Biden says sending U.S. forces to Haiti "not on the agenda at this moment"
CBSN
Washington — President Biden said Thursday that sending American forces to Haiti "is not on the agenda at this moment." Haiti had asked the U.S. and U.N. for military forces to help secure the nation's major infrastructure in the wake of the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse days ago.
Mr. Biden told reporters at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the U.S. is only sending American Marines to the embassy in Haiti to make sure it's "secure and nothing is out of whack at all." At the same time, Cuba has recently seen a wave of protests over food shortages, rising prices, and the government's failure to arrest rapidly spiking COVID-19 infections. Asked about Cuba and communism by CBS News Radio White House correspondent Steven Portnoy, Mr. Biden said, "Communism is a failed system. A universally failed system. And I don't see socialism as a very useful substitute."Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.