If the United States were to occupy Haiti today, it wouldn?t be the first time. From 1915 through 1934 the island nation was, following a revolution, directly administered by the United States Marine Corps. The reasons for the occupation then were self-evident: political instability in one place breeds chaos elsewhere and, in times of international tension, such crises are particularly dangerous.

Truthfully, the results of the present crisis are the result of President Clinton?s foolish 1994 decision to restore deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. Aristide, a radical Catholic socialist, was elected President of the desperately poor island in 1990 and, upon his taking office, immediately began to enact a series of economic ?reforms? which (predictably) began to destroy the economy. In response, he was overthrown by the Haitian military.

However, the military rulers of Haiti proved to be particularly brutal and soon ignited a refugee crisis that caused problems for every nation in the region, particularly the United States. Fixated upon the ?democracy legitimacy? of Aristide (who spent most of his time after been overthrown lobbying sympathetic politicians in the US), Clinton used the threat of military force to reinstall him in office (elements of the 101st Airborne Division were actually in the air at the time the Generals capitulated).

Naturally, after using appeals to democratic sensibilities to bring upon his restoration to power, President Aristide began to set himself up as the dictator of Haiti. Obeying (for the time at least) the letter of the law, Aristide stepped aside in 1996, installing a close ally (who won with 88% of the vote) as President. Four years later, in an election boycotted by opposition political parties (who, in view of other electoral fraud, saw no reason to expect a fair vote) Aristide was returned to power as President. In response, the opposition set up a provisional government, which Aristide sought to stamp out.

Since then the nation has been plunged into economic chaos and political turmoil. Protests against Aristide?s corrupt rule have turned violent, and a rebel movement has seized control of one of the Island?s largest cities. All political order in the country appears to be on the verge of breaking down.

The solution here is obvious: US troops should sweep into the nation, remove President Aristide by force, and then allow troops from other members of the Organization of American States to remain behind and supervise free elections (backed up, perhaps, by a token American contingent). The result need not hold up forever, but a decade or so of peace would be helpful. There?s no real strategic imperative for building a lasting democracy in Haiti as there is in Iraq: but there are several real reasons to prevent chaos and encourage stability.

First, the total collapse of political order in Haiti will trigger another refugee crisis. This was a headache for the first President Bush and, quite certainly, is the last thing that this one needs. People fleeing Haiti would, quite naturally, end up in Florida.

Second, if left to its own devices, Haiti looks likely to become an anarchic failed state: just the sort of area which lends itself to serving as a base, incubator, and recruiting ground for terrorists.

Third, if the United States does not intervene in Haiti, the odds are high that someone else probably will. Already there are rumblings about the dispatch of French troops to the island. Leaving aside that such a deployment would be a violation of the Monroe Doctrine; it would also provide an effective anti-American talking point in much of the world. I imagine that a great deal would be made of the fact that the United States apparently could not police its own backyard and required French help in doing so.

Finally, allowing a bloodbath to develop in Haiti would undermine the moral credibility of the United States in the rest of the world. If the United States will not step in to prevent mass slaughter right next door, why should some tin-pot dictator believe that it will do so in Africa?

Given that the United States managed to conquer Afghanistan with about one hundred Green Berets, I imagine the broad equivalent would be possible in Haiti. Certainly the forces required for such an operation would, at the most, be no larger than those used in the invasion of Grenada in 1983.

We might as well do this now as, all things considered, someone will probably have to do it soon anyways. Better to seize the initiative than to behave in a reactive fashion.