Like most of our nation, my wife and I have been following the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti with interest and growing compassion and concern. Our prayers are with the Haitian people and for the efforts of those who have gone to assist in the relief efforts. The images of devastation in a land already devastated by poverty are often more than can be born without grief overcoming our hearts. Both of us wish we were in a position to do more than send what money we can and go ourselves to do what we may. Even Josh, our ten-year-old, has put himself to work to earn ten dollars to send to the efforts.
In the midst of our grief and compassion, other emotions are growing, anger and disgust. Although you must often read between the lines in the reporting and find news through other sources than CNN, it is not difficult to see a level of incompetence in the relief efforts not seen in decades. Reading reports of emergency crews left waiting on runways in the U.S. while workers on the ground are begging for supplies and help boil my blood. When a well-supplied top search and rescue team, which included doctors and engineers, that had been waiting to leave since the Thursday after the quake was told to stand down by the United Nations, I almost lost it. A couple of days later, the U.N. asked for more armed peacekeepers. I had to ask myself, what's the priority? But, after all, the U.N. is being allowed to take the lead so gross incompetence cannot be entirely ruled out.
I have heard doctors complaining about the level of military presence. That got me thinking. I've never heard that before in a disaster situation. Most are grateful for the efforts of our uniformed personnel. Other reports told the tale, although indirectly in some cases. A report that supplies are sitting on the ground in Haiti's sole airport lead me down a trail of digging that showed the problem is not the amount of military presence, but how it has been used. Under normal conditions with this type of disaster, the Navy's tough-as-nails construction unit, the SeaBees, would have gone in immediately and built airfields for relief planes. Military engineers and medical personnel would have been the first on the scene as they are the fastest to deploy and the best trained. Who better than the U.S. military to go to an emergency and set up field hospitals? Yet, they did not. Those roles fell to civilian agencies. Had this been done correctly, many lives would have been saved. But, we allowed the U.N. to take the lead and they set the agenda. Only Israel, who went in on their own, was fully operational in a matter of a couple of days with a fully functioning field hospital including MRI equipment. If they could do it, why can't we?
With the anger is disgust. Politicians fly in, survey the damage, say something appropriate and lofty sounding, and then leave. I have to ask if there were supplies on those planes? How about medical personnel? Did they do anything useful? Unfortunately, even if I hope for it, I do not expect better from politicians. Never before have I seen the level of political wrangling in a disaster. This even does the blame-game after Katrina, which ignored real incompetence and set the blame fully on parties where only a small portion actually belonged. I have never seen a call to donate the the government above taxes to help in relief as the administration is currently doing. Personally, I do not donate the the bloated bureaucracy of the government to help with relief efforts. I go to the Red Cross or other far more efficient organizations and ministries.
The media is covering up or explaining away the incompetence. With a few exceptions among the reporters on the ground, most commentators and reporters are explaining the delays away with statements that bemoan the bureaucracy yet excuse it at the same time. I knew that the press was no longer operating as the sentinels of liberty that is the role envisioned by the founders, but I hoped they would throw all their bias out in the face of real human suffering, slim though that hope was. I am glad that the journalists in the field have left the reservation and I hope that their colleagues back here will join them in sharing the truth.
With the U.N. stopping relief teams claiming insufficient security, more lives will be lost. The reports I've heard show no more violence in most parts of the island than in inner-city Detroit. The people on the scene find the U.N.'s stated concerns unfounded. If security is a concern, I'm sure there are private security companies that have people more than willing to donate their time to protect doctors and engineers. Let them pass and get those people the food and medical attention they need.
