WHY ISRAEL AND THE U.S. MATTER: DR. ROBIN McFEE FSM

Posted By on February 2nd, 2010

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.5412/pub_detail.asp
February 2, 2010

Exclusive: Haiti: Lessons Learned, or, Another Example Why Israel & the U.S. Matter

 

“Wisdom is proven righteous by the things it does.” – Matthew 11:19
 
To paraphrase Matthew, and bring his quote up to date, talk is cheap! You will know me by my acts is a Biblical quote that often best describes nations – and the national character of its peoples. Historically, the U.S. and Israel have and continue to be seen as nations of generous people. Consider the recent events in Haiti. 
 
Israel was one of the first to arrive in Haiti from the early January earthquake. In fact, no sooner had the quake hit did Prime Minister Netanyahu authorize the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) military medical to send a team, including a field hospital. As Amos Harel wrote on Haretz, quoting an Israeli officer, “For five critical days, it was the best hospital in Port au Prince.” By all accounts, many people are alive because the IDF has experience in mass casualty medicine, understood that decisions are time-critical, and deployment of prepared, experienced staff with the proper equipment and safeguards is the difference between life and death. They treated a thousand or more people in the early days of the disaster while other countries were still assembling, deploying or deciding. The painful events of the 2006 Lebanon War taught the IDF some key lessons; to their credit, they learned from history. Did other nations learn from their challenges? Sadly, no.
 
Israel’s recent humanitarian efforts in Haiti are merely another example why this tiny nation is a model on so many levels and warrants U.S. and UN support not censure or threat of reduced aid. 
 
Here’s a simple yet telling tale of differences in how two nations approach a mass casualty event – no surprise, a terrorist bombing can result in many injuries or deaths. Bodies and body parts are often intermixed in the rubble. Understandably, there is enormous angst among the loved ones wondering if their special someone is in hospital or dead. Recognizing the need for answers, if not outright closure, Israel early on established photo centers staffed with personnel who can add comfort as well as information. Victims are photographed – the Israelis know this aids families and their efforts by providing identity information. On the other hand there is Haiti – mass graves, thousands unaccounted for, and untold numbers of people wondering where their loved ones are. It is the same for other people around the world, including the folks from Lynn University where some volunteers who were trapped are unaccounted for. When asked if were they going to photograph people, the answer was no. Now to be fair, Haiti’s capacity to do anything independently in this tragedy is near nil. But I’d suspect the folks asking the question would have lent a hand and even more effectively so would the Israelis or the U.S. It is likely thousands of people will remain unaccounted for at least in the near term – while the damnable waiting and wondering could have been eliminated. 
 
When this is over, perhaps the UN can ask the Israelis to chair the disaster relief efforts; a good first step might be to give everyone a starting playbook. Just a thought…
 
For all the Israel bashing lately going on in the world, you’d think the land of Abraham was a viper’s nest instead of a successful nation created in the midst of the most challenging of threats. Among the many accomplishments Israel has to be proud of is her ability to do good works in the face of horrific evil or great challenges. Consider the 60 Minutes episodes over the years highlighting the compassionate medical care the Jews give after a terrorist bombing…including providing it to the bomber if he survived. No one talks about the liberal travel allowances for folks living in Gaza going into Israel for sick Palestinians, nor mentions even the medical supplies Israel provides while the Palestinians are lobbing Qassam missiles into Jewish neighborhoods. And yet that is precisely what still occurs as of this writing (the rocketing and the medical philanthropy).  
 
“America is great because she is good.”– Alexis DeTocqueville 
 
The Israelis are the first to point out that it is and will continue to be the Americans who will provide the majority of care. It might be nice to hear such comments from folks a little closer to home. There is disingenuousness about asking for help on the one hand and then denouncing the use of military personnel to ensure supply lines and personnel are protected in the delivery of such aid. Yet that is precisely the rules of engagement that the U.S. faced in the early days in Haiti. As the Brits might say, it takes a fair amount of cheek to tell people who are risking their lives to save someone’s citizens that rescuers cannot protect themselves from the criminal elements the host nation has failed to control.   
Ever concerned about appearances – heart in the right place, brain temporarily out to lunch – rumors abound of the U.S. military being criticized by locals as appearing like occupiers, not rescuers. To not be armed during some of the earlier outreach so not to convey a militaristic or occupation image is a dangerous gamble. Inability to protect literally forced about 200 health care professionals to remain on the grounds (and in some cases literally on the ground) of the Embassy. Imagine flying all the way from Georgia or other places in order to render medical care, only to be kept away from the very people you were there to help. It has only been about a week when they were released into the wild and allowed to do what they were trained to do. What a waste of time, talent and treasure! Not to mention lives lost in the field – the injured waiting to be helped. In medicine time is tissue, time is life.  
 
Finally, the medical professionals in the Embassy were allowed to get out and help the folks. Perhaps the Israelis should have handled the initial U.S. response, too? To be fair, the U.S. response was a major undertaking involving numerous participants not all under a unified command; something of which Israel had the advantage.  
 
But was it a real leap of faith for our planners to consider the need for significant protections and the urgency of conveying this to Haiti? This isn’t our first rodeo in terms of medical or emergency response. But lack of drills, silo mentality, minimized interoperability and coordination can rear their ugly heads even with the best intentioned and most collaborative teams. 
 
This situation also underscores one of the fundamental problems with banana republic leaders – they put their pride and self image above their peoples’ needs. Instead of being insulted that the U.S. would use military means to protect its citizens responding in a hostile environment – largely because Haitian leaders failed to do so – those leaders might just want to say thank you and move along. And shame on us for listening to them in the first place! Political correctness must stop when it poses a clear and present danger. Israel was not so constrained. What a surprise! Diplomats they are not – but effective pragmatists they are.
 
One also has to ask: If Haiti had joined the 20th century and followed the building codes that other nations utilized, would so many buildings have collapsed? Or, if Haiti had an infrastructure, would there have been the delays in setting up a response? 
 
Haiti is barely a country even without an earthquake. Crime is rampant. Gangs roam relatively uninterrupted. Political corruption is an institutional given. The police are outgunned, outnumbered and probably infiltrated by criminals – politicians or gang members – and directionless to stop a problem out of control. The infrastructure is at best Third World across the board from every social domain. It is the most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere. It is disease ridden – with a sizeable number of people infected with HIV, TB and other diseases. Malaria, Dengue and hepatitis are not uncommon, nor are the animal vectors – insects, worms and other parasites – that transmit some of the illnesses. Sanitation is poor – as is overcrowding; the two go hand in hand and are always accompanied by disease. Garbage and junk yards attract wild animals – how do you spell rabies? Then, of course, there is the general poor state of health for a large proportion of the public. Insert this normal state of daily disaster into a devastating earthquake and you can readily predict everything I described above only on a higher, more intense level. The drive for survival only accelerates the normal behaviors found in Haiti. The criminal infrastructure which is probably more organized than the government of Haiti’s infrastructure took black marketeering to a new level when the rescue materials arrived. Many of the materials including food have yet to go to the intended people. The humanitarians of the world rode in on pure thoughts and white horses. What they didn’t realize was that a bunch of sheriffs were needed. Except for Israel – they figured it out the first time. 
 
Against this backdrop one has to wonder (and this is something Haiti might want to ponder when they emerge from this terrible event): How is it that Israel, a tiny Mediterranean nation, could learn about the earthquake, nearly immediately send a medical response team over 5,000 miles from the Middle East to another tiny nation, devastated and without adequate landing sites or ports, and from day one set up shop – field hospitals, medical care – instantly treating people, delivering a baby or more (one was named “Israel”)? And yet the most powerful (for the moment) nation in the world – the United States, merely a few hundred miles from Haiti – takes longer and encounters a variety of largely predictable problems. Did the Israelis know something we didn’t? Or the UN didn’t? No. They just paid attention. There are a lot of lessons we could learn from Israel on how to get the job done.  
 
“Those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana
 
How hard was it to predict that a crime-infested nation would remain a crime-infested nation during an emergency? Did anyone think the earthquake would change the hearts and minds of people who are already accustomed to preying off their own? When criminals abound, an armed military to protect people doing angels’ work is a very good idea. Do you think Israel came undefended or unprepared?  
 
Several weeks ago, I was asked to provide guidance for some folks planning to deliver care in Haiti. “What should we worry about, doc?” 
For starters – crime. Then there is HIV and other diseases – with trauma comes blood – lots of it. In Haiti, odds are good the folks bleeding also are infected with at least one disease. Haiti is home to many endemic illnesses – hepatitis, Dengue, tuberculosis, brucellosis, HIV and malaria, for starters. The housing and work conditions will be unsanitary. Insects will abound. Did I mention crime? Or that you should bring MRE (meals ready to eat), since local food will be scarce and likely tainted. Crowd control will be difficult. Toxic critters. Did I mention crime – looters, gangs, black marketers? And then there is the psychological impact that is inherent in mass casualty responses. These threats are and were predictable. The precautions necessary to address them are vital, since doing angels’ work does not preclude the other threats inherent in such an environment. This is not a drill!  
 
And therein rests another challenge – inexperience. Some highly experienced DMAT, civilian and military response teams, including some of our finest USAR (urban search and rescue) groups, were deployed. Other teams did not have the experience or requisite medical leadership and had to borrow from other teams. Responding to a war or disaster zone is a bad time for OJT (on the job training) – and such environments involve a steep and often dangerous learning curve. Anyone who responded should be commended – but rushing in where (experienced) angels fear to tread can be a recipe for making the situation worse, not better.  
 
To be sure, everyone who went directly to or worked behind the scenes in advisory roles, raised money or sent donations all had their hearts in the right place and no analysis on the process/outcomes and policies should take away from that fact or minimize the value of the endeavor. The men and women from DMATs (Disaster Medical Assistance Teams) around the U.S., the military medical teams, civilian health care volunteers, search/rescue and charitable medical organizations and other volunteers put their lives on hold and themselves in harm’s way. But those outreach efforts could have been optimized. One wonders, how many more people could have been saved had some readily predicted issues been addressed from the get-go?  
 
As recently as January 2009, the Rand Corporation came out with an insightful report – in light of what is occurring in Haiti a prescient report – titled ”A Stability Police Force for the United States; Justification and Options for Creating U.S. Capabilities.” It was prepared for the United States Army.   
 
What is a stability police force (SPF) and why might it be necessary as a tool in U.S. foreign policy? According to the Rand Arroyo Center report, an SPF is a high-end police force that engages in a wide range of critical tasks such as crowd and riot control, special weapons and tactics (SWAT), and investigations of organized criminal groups. The authors rightly state that stability operations have become an inescapable reality of U.S. foreign policy. Consider the recent humanitarian response in Haiti – a not insignificant proportion of materials have found their way into the black market. Looting was at times rampant in an already crime-infested nation pre-earthquake. Crime, lack of crowd control, poor infrastructure and general chaos forced hundreds of health care professionals to remain in the U.S. Embassy instead of out in the field treating the injured due to safety concerns. Clearly, as the Rand Report suggests, establishing security with soldiers and police is critical because it is difficult to achieve other objectives—such as rebuilding political and economic systems—without it.   
 
So during the early days of the rescue operation, nearly 200 health care professionals were all but locked in at the U.S. Embassy compound in Haiti, not able to deploy into the field because there wasn’t enough security, supplies or ways to deliver care in an orderly manner while the Israelis were up and running providing medical care. SPF development in Haiti might be a good trial run of the Rand report. 
 
And while some of our folks were sleeping on the ground and being bitten by gosh knows what (it is a dizzying array of critters), the Israelis were well protected and handling the situation as if it was any other mission. 
 
My sources in Haiti tell me some of the non-Israeli hospitals are tents; open to the air on at least one or two sides. Amputations are common; infections that would be rare after such surgeries in the U.S. are extremely problematic as lack of proper intensive care units or sterile facilities hampers the effort. Supplies are still being stolen. Food supplies are scarce in spite of increased donations.  
 
Colleagues about to fly into Haiti have been told there are at least 100 amputations needing to be done and not enough surgeons or facilities to do the job right. And this is how many weeks after the earthquake? Had this earthquake hit elsewhere in the Caribbean, the restoration phase would have occurred much faster. Sadly, Haitians are suffering as much from the lack of pre-earthquake infrastructure including poor roads, lack of emergency planning, no redundancy in landing fields or ports, and minimal resources. It only adds insult to injury. 
 
  “If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up.” – Ecclesiastes 4:10 (NIV) 
 
In a recent sermon by Rev. McKibbens, he recounts the story of a young child who dropped her doll; when it fell to the ground it broke into a number of pieces. Another little girl, who was walking with her father saw what had happened and, leaving her dad’s side, went over to spend time with the other child. Several minutes later she returned to her father’s side; he asked her did you help the girl pick up the pieces? “No dad. I helped her cry.” 
 
In the face of such terrible devastation sometimes the most important aid we can give is the human touch. Where does one begin when, not unlike the doll, a nation is broken? Perhaps in the compassion that must accompany death on a scale that would be unthinkable in war, let alone peacetime.  
 
And who can be counted upon to always be there when someone needs help crying and needs help rebuilding? The usual players – led by the United States but nearly always including Great Britain, Australia, Canada and Israel – this coalition usually always does the heavy lifting. And who does the world call when it hits the fan? 1.800.Call.USA.  
 
One of the most impressive and at times frustrating aspects of Israelis is that they really don’t care about public relations. As the Israeli relief effort was winding down in Haiti – and leaving behind voluntarily, not stolen at gunpoint, a significant amount of the equipment they brought over – it was a tremendous PR opportunity. Instead, the common message from the IDF was simple and pure – they went to Haiti to save lives.

“We have enough.” 

 
Some of my fondest memories are of times in Israel, sometimes hanging out in areas of meager means but always welcomed, even if my visit was unannounced, it was greeted by the warm embrace of the host or hostess followed by offers of a meal. When I would try to demur, the answer was always the same: “Awe have enough.” When I was an “impoverished (slightly overstated) medical intern,” my older Jewish neighbors who lived in the same modest area I did while finishing my training would knock on my door when I came in at night, holding a plate of food. They were on limited retirement funds and whenever I would try to dissuade them, they would always say the same thing: “We survived the Depression….strangers and friends are always welcome…we have enough.”
 
When I was a med student, I was met with such kindness from interns and residents – poor as church mice, mostly Russian Jews, émigrés – and whenever we had mutual times off from on call schedules, I’d be invited over for dinner. I’d ask, “What may I bring?” since med students are somewhat less impoverished than house officers. And they’d always answer, “We have enough.”
 
As a child who grew up a Christian living in a mostly Jewish neighborhood, I remember walking by the back porch of an older couple. Come in. “We have enough.”  That is a powerful message of hospitality and offers a telling insight into the people who offer those words.
 
It is this sense of righteousness, of hospitality that should make us want to protect Israel.
 
For far too long the accomplishments of the Jewish people – their work ethic, commitment to education, working together within their families and ethnic group to advance their race – have accomplished two things. First: an enormously successful race that have become the leading scientists, physicians, politicians, entrepreneurs, financiers, educators, attorneys, jurists, and yes owners of a significant proportion of the entertainment industry. And second: the denigration of these accomplishments, and using them as fodder for cruel stereotypes.
 
Instead, the world should look at Israel and Jews as examples how to become successful.  
 
Now to be clear, no one, no group, and no race wears a halo. All groups have flaws. But for such a tiny race to have such enormous and disproportionate success – the world, especially the developing and aspiring world would do well to try and emulate not eliminate these folks.  
It is that sharing mentality that the U.S. and Israel have that the world needs to be reminded of. Responding in Haiti is not a photo op or PR opportunity – it is another example of two nations joined by fundamental credos and shared heritage of inherent goodness who are usually the first to care, the first to help.  
 
In times of crisis, “we have enough” should be the subtitle of every nation’s flag. Whether it is famine or floods in Africa, earthquakes in Haiti or crime related privation anywhere in the world, the United Nations and all its members – not just the leaders of the pack (the US, England, Australia, Canada, Israel, even Germany) – but all the members should follow with whatever they can share, fishes and loaves or more, and say, “We have enough.”  
 
As an aside, China ought to be ashamed of its meager contribution financially compared to – well compared to just about everyone else to date. Something is amiss when Spain or Germany outspend a nation that is significantly more awash in cash and resources.  
 
Medical Miracles in Haiti … Courtesy of Israel!  
 
For a nation that suffers the constant slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, historic target of jealousy, persecution and terror attacks, a tiny nation located almost half way around the world, they sure know how to provide medical care and comfort.  
 
Whenever I need to be reminded why medicine is a noble profession, I take pride in being a physician from the actions of my Israeli colleagues. Consider the ultimate humanity providing medical care to the very people who are trying to kill you. I am reminded of a conversation a few months ago visiting a colleague in Tel Aviv – we were sharing experiences – the crossroads of morality where our oath trumps our personal feelings. For me it was treating a rapist, for him treating a Jihadist who had just murdered several Israelis civilians. There is no ethical dilemma when you wear the stethoscope. And there are numerous stories of medical care and compassion given to the people who were the very causes of human suffering. Alas, Israel suffers from the politics of global jealousy and poor media relations.
 
“Haiti needs tough love going forward.” – Jonah Goldberg 
 
Haiti is the poorest country – if it can be called a country – in the Western Hemisphere. It is a shameful and sad situation. Even before the powerful earthquake that struck this tiny region in the Caribbean caused such massive damage, Haiti was a disaster zone – with a government in name only and no infrastructure to speak of, especially in terms of emergency response, corruption and crime at all levels of society, massive poverty and privation, a significant proportion of the population infected with something – from HIV to TB to whatever. Just imagine the types of diseases that poverty, lack of sanitation, poor vector control (think Dengue and other insect-borne diseases) impose upon an essentially Third World citizenry. Add to this Haiti’s black market economy and a multigenerational population dependent upon the charity and goodwill of the rest of the world. In essence, Haiti is an institution totally built upon other peoples’ time, talent and treasure for its very survival. That is a bad and foolish way to run a society. Is it any wonder Haitians by the boatful are constantly trying to enter the U.S. through Florida? 
 
A group of us from church were discussing Haiti; some knew I had experience in disaster response, and asked me what I thought the prognosis was for Haiti. Before I had a chance to answer, someone offered that Haiti will be fine because there are several aid organizations and important people who have been there for years who will get the country back on its feet like before the earthquake, including Paul Farmer and his medical outreach program. What immediately came to mind ere several fallacies in her logic. First, Haiti never has been on its feet as an independently functional nation. Second, the government of Haiti (term used loosely) has grown increasingly lazy – perhaps disincentivized is a more charitable term – with no impetus to actually clean up the nation, develop an infrastructure, stop the hoodlums, organized crime, educate the people, etc. Why should the government of Haiti leave its comfort zone given the ongoing donations from the kindness of strangers proffered to the country by well-meaning people?  
 
To be clear, I have the utmost respect for Dr. Farmer and the near Herculean humanitarian efforts he has shared in developing nations, including Haiti, as well as the other philanthropic and non-government organizations (NGOs)trying to do angels’ work. It is difficult. I know; my students and I created a free clinic for abused kids. The biggest challenge is how to create something that ultimately becomes unnecessary because the locals make the effort to do it for themselves or make the underlying problem a thing of the past. Therein lies the problem of Haiti – it has become so dependent upon the largesse of others that there is no incentive to fix the clearly broken society. To be sure, Dr. Farmer and other NGOs have tried to develop a farm team of locals who can take on some of the heavy lifting.  But the harsh reality is clear: there are more NGOs in Haiti per person than any place on the planet. When do we hold a nation accountable to get it together? When does a handout transition to a hand up? The world, most especially the United States directly and through numerous aid organizations emanating from our shores, has provided Haiti with the Proverbial “fish” for a very long time. When do the Haitians “learn to fish?” Until there are fundamental changes in Haiti from the leadership down to the community, and the people up to the Parliament – until there is a groundswell of people working together to create a new Haiti, it will revert back to the same tragic occupant of what otherwise is a beautiful island in the midst of a magnificent Sea.  
 
Some will counter that Haiti has few natural resources. What about Bermuda? What do they export? What do they produce? And yet Bermuda is a successful, flourishing nation. Why? Let me count the ways. Getting beyond the fact Bermudans function like a society with a government, rule of law and shared values, they figured “it” out – they are an island in the midst of one of the most beautiful regions in the Atlantic – and people LOVE to vacation there…cha ching cha ching…you can hear the economy grow! Haiti is in the Caribbean. It could be a vacation destination, too! 
 
How smart do you have to be to market paradise? Not sure how to do it? Call the folks in Tortola, the Cayman Islands. Oh, wait….take a ride to the other half of the island – the same island Haiti is on is also home to the Dominican Republic. And while the Dominicans are not awash in cash a la Caymans, they are clearly a far more successful enterprise than Haiti. Think multiples in terms of GDP, health indices per capita, even what I call the “happiness quotient (HQ)” – an unofficial, “Robin invented” term to characterize peoples’ reflection of life in their native countries. Ever meet a Bermudian or Dominican? They are proud of their country – rich or poor and have something positive to say about it – they reflect the beauty that surrounds them. How hard is it to be happy waking up on an island where the average temperature is 70 plus degrees Fahrenheit (as of this writing it is 12 degrees Fahrenheit outside my house)? Well it is darn near impossible if you are dirt poor, must navigate packs of wild animals, deal with disease, and do business with black marketers. So do you want to compare notes on the HQ of Haitians? Haiti could be a resort destination in the Caribbean. It is not. Will it ever become more than it is right now…an international welfare recipient? And with that sad notoriety is the reality so many lives, so much potential are going to waste.
 
Therein rests the greatest tragedy of Haiti – the waste in human capital. If in fact we believe each life has value, Haiti has squandered its greatest resources and treated it as valueless.  It need not be so.  
 
As Jonah Goldberg wrote, “Haiti needs tough love going forward.” It would appear, he goes on, that Haiti lacks intangible capital – something he quotes Kling and Shultz who define intangible assets as the skills, rules, laws, education, knowledge, customs and expectations that drive a prosperous society to generate prosperity. He writes, “Haiti is not only poor, but they are a poverty culture. He offers an insight into their culture psyche, that because at one time their country arose out of slavery and therefore as an exploited people, many hold onto the belief racism is to blame for the country’s situation. He cautions that blame cannot lie everywhere to the exclusion of the Haitians; if Haiti is to ever escape its impoverished present it will have to abandon some of its culture.” 
 
 
One of the most elementary and predictable reasons Haiti was so completely devastated by the earthquake and so utterly incapable of rendering anything but ineffectual rescue efforts without massive outside assistance is the sad fact Haiti is barely a nation; for all intents and purposes it is one in name only. And among many reasons it is not a successful nation is because it is not free – its citizens are largely illiterate, malnourished, impoverished, and subject to the vagaries of an entrenched criminal class, against the backdrop of a corrupt government. Their work ethic has suffered and whatever semblance of a social compact is near gone. And when the aid workers leave, the rubble removed, the dead buried and the injured convalescing, the new equipment and humanitarian supplies left behind, one has to ask, will Haiti remain a disaster area?
 
One of the greatest gifts the United Nations and the developed world can give Haiti is some tough love, a history lesson on the founding of Israel and other successful nations that rose out of the ashes of hardship, and were created from within a tempest. Then give Haiti a timetable when the country needs to be self sufficient; for the long term betterment of Haitians.  
 
Conclusion
 
Haiti was barely a nation before the earthquake; what the responder nations do during the disaster may set the stage for this tiny nation’s future.
 
Ideally, no one would leave until Haiti is revamped from the bottom up and the top down. But the problem is pervasive in the national psyche – a generational poverty class that has become accustomed to corruption, larceny and the mindset of entitlement. Poverty is not a license to demand concessions or eternal charity. Self-sufficiency is not an epithet. Some charities, even the best intentioned ones, fail to recognize the value of individual responsibility. While the noblesse oblige of successful nations – the social compact and responsibility inherent in being a wealthy nation to help the less fortunate is right and necessary, it should not be tantamount to a parasitic relationship where the impoverished view charity as an income source. At some point you either fail as a society or emerge as a valid and viable nation. So far Haiti has made poverty plaintiff a long term financial strategy. And its people, its children are the casualties.  
 
Let’s be clear – the plight of the Haitians in this terrible earthquake cannot be overstated. But in the aftermath as the healing phase begins Haitians and the developed world need to take a long, honest look at the country – where the Haitians want to go as a nation and how they want to be defined as a people. In terms of enterprises – Haiti is a failure and that, contrary to what some of the well intentioned but naïve would have you believe, is not because of the powerful nations but in no small measure because of the very inhabitants of a geographic area that should be a jewel of the Caribbean and not a vortex of poverty.  
 
Haiti can become that jewel – the angels are always in the details. Haitians who have relocated in the U.S. and other nations have seen what successful societies look like. They can bring those lessons learned back to their homeland. But what incentive and at what price will their intellectual capital be offered? Nations such as Israel and the U.S. can either with or without the UN, guide the nation. In the aftermath of widespread devastation there is no better time to rebuild Haiti – not symbolically but fundamentally. But if history has taught us anything – we ignore it and will be condemned to repeat it. Haiti is unlikely to change that pattern.  In the end, the lesson learned from Haiti – it is yet another example why Israel and the US matter. To paraphrase De Tocqueville – our nations are great, because they are inherently good. 
 
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Robin McFee is a physician and medical toxicologist. An expert in WMD preparedness, Dr. McFee is the former director and co-founder of the Center for Bioterrorism Preparedness (CB PREP) and was bioweapons-WMD advisor to the Regional Domestic Security Task Force Region 7 after 9/11, as well as an advisor on avian and swine flu preparedness to numerous agencies and organizations. Dr. McFee is a member of the Global Terrorism, Political Instability and International Crime Council of ASIS International. She has authored numerous articles on terrorism, health care and preparedness, and coauthored two books: Toxico-Terrorism by McGraw Hill and The Handbook of Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Agents, published by Informa/CRC Press.
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