Mr. Nowlin, I always appreciate a substantive reply and you did not disappoint.
I agree with your analysis but dis-agree with your framing. To be specific, The Global Fragility Act was many years in the making. Trump did not initiate, contribute to, or develop the ideas in the GFA. When Congressional Democrats passed the GFA, Trump had NO idea what was in it and once he signed it, he never gave it a second thought.
The GFA languished in nothing land, until Biden took office and gave it some operating parameters.
My strongest disagreement is with your statement, “Kenya is not "bringing peace to Haiti."” Americans, especially presidents, are accustomed to thinking about “others” as objects to be ignored or forced at the point of guns to bend to the will of wealthy white Americans. The GFA challenges this traditional thinking by creating a framework for peace.
By supporting Kenya’s efforts to bring about the conditions for peace in Haiti, Biden is the first president to attempt to put this new framework for peace into action.
That said, I am fully aware of how ridiculous this sounds right now. In Haiti, the desire for peace has been drowned in blood so many, many times, peace is as ethereal and distant as the concept of heaven itself. Nonetheless, for the last 233 years Haitians have proven themselves stronger, more capable, and more dedicated to freedom than all the people in western nations combined.
As a result of fighting western domination for 233 years, Haiti today, is too poor to do anything more than refuse to surrender their independence. In my mind, the best Biden can do, is keep American corporations and the military out of Haiti while assisting others, like the Kenyans, that are ready and willing to help Haiti gain full independence.
While Congress had the foresight to put some money behind the GFA, it is only a framework. Biden chose to use that money to support Kenya’s efforts. I’m convinced, that Trump will use that money to support American corporations, backed up by military power, to continue dominating and exploiting Haiti.
I could not agree with you more. Yes, we, the American people, deserve better than Trump or Biden and so does the world. That said, I’m a realist and don’t put much value in criticisms not accompanied by a solution, or a roadmap in a different direction.
Like it or not, agree with me or not, people all over the world are free to read what we write, so our words matter. So, help me out here, Mr. Nowlin, and offer your solution or a roadmap for our next presidential election. And tell me, what you think your solution or roadmap will bring us, as well as the people in Haiti and Gaza.
Some of us are participants and some of us are bystanders taking shots at participants. Which one are you?
