Foreign intervention has hollowed out the state and led to disaster

What comes first in Haiti: disaster or foreign intervention? The conventional, eg first world, wisdom has it that disaster comes first. 

- Pooja Bhatia

The underlying assumption is that Haitians W cannot manage their own affairs. The government is corrupt or ineffective or both. Left alone, Haiti would descend into chaos and humanitarian crisis: disease, violence, death. That's when Haiti's so-called international friends - chiefly the US, along with Canada and France - are forced to come to the rescue.

That's the direction of the thinking today. The international community is deliberating the deployment of a "multinational rapid action force" to Haiti, followed by another UN peacekeeping mission. The US has sent personnel, armoured vehicles and "equipment" to aid Haiti's police in battling a conglomerate of gangs who have taken control of the country. The US may well contribute troops. Many innocent civilians will be caught in the crossfire if history is a guide.