Haiti Doc

What drew me to the source photo for this image was the physical tension on this Corpsman's brow. If you look closely at the source photo, you can see all sorts of muscles straining on her forehead.

Obviously, I don't know anything about this Corpsman. Maybe she looks like that all the time. However, since she's on Haiti, I'm going to guess that hers is a look of pure concentration, strain, sorrow or all three. It must be very difficult to keep a cheerful mien when you're helping a dehydrated child sip water after a disaster of the magnitude that recently occurred in Haiti. Additionally, how many people has she already tended to? When was the last time she slept? etc. A situation like that has to take its toll.

Having read a book or two in my time about America and Haiti, (The Immaculate Invasion, Mars Learning, The Savage Wars of Peace and The White King of La Gonave) I have to say that despite the contentious relationship between the US military and the Haitian people for the last 100+ years, at least we're there now doing some good, necessary work. How long we'll stay, or how much good we'll do in the long run remains to be seen. In my opinion, I'm sure we'll do as much as we can, given that having a destabilized country in chaos to our south isn't an attractive prospect, especially with the current international security milieu (how long do you think it will take for criminal elements in Haiti to start shaking down passing maritime traffic a la the Somalis? I'm sure the Coast Guard and Navy have a handle on that, otherwise I'm sure they would've tried it by now).

But, what do I know. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, check this out:

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I saw this linked on the excellent Casco Bay Boaters Blog, which is one of my daily reads.

Also, here are a couple of essays on humanitarian assistance/disaster relief operations from the Small Wars Journal. The author has an extensive background from the military side of things: Some Advice for Military Humanitarians and Don’t Call it CMOC.