Security expert and author Robert Shepherd points out to us that “[the] first and most important emphasis should be on security, simply as the city and UN HQ there has lost it’s infrastructure. If there’s no security, there’s no aid!”

Presidential Palace in Port-au-Prince (United Nations Photo)

The natural go-to nation is the United States, Shepherd says.

“Even as we speak, the world’s developed nations are sending humanitarian aid. Europe and UK are on their way having fought through snow to get to their respective airports. By the time they arrive in Haiti or DR next door, the US could already be up and running with a security plan established.”

So what happens now? We start by asking Tom Squitieri, who has spent years in and out of Haiti first as a prize-winning war correspondent for USA Today and then as founder of TS Navigations in Washington, D.C. Check out the interview here.