peace.
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