The tragedy that has befallen the Haitian people following Monday's earthquake is truly shocking. Images of people starving, injured and dead in the streets of Port-au-Prince have stunned the world. Now enter the United States, the largest power in the Western Hemisphere, which has despatched the USS Vincennes and other forces to assist with the relief effort. The question I would seek to raise is as to whether this mission is genuinely humanitarian or a prelude to a long-term occupation.

Don't get me wrong as I support the use of military forces as part of natural disaster relief operations. Nearly all of the world's armed forces are tasked with disaster relief as one of their core roles. They have the resources and human firepower to get aid to where it is needed. After all, United Nations officials have stated that they are dealing with the worst humanitarian disaster the organisation has so far faced, even outstripping the Asian tsunami of 2004.  Therefore, any assistance tendered to the UN is being welcomed at this stage, irrespective of the source. Already many countries around the world (including New Zealand) have pledged financial and/or physical assistance to relieve the suffering in Haiti.

I am at least pleased that the US military is sparing a few of its assets, like the USS Vincennes, to deal with this epic humanitarian disaster. Instead of sowing death and destruction in places like Iraq or Afghanistan, significant sections of the US military will be deployed to help save lives for once. But I have concerns about the US potentially engaging in what is euphemistically referred to as 'mission creep' or in other words a prolonged stay in Haiti.

One only has to take a brief glimpse at the history of US domination within the Americas to ascertain as to why this is a distinct possibility.

From the time of the proclamation of the 'Monroe Doctrine' (named for then US secretary of state James Monroe) in 1823, the United States has acted to dominate Latin America in order to preserve its economic, political, cultural and social hegemony within the region. Therefore the United States has vigorously acted to exclude numerous foreign powers, for example the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, from extending their influence within the region.

This has seen the US commit troops to many Latin American countries during the last three centuries to support friendly regimes and, hence, American business interests in the region. Therefore, many countries have endured long occupations and attacks from US forces including the Dominican Republic, Panama, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mexico, El Salvador and Cuba to name a few.

Haiti has been of particular strategic significance to the US in the past. From 1915 to 1934, US Marines occupied the country in order to initially put down a popular peasant revolt led by Charlemagne Peralt. The suppression of this revolt enabled the Americans to stamp their authority over the country and largely rule it for nearly twenty years. During the occupation period, nearly 3250 Haitians were killed by US forces and in the post-occupation period, the Americans were blamed for having set up a faulty financial system on the island. Overall, the Americans did nothing to eradicate the systemic poverty that had blighted Haiti since independence in 1804.

But the Americans were more interested in using Haiti (besides Cuba) as a base for maintaining influence (alongside the British) within the Caribbean. With the advent of the Cold War, Haiti came to have greater strategic significance after the triumph of Fidel Castro's socialist revolution on neighbouring Cuba in the early 1960s. The American desire to contain Communism saw them back the hideously bloody and corrupt dictatorship of the Duvaliers. Francois ("Papa Doc") and his son Jean Claude ("Baby Doc") Duvalier ruled Haiti from the mid-1950s until 1986. The Duvaliers underpinned their rule through the use of the notorious Tontons Macoute  death squads. During the Duvalier years, many Haitians fled abroad, predominantly to the US and Canada where substantial communities now live.

After the fall of the Duvalier regime in 1986, democratic elections were arranged. These were held in 1990 and saw the triumph of a former priest Jean Bertrand-Aristide. Aristide was a left-winger whose main support base was to be found within Haiti's slums. His 1990 victory was welcomed by the vast majority of Haitians who saw in him reason for hope. However, in late 1991, Aristide was ousted in a military coup led by Raoul Cedras. Cedras's rule was unpopular and this created another wave of mass migration of Haitians to the US. Citing these 'humanitarian' concerns, then president Bill Clinton (currently the UN's Special Representative to Haiti) ordered American troops to invade but they were able to land peacefully following a deal brokered by former president Jimmy Carter in October 1994. Clinton also reinstalled Aristide to office in the hope that the Haitian leader would comply with US demands.

However, Aristide chose to defy US demands and was again ejected from office in a US-backed coup during his second term in 2004. This followed Aristide's rejection of US pressure to privatise the country's electricity and phone companies. Aristide rightfully objected on the basis that they would be sold off to wealthy Haitian and US investors who would get rich off the backs of the already suffering Haitian poor. However, in the neoconservative age of George W Bush, defying the will of the US was an absolute no-no and this time Aristide was effectively kidnapped and taken to the Central African Republic following a US engineered military revolt against his government. Then the US orchestrated a UN Resolution which saw the creation of the Brazilian-led United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). After this intervention, new elections were organised for 2006 which, disappointingly for the US, saw the election of a former president and Aristide ally, Rene Preval to office.

So, you have the background to the US's involvement in Haiti and as to why it is keen to show the Haitian people who the real boss is even in the midst of their misery. While US forces are there to obstensibly perform a humanitarian mission, I think that they will probably stay on well past the period of the current emergency given the pretext of the supposed collapse of governmental authority and infrastructure within the country. Furthermore, they will want to ensure that Haiti does not fall under the influence of neighbouring progressive socialist powers such as Cuba and Venezuela whom will both want to give huge amounts of humanitarian aid. Despite the end of the Cold War, the US still fears any advance towards democratic socialism in its own backyard, even under the more 'liberal' Obama Administration.

That is why the United Nations will have to place a time limit to the American mission and also ensure that other international organisations and nations have a role to play in providing humanitarian assistance. Longer term, a Keynesian Marshall Plan arrangement should be instituted whereby the country is completely transformed in terms of ecologically clean modern industries being set up, universally free health and education being made available and decent, affordable housing being constructed for all of Haiti's people, particularly its poor. Right now, the international community has the best chance to assist Haiti in a very genuinely progressive way without placing it further in debt to the United States or other powers.

Otherwise, the next main earthquake that the US will be fearing in Haiti is one caused by the Haitian people revolting against the prolonged military presence there. That's why President Obama should be sensible enough to say when the troops will be coming home as we all know (in the wake of Iraq and Afghanistan) that the Americans are the world's worst nation builders.