Obama Is Committed to Kill People in Haiti - Withdraws Critical U.S. Military Logistics Capacity

The latest pull-out of U.S. military forces from Haiti includes medical and marine logistics capabilities, even as the rainy season is pending, and 1.3 million people are left stranded in the quake zone, vulnerable to floods, landslides and disease. President Obama is behaving as "an absolute idiot, a criminal idiot," said Lyndon LaRouche yesterday, commenting that, to act in this way, shows that Obama, "is not capable of responding rationally." His actions show he is committed to killing people.

On March 1, the dock-landing ship, USS Carter Hall, departed Haiti. Last weekend, the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship, treated its last patient in Haiti, and readied to leave port. These are not pull-backs for rotation and replacement. These withdrawals are part of the draw-down of U.S. military servicemen detailed to the Joint Task Force effort for Haiti relief, from 20,000 to 11,000, and soon lower.

Fully three million—almost one-third of the total population in Haiti—were directly affected by the Jan. 12 earthquake and immediate follow-on. Of those three million, 230,000 or more perished in the quake; 1.3 million are displaced within Port-au-Prince and the other towns along the quake fault line; 600,000 people fled the quake zone; and the remainder are under strain and dislocation in other parts of the country. The details of this are provided by the Agency for International Development (AID), which is overall in charge of the U.S. aid response, including the deployment and now retraction, of military logistics capacity, in its latest Fact Sheet of March 2 (No. 41).

What is required, is a make-ready of large-scale camps in at selected sites chosen for safety, logistics, and proximity for rebuilding towns and the economy, to receive mass numbers from the 1.3 million stranded in the high-hazard Port-au-Prince and nearby areas.

In the meantime, there must be the maximum provision of relief on an interim basis, until the evacuation to high ground and safety can be done. Given this, it is insanity to reduce supply lines in any way.

Doctors on the ground in Haiti describe as "catastrophic," the prospect of the loss of USNS Comfort hospital ship. It arrived in record time after the quake, saw and treated 900 patients, and off-loaded 100 pallets of medical supplies. The highly skilled and dedicated crew worked with medical staff in 244 non-governmental organizations throughout Port-au-Prince and beyond, to see to the sick and maimed.

The loss of military capacity for transportation functions is also insane. But, as reported in the March 1 Situation Report of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the airport and seaport are back in private hands as of that date. The airport lacks handling equipment, and the seaport lacks infrastructure for even minimal cargo throughput. The report stated: "The majority of the assets currently available at the port have been provided by the US military and are likely to be redeployed over the course of the month, substantially reducing the capacity to receive incoming sea cargo."

A Navy press release issued today, described the assistance provided by the USS Carter Hall, now headed back to port in Virginia: The crew worked "around the clock to transport critical supplies on multiple occasions from Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Haiti. Carter Hall delivered more than 1,100 pallets of food rations and water, 5,000 cots, and 338 tents during the six-weeks it supported Operation Unified Response...

"In addition to transferring the supplies, more than 150 Carter Hall Sailors supported medical and relief missions ashore, including clean-up efforts and logistics support. Navy doctors, hospital corpsmen, and other Sailors worked alongside a team of international doctors providing medical and dental care at a field hospital near Hospital Cardinal Leger in Leogane, Haiti."

No sane person could say that these capabilities are not still needed. How many Haitians have to die before this President is impeached?