PERSPECTIVE ON HAITI : Yes, We Can Rebuild the Country : After restoring Aristide, break the drug lords’ grip on the economy and foster the return of legitimate commerce.

Nation-building is in the finest American tradition. Isn’t that how we created the successful post World War II economy? Isn’t that what MacArthur and the Marshall Plan did for Japan and Europe? Weren’t the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program created not just to rebuild nations but to salvage a war-torn planet? Didn’t Congress forswear partisan passion in the interest of a heroic effort to provide a stable global economy in the face of communism? If that was possible in the 1950s, why not now?

Why not resurrect our nation-building skills and our leadership in Haiti?

At the time of Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s election, a U.N. official remarked, “He is the only one the people trust. Everyone else has a price and will give in to the drug lords, and the drug money is probably double the total amount of aid coming into the government.” The government received roughly $250 million in aid, while the drug cartel ran $700 million through the Haitian economy.

Let’s get serious. Drugs through Haiti are a greater threat to American cities than Cuban communism has been since the missile crisis. It’s time we recognize the total impact of Haiti’s problems on crime in the United States.

The media characterizations of President Aristide haven’t been fair. He shouldn’t be branded emotionally unstable just because he refuses to abandon the mandate of 67% of the Haitian electorate. Aristide is not a politician--or even particularly a democrat. He is a priest, educated in the Vatican and more fluent in Italian, Greek and Hebrew than English.

Also, remember, there were 14 other candidates with better organizations and funding and corporate and international support. The Bush Administration did nothing to help build an economy that would give the new government a chance to win over the middle class and the military. We have consistently lumped all anti-Aristide Haitians in the same basket and then set his government nakedly against that grouping. Nobody liked or trusted Aristide--except the Haitian people. Shouldn’t we honor that? Isn’t that what democracy is all about?

If we want to export democracy, we must include economic development. We should initiate a pledging conference to challenge friends of freedom around the world to assist in building a viable Haitian economy--one at least as strong as the drug trade. Democracy must include the prospect of economic growth in a free and fair market. It must be inclusive and afford opportunities for every sector of the society. It must also include an effort at reconciliation. The society must have reason to come together, with progress as its goal, rather than with retribution on its mind.

This cannot happen while drug money dominates the country and maybe the entire island, making boycotts and embargoes ineffective.

We must plan a forceful return of the Aristide government, the government elected by the majority of Haitians. The orchestration and conditions of this “forceful return” should be carefully negotiated and agreed upon by the international community.

First, however, we must create an alternative to the drug money before it can be eliminated. That alternative should come from private sources, with international guarantees, in forms that support the middle class. Such a serious commitment would free the middle class and the army from economic bondage to the drug lords.

It could also create the possibility for many well-trained Haitians to return from abroad with skills and resources.

Although the military has been aligned with the drug lords and the Duvalierists in the police, the interest of the two groups can be separated. Drugs have poisoned the country by offering the easiest means of economic growth and forcing out legitimate commerce and business. A situation has been created that forces people to do whatever they have to do in order to survive. The commitment to the development of a legitimate economy, linked to world markets, would give the new government a chance to win over the middle class citizens needed to govern and administer Haiti.

All of these steps must be taken and a “conditional amnesty” for some must be arranged by the international community and the Aristide government as quickly as possible. Only then can a reconciliation between the people and the military be brought about.

This reconciliation will not be a capitulation to the forces of violence. It will be an appeal to the potential of good will, made generously by the world community and the Aristide government. It will be an offer of inclusion into a legitimate democracy and economy, made to those who are willing to live within a nation governed by law, rather than by violence and vengeance.

It will probably be the first offer of peace and prosperity--with justice--ever made to the people of Haiti.