posted on April 21, 2003 10:06:48 PM new
I don't know, how come we (the U.S. ) can set up Military bases in countries around the world and not call it occupation?
Art Bell Retired! George Noory is on late night coasttocoastam.com
posted on April 21, 2003 10:57:44 PM new
That's a good point Near. If the U.S. plans on helping Iraq set up a new, democratic government, I don't see how it could be done any other way. It's the Saudi's that seem to view the U.S.'s continued presence in Iraq as some kind of threat... to me anyway.
posted on April 22, 2003 07:42:20 AM new
An email I received this morning is 'sort of' along the same line.
Remember the Island Of Vieques? Like all countries where our military bases are located, those bases provide income to the local population too.
This 'withdrawl' hasn't happened yet...least wise not that I've read.
Interesting quick read on the closing of Rosy [Roosevelt] Roads Naval Air Station in Puerto Rico. Another lesson learned the hard way! Always be careful what you ask for, you just may get it!
One of the many headaches that George W. Bush inherited from his predecessor was the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. In the waning years of the Clinton administration, protesters demanded that the U.S. Navy abandon bombing and naval gun fire exercises that had taken place on the largely uninhabited island for nearly seventy years. It became a leftist cause. Liberal icons bumped into one another to fly to Puerto Rico, boat over to the island, trespass (but never on a day that there was an exercise scheduled) and get arrested for the benefit of the New York Times or Newsweek. They included the Reverend Al Sharpton, Mrs. Jesse Jackson, Joan Baez, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Edward Olomos, Michael Moore and Ramsey Clark, just to name a few.
Hillary Clinton, then running for the U.S. Senate in New York, chastised the U.S. Navy for not bowing to the "will of the citizens of Puerto Rico", until her husband, a week before the election, issued an executive order to phase out the facility by 2003, despite recommendations to the contrary by his own Secretary of Defense and the Chief of Naval Operations.
In 2002, the bombing exercises were transferred to an Air Force bombing range in central Florida, not far from the Jacksonville and Pensacola Naval Air Stations. In January, many of the protesters were back in Puerto Rico, celebrating the final bombing exercise on Vieques and waved Puerto Rican flags and placards that read "U.S. Navy, get out of Puerto Rico."
On February 21, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced that the U.S. Navy will close the Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station in Puerto Rico in 2004, eliminating 1200 civilian jobs as well as 700 military positions. This naval facility is estimated to put nearly $300 million annually into the local economy.
The next day a stunned Governor Sila Calderon, held a news conference in San Juan, protesting the base closure as a serious blow to Commonwealth's fragile economy. The governor stated that "The people of Puerto Rico don't now or never did have an interest in closing the Vieques bombing range or the Roosevelt Roads naval base. My government is interested in having both staying in Puerto Rico." When asked, Admiral Robert J. Natter, Commander-on Chief, Western Atlantic Command, said,"Without Vieques, I see no further need for the facility at Roosevelt Roads. None." So, Yanqui go home? Fine. But we'll take our dollars with us. Hasta la vista....baby!
In yet another case, on February 21, 2003 the Secretary of Defense also announced that starting this year, the U.S. European Command would begin moving most if not all of its active combat and support units from bases in Germany to others being established in Poland, The Czech Republic, Hungary and Turkey to "better position them for rapid deployment to likely hot spots in those parts of the world".
Immediately the business and government leaders in the German states of Hesse, Rhineland and Wurttemburg, protested the loss of nearly $6 billion in revenue each year from the bases and manpower to be displaced.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry speculated that the move may be "what the Americans call 'payback' for the actions of this government in opposing military action in Iraq." Whatever.
Does anyone know the German translation for "Hasta la vista baby?"
Nice to see a government with guts (and a memory).
Time will tell if these two 'projections' happen or not. But if these countries want us to withdraw or if we want to it will have different effects on their economies.
The question is not what a man can scorn, or disparage, or find fault with, but what he can love, and value, and appreciate. J. Ruskin
[ edited by Linda_K on Apr 22, 2003 07:58 AM ]
