From: John Lacny <jlacny at earthlink.net> Date: Mon Mar 01 2004 - 15:22:20 EST
...The ISO's hemming-and-hawing about how there needed to be a third force against "both" Aristide and the macoutes was just one more example of why trots are so annoying. Amy Wilentz, The Nation, liberal assholes -- doubly so. Of COURSE Aristide has had some failures. It just so happened that he was brought back to power after the first coup only on the condition that he implement austerity measures. He therefore had constrained political space in which to work. The Haitian left, however -- e.g., http://www.haiti-progres.com -- which had plenty of criticisms of Aristide as well, recognized a vicious coup when they saw one. Only fools think that this is about individuals. It is about the constellation of political forces, and about the fact that a government democratically elected by the vast majority of the impoverished people of Haiti was in danger of being overthrown by the re-emergent macoutes. If anything, Aristide can be faulted for not being harsh ENOUGH with these scum -- though considering that his government was more or less militarily defenseless against the onslaught, it's hard to criticize him even on that, and I'm not about to second guess him from inside the belly of the beast, either..."
On Wed, 16 Jun 2004, Doug Henwood wrote:
> C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>
> >Or like the recent position of some soi-disant leftists who, because of
> >Aristide's errors or crimes, took an even-handed approach between the
> >elected president of Haiti and US-backed thugs, and supported a "third
> >force"...
>
> Who were those soi-disant leftists?
>