Haiti badly needs US military

MY response to Patrick Dolan’s question (Letters, January 18) concerning who will be of the most benefit to Haiti quake victims — “the trained killers or the trained curers” — is one of incredulity.

At this moment, when hundreds of thousands of Haitians are facing life and death issues, Mr Dolan thinks it is a good time to take a swipe at the US and its military. He claims Cuba is sending 1,500 doctors to Haiti, but I cannot find those numbers posted anywhere else. I have found 300, with more to follow.

Meanwhile, the US military is now running the inadequate Port au Prince airport in an attempt to break the bottleneck that exists there.

The aircraft carrier Carl Vinson is serving as a floating airport with its 19 helicopters as the best means of distributing needed supplies around Haiti. 900 medical staff are headed to Haiti on board a hospital ship. The soldiers and marines that Mr Dolan refers to will also include numerous medical personnel.

As we have already begun to see, the biggest problem facing Haitians in the coming days may come from machete-wielding, desperate people. The answer to Mr Dolan’s question may become clear to him very soon. It is at these moments that I am the proudest of the US and its military. He calls them “trained killers”, but in reality they are mostly young men and women who want to serve their country.

They are no different to the young men and women of Ireland.

There have been numerous mistakes made by US governments over the years and I know that better than anyone, but I will not let anyone call my son a “killer”.

John Fenton

(Father of US Marine Sgt Matthew Fenton who died from injuries received in Iraq, May 2006)

Crosshaven

Co Cork