U.S. Scales Back in Haiti

The U.S. is drawing down the number of troops providing relief to Haiti, where hundreds of thousands were left injured and homeless by the January 12 earthquake that ravaged the country. For the past month, American troops have provided urgently needed medical care, delivered life-sustaining relief to villages, and controlled air traffic in Port-au-Prince’s tiny airport. But some responsibilities are being turned back over to the Haitian government, and troop levels are down to 13,000 from 20,000. About 70 percent of troops in Haiti are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many will be deployed again to those wars—wars that had left the military overtaxed before the Haitian operation.