Stanley: Nicholas Eberstadt is indeed a star, and that “Haiti in Extremis” piece you linked to is indeed horrifying.
Reading it, though, I had a thought that many other readers must have had, viz.: If, after prolonged occupation twice by U.S. (1915-34) and internation forces (1990-present), the place is still in such an appalling mess, what are our chances with far more populous, diverse, and lootable Iraq?
Perhaps we should establish a rule that no U.S. government should attempt to establish durable democracy in any place until it has first done so in Haiti.
Eberstadt’s comparison with North Korea brought to mind Bertrand Russell’s quip after he visited Lenin’s Russia and early-Republican China in quick succession circa 1920: “I went to Russia, which I found suffers from too much government, then to China, which suffers from too little.”