$700 Billion last month, $33 Billion more this month? Are you f$%king kidding me?

No, Bill, the first and last infuriating point is that AID IS SITTING ON THE GROUND AT THE AIRPORT and has been for days. USAID is said to be in charge, but the timidity of the response is all too reminiscent of that we saw following Katrina. Who is the "heckofa-job-Brownie" responsible for the outrage in this case?

TV pictures have shown the national palace grounds still empty of survivors. It has a defensible perimeter with a high fence through which survival supplies could be issued. A Doctors Without Borders unit had to be abandoned last night for security reasons, but the palace is a central location where they and other medical units could be secured with the 220 airborne troops sitting at the airport for 3 days now.

As I write this, Joe Biden is stating on TV why immediate help has not been possible but touting the wondrous help that's yet to come. The Air Force 4-star general in Washington was still calling for Haitians to be patient Friday night. And why are Haitians not allowed in the UN medical treatment facility?

Where is the innovative thinking that could have started aid flowing from the airport as it arrived?? Why not parallel bucket brigades passing aid hand-to-hand for miles? So what if a truck full of supplies causes a riot if the aid does in fact get distributed?

As with the Katrina aftermath, I am seething with anger that there is not one kickass, damn-the-torpedoes leader making things happen in Haiti. As much as I supported Obama early on, he should have made sure there was someone like that in charge.

We are not the richest nation in the world. We are rapidly becoming a Third World country. I spent all of December and this much of January attempting to purchase anything . . . yes, anything . . . not made in China. Usually I come home empty handed.

If the political and business leaders of this country think that we can continue to produce nothing and import everything without our economy sinking deeper and deeper into debt and the American people becoming poorer by the day, then those leaders need to have their heads examined. Or rather their bank accounts to see where the bribes are coming from.

a Powerball lottery on December 24, 2010.

Sorry, but it's only January.

Please stop dis'ing the president. Your editorial is so one-sided, it sounds like something I would write. You're the professionals! Don't use your position of power to pull our president down, okay? I am a left left lefty and I still support him. What can he do by himself? We have to pave the way for him. We are the People and if we want power, we should start to act powerful.

Slight error in Microsoft`s calculator there Mr Quigley that translates to 1/4 TRILLION,(250 Billion)Haitian Gourdes

what kills me about this 'what can the president do by himself?' crap is that when bush was in office all we heard was 'what can we do he's the president he can do whatever he wants' and he DID do whatever he wanted for the most part. now its obama and we get this 'he can't do it all alone, WE have to empower him' and everyone acts like: oh poor obama is trying but he's only one guy...yeah...one guy who CHOSE to surround himself with suspiciously 'disempowering' people. why is it that we can't help people in dire need as well as we can bomb the sh*t out of them when ever it suits us?! somebody with some play in this situation needs to take the bull by the horns and get the supplies to those who need it!!

No Port, half a airport and no roads what would you like then to do. When things get as bad as they are in Haiti nothing can work fast enough. The UN gave 10 mil wow. More money will come but first you have clear the roads to move whats there. Sadly there are no easy ways.

Thank you for the article, Bill. As usual, you try to spur our leaders on to do the right thing.

To put the cost in perspective of sending $100 million to Haiti, compare that it costs $100 million to keep 100 soldiers in Afghanistan for a year. The US spends $3.6 billion per month in Afghanistan, according to Congressional Research Service, and that price tag will go up after the 68,000 troop infusion. In other words, the US goes through $100 million in only a few days in Afghanistan.

The US gives Israel $2.5 BILLION per month.

$100 million is the cost of ten 2 BR 2.5 bath townhouses in Boston.

$100 Million is a mere pittance.

The richest country in the world has no money to give. It will not give it's own poor needed high quality healthcare. Yet it is amazing that it can create suffering by allowing it's armed forces to continually add crippled enemy combatant and US veterans to an overtaxed humanitarian aid healtcare sytem as well as destroy families and brilliant minds with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. The cost to maintain the affluence of the global privileged few comes unfortunately with a very high price tag for the rest of the world. And the band played on.

I donated to Partners In Health/Zanmi Lasante http://www.pih.org/where/Haiti/Haiti.html

PIH has been working in Haiti for 20 years and were among the first responders because they were already on the ground. Today their team was designated by WHO to coordinate the public health hospital services.

The US also has a history in Haiti, but one of oppression, not of helping.

Most of the "aid" "given" to Haiti, in whatever form it takes, will be squandered on the unnecessary and wasted on those that have while those who need and have not sontinue to die. Read your history, man. Any actual money that is offered will be at least 50% grafted away from the pile before it leaves this country. Preds. VP, Congress, Red Cross, UN, etc. etc. All talk no action. Just ike the "aid" to New Orleans IN OUR OWN COUNTRY just sat and rotted. The buildings unused and wasted, the monies disappearing as fast as it materialized, and those in need are continuing to be in need today, YEARS after the fact. Read your history. Over one million will die in Haiti. There is no solution because nobody really cares about haiti but Haitians and they are either filthy rich and out of the country or the poorest, most pitiable people in the western hemisphere and living in haiti where they will surely die. Thqt is the true horro of it. There is really nothing we can do on a gradn scale except grieve.

PRF

Searchers and recovery people were in pretty quickly. Food and water deliveries, with NO roads essentially left open, finally got going when rotary wing aircraft arrived. It is STILL difficult to distribute materials.

The simple fact that we still are providing aid and comfort to Haiti, in less time than "Bush administration" folks managed after Katrina- shows improvement. And Obama isn't pulling SEABEES out of the disaster area (like in Mississippi) where they were helping; to send them to Iraq.

Prior to the earthquake, there were, according to US military sources, some 60 US military personnel in Haiti. From one day to the next, an outright military surge has occurred: 10,000 troops, marines, special forces, intelligence operatives, etc., not to mention private mercenary forces on contract to the Pentagon.

One of the important points to remember for those that blame Haiti for its poverty is that the cause of the poverty is not Haiti, and one of the important points to remember for those that describe the violence and death squads is that Haitians did not suddenly create these squads. Once Haiti freed itself from France the international community imposed impossible debts on the country, and then the US stepped in with their neoliberal methods to plunder the population for cheap factory laborers and to destroy Haiti's agricultural base. When Haiti finally overthrew its dictator and elected a democratic government things started to get better, the US deposed the president by force and installed a new dictator, because the factory workers started to expect a $2 a day wage from those US owned businesses. Haiti (in fact the entire island of Hispanola) has been plundered from day 1 and it is the West and the elites there installed and supported by the West that are doing the plunder, and not only is this plunder responsible for the poverty of Haitians, it is indirectly responsible for the huge death toll. WE destroyed Haiti's agricultural base and forced all those people off farms and into the capital where they were forced to build houses on top of each other to have shelter. The US has proven it can use it's military to instill martial law in 8 hours in Haiti by it's past actions, and now we've sent a measly $100M and we're whining that we can't get aid in? I'll buy that when I see a flock of pigs fly over. If you're really interested in the truth, read http://www.truthout.org/article/noam-chomsky-the-tragedy-haiti

1/2 haitians are kids-> where is the catholic & others whose churches are so wealthy w/ 'fake concern'while their white bosses rule w/ economic slavery--the two are of the same coin.
Try selling all your fantastic Vatican treasures & jewels & returning the funds to the people you steal from & brainwash to being slaves...

18:50 - Your statements are so outrageous, and yet, the world is filled with such bigotry, I don't know if you're being hyper satirical or serious. The countries you reference received enormous amounts of U.S. aide to recover, and, their populations were relatively prosperous and well educated. Also, if 50% or more of Haiti's population are under 15, doesn't that inform you analysis even further?