Guy Philippe hardly seemed like a man about to order a bloodbath. Lounging poolside last week with his rifle-toting soldiers at a hotel above Cap Haitien, Haiti's second largest city, the rebel army leader predicted an easy time overwhelming the capital, Port-au-Prince, which he threatened to attack unless President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned. "We'll take it within days if not hours," he told TIME. Aristide's fall, he insisted, would justify even the carnage his army's offensive would cause the hemisphere's poorest country. "Haiti has to pay something to bring back democracy," he warned, "and this is the price."
As it turned out,...