"This President always makes decisions late, after things have happened, that could have been different had the President made a different decision earlier."
With this, John F. Kerry placed the blame for civil strife in Haiti squarely at the feet of GWB. Never mind the utter ambiguity of this statement (all the better to claim multiple different meanings from it in the future) what decision does JFK propose Bush should have made earlier? I'm actually embarrassed I didn't see this answer coming... Give them money! What else?
"By giving to the insurgents the power to veto an agreement, they effectively said, 'Unless you two reach an agreement on the sharing of power, we're not going to provide aid and assistance,'" Kerry said. "So he empowered the insurgents to say, 'No, we're not going to reach agreement.' ... So the result is that you almost inevitably had the clash that you have today."
Yes, it is clear that every problem in Haiti is a result of the non-different decisions made not early enough by "this President." Yawn.
Kerry didn't go far out on a limb with this blame game, however. This is standard Democrat party fare. "What we need to do, first of all, is allow Haiti to have the resources. The World Bank had approved a $500 million loan that this country has blocked," Sharpton said. Outrageous! Who wouldn't loan half-a-billion bucks to such an up and coming economic powerhouse?
Hey, don't these guys know we're running a deficit?
UPDATE: When I posted this blog I tried to find a recent story linking the situation in Haiti to the ongoing Venezuelan self-coup of President Hugo Chavez. Drudge delivered this morning, via Reuters: 'Chavez calls Bush 'asshole' as foes fight troops'
One demonstrator carried a banner reading: "Bye bye Aristide, Chavez you're next," referring to Haiti's leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who fled into exile on Sunday in the face of an armed rebellion.
But the firebrand populist vowed to defeat any attempt to unseat him and threatened to cut off oil supplies to the United States from the world's No. 5 crude oil exporter should Washington try an invasion or trade sanctions.
"Venezuela is not Haiti and Chavez is not Aristide," he said.
Chavez certainly seems to be feeling the heat. Keep in mind that Kerry openly charged the U.S. should have continued to prop up the Aristide regime.
Posted by JohnGalt at February 29, 2004 07:34 PMHard to believe that he is going to get a lot of traction on this issue. But don't worry, Johngalt, by tomorrow Senator Kerry might change his mind and agree with President Bush...
Posted by: jk at March 1, 2004 09:15 AMI heard on the radio tonight that Super Tuesday exit polling showed Kerry won both pro AND anti-free trade supporters. Wow! And they keep saying that Edwards is the master campaigner!
What the report failed to reiterate, however, is that this is a Democrat PRIMARY, and only ABBers are voting.
Posted by: johngalt at March 2, 2004 09:23 PM