The Miami Herald reported this week that despite a request by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan for U.S. troops in Haiti, there will not be a U.S. military presence in Haiti anytime soon. Therefore, in a country without a military or any real police force to manage its 8 million citizens, the U.N. peacekeeping force that totals a whopping 7,400 soldiers will be left to fend for themselves for the time being.

So in othe words, while the U.S. continues to maintain 140,000 troops over 6,200 miles away in Iraq for the purpose of "restoring freedom and democracy", it refuses to send a few hundred to Haiti--an island a mere 600 miles from the U.S. (a distance that would easily fit into the state of Texas driving east-to-west).

Why is the U.S. refusing assistance to Haiti, our second-closest neighbor (other than Mexico and Canada)...in this country that hasn't really experienced any form of sustained "freedom and democracy" in all of it's 200 year history?

Even the Washington Post, a relatively pro-Bush media outlet, states that simply a "few hundred American fighters" are needed to establish security in this poor country that is trying to establish peace and safety so that national elections can be held there this fall.

The similarities between Iraq and Haiti are eerie. Both:

-are countries with extreme poverty,
-struggle with gangs and rebels who strike fear throughout the country,
-suffer from decades of corrupt and brutal regimes,
-have historically been blemished with the fingerprints of the United States all over them, and,
-either have just had or are trying to have national elections to get back on the right footing.

Taking these into consideration, and then throwing in the fact that Haiti is our next-door neighbor, it seems not only logical, but imperative that the U.S. assist the United Nations. (It's not like we haven't done it before to this poor country. The U.S. occupied and virtually ran the Haitian government from 1915 until 1934.)

Sadly, there is another factor at play here as to why Iraq gets an infinite amount of attention when compared to Haiti--and that is the Middle East. In a region of the world so volatile, the U.S. is struggling to make friends with past enemies, while protecting the much-hated state of Israel, and keeping tabs on the oil flow. Haiti has nothing to offer the U.S., and unfortunately that is the obvious reason (in my opinion, and many others') why we are avoiding them. When the U.S. first occupied Haiti in the early 1900's, imperialism and isolationism were paramount on our policy. A nation in turmoil such as Haiti, if left unchecked, could have easily been occupied by Germany, England, or France--countries that we were trying to distance ourselves from as much as possible.

And so, currently, as we occupy one country--a country we were uninvited into and in which the international community (including the United Nations) largely opposed us entering, we ignore a similar country right under our noses. A country that the United Nations itself has asked us to enter.

We seek to dig deep for the speck of sawdust in Iraq's eye, while ignoring this plank in our own.

God forgive us of our motives.