On Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:57:52 -0400, "Don White"
wrote:

We keep hearing complaints that the US military is hogging the main airport
with its' one runway for their own purposes (flying in soldiers) rather than
letting all the relief planes arrive. Saw a report tonight of a makeshift
hospital, a couple hundred feet from the airport, sewing a couple of kids up
without anesthetic or other medical supplies.
Might be time for the Americans to go out and play soldier while someone
else runs the airport.
The Haitian people need all manner of medical supplies today...not next
week.

Mass casualty events are always difficult to service properly. I
particular in these kinds of situations. One runway, no fuel depot
and no practical ATC, the only recourse you have is the military and
if there is a military that is capable of getting it on track, it's
ours - possibly your country as you have a sealift and air capacity
that's pretty good.

Air support is all well and good, but you can't transport the
quantities needed in a situation like this - it has to come by sea or
overland. And that takes time. I was involved in the St. Croix
efforts after Hurricane Hugo and can tell you from practical
experience that it's difficult without ATC. Give credit to the Devil,
KV4FZ did yoeman's work controlling air traffic until the military got
there to set up. And even then it wasn't easy. Haiti is three/four
times worse than the St. Croix.

The other part of the problem is that everybody wants to help even if
it's not needed. You have an event like this and suddenly you've got
every country in the world with an interest rushing in to "help". That
just creates chaos. I know when I was involved in urban search and
rescue with my dogs, the one thing they tell you is not to rush to the
scene - wait to be called and dispatched. The opposite happened here.

I'm not saying that mistakes happen - they do. But soldiers are
necessary to the effort for a variety of reasons from distributing aid
to providing security - and Haitians need some sort of security.

Perhaps it's time for Canadians and Americans to declare Haiti a
protectorate and get on with the reconstruction - collectively your
government and mine has an interest in maintaining order there.