In all of this suffering the United States and Canada are taking lead roles in providing Aid to the people of Haiti. It has been reported that the Americans are currently providing most of the relief that is getting to the Haitians. The US has about 13,000 of its troops either already there, or on there way. Canada, for its part has about 2000 and will play a lead role in reconstruction.
The US has also taken control and restored the main airport in the capital and are doing their best to keep things moving, apparently this is not enough for some people the following bolded text is from a newspaper report I read this morning
French Foreign Minister Kouchner claimed that the airport had become "an annex of Washington," according to France's ambassador to Haiti, Didier Le Bret, after the Americans diverted a French relief flight to the neighbouring Dominican Republic.
This account, however, is strongly contradicted by Duncan Dee, the chief operating officer of Air Canada. He was in the cockpit of a Boeing 767 as it delivered 22,000 kilograms of supplies for emergency relief Saturday to Port-au-Prince that had been donated by the airline.
"What I saw was extremely well-organized under very challenging circumstances," said Mr. Dee, who also listened in on all communications between ground control and aircraft. "The U.S. is not favouring its own flights.
"The big problem they are facing is space at the airport," he explained. "The second big problem is planes arriving totally unannounced seeking entry to the airport. All probably well-meaning but not anticipated or planned."
It was the Americans who got to the airport first, and who got it back up and running, even though its control tower had been badly damaged.
The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is close by, serving as a second airport.
I guess when things get tough, the US and Canada act and the french complain
