Since we have made so much of that country’s business our business, the United States needs to lead the way with emergency aid and other help to Haiti in the wake of the earthquake that destroyed most of its largest city.
Experts are predicting the quake may have killed more than 100,000 people and affected 3 million.
Very little of Haiti’s capital remains standing, including vital buildings like government offices and hospitals, and that country is in absolutely no position to respond to the crisis.
The disaster is a worst-case scenario. Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere and one of the poorest in the world. Conditions there before the quake were barely tolerable at best.
Now the situation is completely untenable.
Leaders from around the world have pledged support and have already started sending help.
The United States is no exception. Quite the contrary — our president has offered millions in support and U.S. rescue teams are already on the ground helping survivors.
But it is going to take a monumental effort to get Haiti back on its feet and rebuild the country.
And the United States needs to take the lead in those efforts. All over the world, when disaster strikes, our country responds with help — usually far beyond what any other nation does and sometimes more than all the other nations combined do.
It’s that generosity and willingness to lend a hand to people in trouble that has helped this country establish a strong international reputation when it comes to humanitarian efforts.
If we are to maintain that reputation, we need to make sure that we continue that long-standing tradition in this case. That’s especially true since Haiti is a neighboring country that our government has kept a close watch over.
We are encouraged by what President Obama has promised to do — we just need to make sure our government follows through on those promises.
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