US sending 4,000 more troops to Haiti
Published: Wednesday January 20, 2010
The United States is sending more than 4,000 additional troops to quake-devastated Haiti, diverting them from scheduled deployments to Europe and the Middle East, officials said Wednesday.
Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The move to redeploy thousands of troops from the Nassau Amphibious Ready Group and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit came as Haitians scrambled for food, water and medical care eight days after a devastating earthquake.
The amphibious group left Norfolk, Virginia on Monday for its original deployment but was ordered to proceed to Haiti after taking on more marines in North Carolina.
"The marines are in the final stages of embarking onboard the ships. They are expected to leave this evening or early tomorrow morning," Second Marine Expeditionary Force spokesman Master Sergeant Keith Milks told AFP.
If the ships go full speed, they would reach Haiti within 36 to 48 hours, although they will adopt the "most prudent" pace possible depending on weather and mechanical conditions, he added.
The move takes the total number of US troops due to be helping out in Haiti in coming days above 15,000.
"The ARG/MEU will provide an array of helicopter and amphibious landing craft assets, significantly increasing the ability to quickly provide relief supplies where they are most needed," the Second Fleet said.
"In addition, the marines assigned to 24 MEU will be able to provide an additional force capable of providing a secure environment for the ongoing relief efforts ashore in Haiti."
Violence is threatening to boil over in the capital Port-au-Prince as hundreds of thousands of survivors grow increasingly desperate for aid.
The 7.0-magnitude quake, which struck on January 12, leveled the capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding towns and villages in western Haiti, killing at least 75,000 people and perhaps as many as 200,000.
Three amphibious ships -- the USS Nassau, the USS Mesa Verde and the USS Ashland -- will support the latest deployment, along with a helicopter squadron, a tiltrotor squadron and medical personnel and facilities.
They will bring the total number of US Navy and Military Sealift Command vessels participating in the relief effort to 20.
The Nassau has one of the largest ship-borne hospitals after the USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort hospital ships.
Eight days after the quake, US military officials leading the relief effort say they are shifting the focus from tracking down survivors buried in the rubble towards recovering bodies and starting to rebuild the devastated nation.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_send..._01202010.html
Seems to me we could dig up 4000 troops who are stateside, whether they be regular,reserve, or guard, instead of diverting much needed troops from Afghanistan. Haiti is certainly a place that needs more help, but I would argue that Afghanistan is a far more important station for these brave soldiers
Moving the troops in is easy.
As Magic Negro is finding, moving them out is far more difficult.
Moving them in for what?
To make Haiti secure for US corps (who will bring come with murderous mercenaries) to move in and profit from the 10 of $Bs in aid (ie, taxpayers' money) that will certainly be coming.
"Haiti is certainly a place that needs more help"
and the fine boys of 82nd and Marines will always be there to help ... police the locals while the capitalists rip them off.
This will probably be the case, just as it apparently has been for many years. But I'll consider their deployment a success if they save even one Haitian
+1
This isnt something the Marines should be doing.
Mobilizing those other 4000 would take some time. I think it is stupid as cause that means 4000 soldiers in Afghanistan that were expecting relief are now getting boned.
Answer me this: How many combats troops and 'private security' are in Iraq now and how many troops were in Afghanistan in 2001?
Now 20,000, added to the 13,000 already there.
http://www.defencetalk.com/us-forces...o-20000-23763/
Unrest in Haiti?
Send in the US Marines.
Haiti is all over the news.
Unhappy Haitians will get ed YET again by USA
I haven't seen much detail yet, boutons, have you?
Gen. Smedley Butler oversaw the 1900-1930 US occupation of Haiti and wrote a notoriously led book about the US armed services.
The more things change...
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/...-straight-homeA group of heavily armed men — including five American citizens — who were arrested in Haiti at the weekend have been inexplicably allowed to leave the country.
Now back in the U.S., they will face no charges, the Miami Herald reports.
As riots over official corruption engulfed the nation, the eight men were captured Sunday in the capital Port-au-Prince by Haitian police. In their vehicles — which had no external number plates — were found automatic weapons, pistols, a telescope, satellite phones, drones and ballistic vests. Fake number plates were also found.
The men, apprehended near the country’s central bank, said they were on a “government mission,” when stopped by police. Police spokesman Michel-Ange Louis-Jeune said the men refused to say anything else except that they would call their unidentified bosses. Which “government” the men spoke of was never made clear.
The men are ex-Navy SEALS Christopher Michael Osman and Christopher Mark McKinley; Kent Leland Kroeker, an ex-Marine; fellow U.S. citizens Dustin Porte and Talon Ray Burton; two Serbian men, Danilo Bajagic and Vlade Jankvic; and one Haitian, Michael Estera. One of the Serbs is said to be a U.S. permanent resident.
The men are since said to have told American authorities that they were in Haiti as security for a government-partnered “businessman.”
As the men made their hasty exit, footage posted to social media shows them being escorted by U.S. embassy staff through Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture Airport, without handcuffs or shackles. In fact, the Miami Herald reports they were given access to the VIP diplomatic lounge to wait for their commercial flightthere was no public record Thursday morning of any charges against the men in Miami federal court, and federal sources later told the Herald that the men won’t face U.S. criminal charges, but will instead be “debriefed.”The Miami U.S. attorney’s office referred all questions about the men’s status to the State Department, which did not issue further comment.
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