Haiti

[Colonel Flagg]

That's all well and good, but without doctors, nurses and knowledgeable staff for the hospitals or engineers to maintain the roadways (and adequate security for both) we'll find that all our good intentions go for naught. Plus, if we do all the work, with our contractors and our equipment, then leave - what has changed really? We have a desperately poor society with a really good hospital and some cool roads. How long do you think that hospital or those roadways are going to be useful in that situation.

We're right now trying to do this in Iraq. How is that working out?

My point stands - teach the people to solve their own problems their own way. Give them the tools to allow them to make their own decisions about how to go about fixing their country. Knowledge is power.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

Originally Posted by Colonel Flagg

My point stands - teach the people to solve their own problems their own way. Give them the tools to allow them to make their own decisions about how to go about fixing their country. Knowledge is power.

Not to be negative or offtopic but that's what we did with Iraq in the early 90's and then they started the Taliban right?

[The Leader]

Originally Posted by 10,000 Volt Ghost

Not to be negative or offtopic but that's what we did with Iraq in the early 90's and then they started the Taliban right?

THE WAR IN IRAQ WAS CLEARLY JUSTIFIED THEN

[Ant10708]

Originally Posted by Colonel Flagg

That's all well and good, but without doctors, nurses and knowledgeable staff for the hospitals or engineers to maintain the roadways (and adequate security for both) we'll find that all our good intentions go for naught. Plus, if we do all the work, with our contractors and our equipment, then leave - what has changed really? We have a desperately poor society with a really good hospital and some cool roads. How long do you think that hospital or those roadways are going to be useful in that situation.

We're right now trying to do this in Iraq. How is that working out?

My point stands - teach the people to solve their own problems their own way. Give them the tools to allow them to make their own decisions about how to go about fixing their country. Knowledge is power.

Things like paved roads and hospitals that don't pile the dead in the hallways are things that might attract foreign investment which can lead to many jobs and opportunities for the people. And there are plenty of missionary doctors and nurses that I'm sure already worked in Haiti.

Also we didn't make the taliban in the 80s. They didn't exist in the 80s. The taliban formed out of the fundamentalists schools that the mujaheddin set up during soviett occupation.

[Colonel Flagg]

Originally Posted by Ant10708

Also we didn't make the taliban in the 80s. They didn't exist in the 80s. The taliban formed out of the fundamentalists schools that the mujaheddin set up during soviett occupation.

To the letter of the facts, you are correct, we did NOT make the Taliban. We DID, however, give aid, comfort and arms to the Mujaheddin, who DID give rise to the Taliban. But this is neither here nor there.

The point stands that, for better or worse, the government's idea of aid is, by and large, to do things FOR the impoverished and starving masses, rather than to help them subsist by giving them the EDUCATION they need to make a better life for THEMSELVES.

We are more likely to give them military advisors than we are to give them teachers and doctors. Look at Iraq - our main objective in educating the people there is to give them weapons and create a police force. That's the quick fix - anything else requires a lot of patience, something most governments are lacking.