Nice Fact Checking

Al Pope wrote a column for the Yukon News, Disaster relief American style: send in the marines, in which he opines:

Next up was the US government who, after dithering for days, sent in the marines. Twenty thousand American troops are in Haiti or on their way there, under the pretext of ‘providing security’ in the face of ‘widespread looting.’ The marines have taken over the Port-au-Prince airport, diverting or delaying planes carrying food, aid workers, medical supplies and doctors to make way for military craft.

The earthquake occurred on the 12^th.  The initial verified reports after the disaster came from the US Coast Guard, which rushed everything they had in the area to the scene almost as soon as the earthquake was reported. That was followed by a US Navy P-3 reconnaissance flight to get current pictures of the conditions.

The next day, the 13^th, a Special Tactics team of the US Air Force had the Port au Prince airport up an running with lights for 24-hour operations.

The USS Carl Vincent was diverted to the coast near Jacksonville, Florida on the 13^th to take on board 19 heavy lift helicopters, and relief supplies. It did not dock as that would have add two days and the helicopters were identified as a primary need for distribution of aid and repair of facilities.

As was noted in a Miami Herald report, while there are 15,000 members of the military currently assigned to the Haiti operation, over two-thirds of that number are the crews of Navy and Coast Guard vessels, while there are 4,700 troops actually in Haiti.

The 2,000 Marines currently in Haiti are primarily concerned with repairing the port.

The US wasn’t occupied in any security at all, until after a UN Security Council resolution was passed requesting more security. The only people even talking about security problems were from the media, not the military.