Kirk Watson: “Over the last several weeks, my constituents have watched the escalating violence in Haiti with increasing alarm. Their…”

“Over the last several weeks, my constituents have watched the escalating violence in Haiti with increasing alarm. Their alarm is caused not just by the brutality and the chaos of the revolt, but by this seeming lack of resolve of our own United States Government in confronting this threat to democracy in our own backyard. While the President has responded admirably in dispatching envoys to seek a negotiated solution, I remain concerned that this push for dialogue is not matched by equal resolve to prevent the violent overthrow of a democratically elected government. If the Bush administration turns its back on the democratically elected government of Haiti in this crisis, the President will lose any and all credibility he has on preserving the rule of law. By now, there should be few illusions about Jean Bertrand Aristide. He is not a paragon of virtue. He deserves an equal share of the blame, along with the legitimate opposition in Haiti, for the political gridlock which has paralyzed Haiti for years and prevented both political maturity and economic growth. But he remains a democratically elected leader, one of the few in Haiti's two violent centuries of independence. To turn our back on him would be to turn our back on the values America was founded upon, the values which have guided our foreign policy from Jefferson through Wilson, through Truman, through Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Haiti's political deadlock is no excuse for violent hooliganism.”