Jean-Bertrand Aristide has left Haiti, and the Marines have come in.

* Jean-Bertrand Aristide has left Haiti, and the Marines have come in. The country may enjoy a bit of a lull, if not the dawn of a new era. A charismatic radical Catholic priest who preached against the Duvalier family dictatorship, Aristide seemed like a good idea when he was first elected president in 1990. After a coup, the United States sent Marines to restore him in 1994. Yet as the years passed, Aristide quashed opponents and ruled by thugs and gangs, without ameliorating Haiti's poverty. His American supporters, such as Rep. Charlie Rangel (D., N.Y.), gave him a pass on racial grounds. The job of the Marines now is to keep power from the hands of anti-Aristide thugs and gangs. An interim regime stabilized by the U.N. and the OAS is the best Haiti can hope for in the short run. The longer such a regime stays in power, keeping chaos at bay, the better Haiti's long-term prospects will be.