Obama Orders Army NOT To Fly U.S. Flag
in Haiti
By Warner Todd HU.S.ton Tuesday, March
16, 2010
It’s bad enough that Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton is giving short shrift to American manufacturers
and our economy by ordering extravagant new crystal stemware from Sweden
to make the crystal cabinets in America’s embassies sparkle
impressively, but now we learn that Barack Obama has told the U.S.
relief forces in Haiti not to fly the U.S. flag over its own military
compounds. He says that it will “send the wrong message.”
Never mind that all the other nations
have their flags proudly flying above their military relief
installations in Haiti. Even Croatia has its coat of arms flying outside
its base. Yet not the U.S. Army. No U.S. flag flies anywhere despite
that we are far and away the largest force and have supplied the most
relief supplies and money to the earthquake recovery effort.
According to U.S.AID, as of January
19, 2010 the U.S. had spent $130,864,571 on aid to the Haitian people to
help them recover from the devastating earthquake. By Jan. 25 that
number had already increased to $179,883,065. It is only going up from
there.
So why did the Obama administration
forbid flying our own flag in Haiti?
“We are not here as an occupation force, but as an international partner
committed to supporting the government of Haiti on the road to
recovery,” the U.S. government’s Haiti Joint Information Center said in
response to a query about the flag.
If it is so important to be seen as jU.S.t another member of that
international force, then why are all the other nations still flying
their flags? Oh, I remember now… unlike the U.S. they don’t have a
president that is more comfortable apologizing for his country than
being proud of it, even when it is engaged in saving lives through
relief work.
As far as Obama is concerned, we
should be ashamed of our nation even when we are digging children and
the aged out of mounds of crumbled ruins, even when we are feeding the
hungry, and administering life saving medicines all for free mind you.
Even those efforts aren’t good enough for U.S. to be proud to fly our
flag above them, apparently.
The NavyTimes.com report reveals a
craven attempt by the Obama Administration to pin this no-flag decision
on our troops, too. Obama’s Army flak, Colonel Billy Buckner, spokesman
for Joint Task Force-Haiti “a group representing varioU.S. Obama
administration agency heads” the NavyTimes.com report tells U.S. says
that our commanders are “smart” not to fly the flag.
“Our commanders are smart and intuitively understand their mission here
in Haiti, and clearly the sensitivities that come with supporting the
mission,” Buckner said. A U.S. flag went up at a temporary consular
station set up in the first few days on the airport tarmac, according to
Charles Luoma-Overstreet, a State Department spokesman in Haiti.
“Apparently, the prime minister (Jean-Max Bellerive) saw this” and
thought it appeared as if the United States were taking over the
airport, Luoma-Overstreet said.
He said Bellerive said something to U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten, who
agreed that flying the flag wasn’t a good idea and told the consular
officials to take it down.
Notice how it went from “the commanders” being “smart” enough to
understand the situation to Obama’s Ambassador to Haiti ordering the
flag be removed? In other words, despite the Colonel trying to make it
seem as if the commanders on the ground are all for this dearth of Old
Glory, it really ends up being a political decision by Obama and his
cohorts who are ashamed of America and willing to let anyone denigrate
her.
Does anyone really think that PM
Bellerive would have persisted in his loose observation that the U.S.
was an “occupying force” amidst all the aid flowing into his country?
And even if he did, so what? The aid we were supplying is obvioU.S.ly
far more important than a cheap political maneuver by Bellerive.
Still, this shows the lack of spine
Obama has when standing up to foreign criticism. Even this offhanded
comment from Bellerive was enough for Obama to slight his own army and
his own countrymen by removing Old Glory from sight in Haiti.
If Obama is this much of a linguini-spined
sort of a leader, what will happen to U.S. if he faces a real foreign
crisis?
