Category: Pacific

President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, and Secretary of Defense Gates are touring the Asia Pacific region outlining an expansion of the U.S. military presence in the region.    Below are two articles describing the closer collaboration between the U.S. and Australia with joint exercises and missile defense.  Demilitarization activists in Australia have criticized these develoments.

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Posted on Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/05-3

Published on Friday, November 5, 2010 by The Sydney Morning Herald

US to Step Up Military Presence Across Asia, into Indian Ocean

US Sets Eyes on Southern Defense Outposts

by Hamish McDonald

THE United States military will store equipment and supplies in Australia as part of a new regional posture to respond faster to natural disasters and other contingencies, and conduct more intensive training with Australian forces.

The two militaries will also build a new space-monitoring facility in Western Australia, as previously reported in the Herald, to extend tracking of space activity, including missiles from rogue states like North Korea and orbiting debris.

Washington and Canberra will also step up co-operation in cyber security and warfare to counter what Defence analysts see as an ”emerging area of strategic risk” as foreign states and individual hackers try to break into government data banks and control infrastructure systems.

The initiatives are expected to emerge from Monday’s annual bilateral ministerial talks on defence and foreign affairs, involving the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and the Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, and their Australian counterparts, Kevin Rudd and Stephen Smith.

In the closed-door talks in Government House, Melbourne, Mrs Clinton and Mr Gates will outline a stepped-up American military presence across Asia into the Indian Ocean. This will involve more frequent patrols and port-calls by US Navy ships and other units, including to Australian bases.

The shift reflects an ongoing ”global posture review” designed to counter a recent trend of deploying forces directly from bases in the United States or its external territories, and maintain a more ”visible and effective” presence in key regions.

There will be more American cruises through south-east Asia and more exercises with Australian and other regional forces, including those of Indonesia and Singapore, as well as joint aid efforts like a recent school construction effort in East Timor by US Navy engineers working from the amphibious landing ship HMAS Tobruk.

South-east Asia is seen as the nexus between the Pacific and the Indian oceans. Washington is showing greater interest in the Indian Ocean region and India itself (the US President, Barack Obama, is about to visit), as well as greater awareness of the region’s strategic connection with the Pacific.

The ”pre-positioning” of US military stores in places like Darwin and Townsville would allow faster aid in disasters and help with logistical problems in joint training. But it is likely to include large amounts of combat equipment for the typical US Marine taskforce involved in the bigger amphibious exercises.

The new space facility likely to be added to the Northwest Cape joint communications base is designed to enhance ”space situational awareness” in the southern hemisphere, where coverage is relatively thinner than over the north.

It will track missiles, warheads, satellites and debris, and would be a passive monitoring facility rather than an advance into space warfare, which is restricted by international treaty.

But more than helping space stations and satellites dodge collisions, it will have a defence role, as threats like the North Korean ballistic missile program have made US and Australian defence agencies more concerned about the ”southern trajectory”.

Copyright © 2010 Fairfax Media

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Source: http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n234589

Australia, U.S. agree to major escalation of military co-operation

06 November 2010 | 05:07 | FOCUS News Agency

Canberra. Australia has agreed to a major escalation of military co-operation with the U.S., Xinhua informed.

According to The Weekend Australian newspaper, the move will include more visits by American ships, aircraft and troops and their forces exercising.

Access to Australian Defense Force facilities will allow the U. S. to step up its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, and increased numbers of U.S. personnel in Australian facilities were expected within months, the paper wrote.

Three big announcements on military and security co-operation will be made after Monday’s Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) defense and foreign policy talks in Melbourne of Australia.

The AUSMIN will be attended by delegations headed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Australia’s Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Defense Minister Stephen Smith.

The Australian newspaper on Saturday said the Australian development is part of a new U.S. strategy to step up its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, after reviews of strategic policy concluded that the U.S. government’s attempts to project power from North America were not working.

© 2010 All rights reserved. Reproducing this website’s contents requires obligatory reference to FOCUS Information Agency!

President Barack Obama arrived in Mumbai, India on November 6 and announced $10 billion in business deals with his host country which he claimed will contribute to 50,000 new American jobs. By some accounts half the transactions will be for India’s purchase of U.S. military equipment and half the new jobs will be created in the defense sector.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is completing a nearly two-week tour of the Asia-Pacific region which will culminate in meeting up with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen in Australia on November 8 to among other matters secure the use of the country’s military bases.

Gates will then visit Malaysia, “amid concern in the region over China’s growing economic and naval power” [1], to solidify military ties with the Southeast Asian nation as Obama moves to Indonesia, South Korea and Japan after his first visit to India on what will be his longest trip abroad since assuming the presidency.

Obama styles himself “America’s first Pacific president,” having been born in Hawaii and spending part of his childhood in Indonesia, and his administration has targeted Asia for the expansion of U.S. military influence and presence.

Several months ago a Chinese report warned that his visit to India was designed in large part to “secure $5 billion worth of arms sales,” a deal that “would make the US replace Russia as India’s biggest arms supplier” and “help India curb China’s rise.” [2]

What he has accomplished is “a $5 billion sale for 10 of Boeing’s C-17 cargo planes” which represents “the sixth biggest arms deal in U.S. history.”

“This and the pending $60 billion deal with Saudi Arabia will certainly help to jump-start the economy, as they [arms sales] have for the past fifty years.” [3]

Job creation in the U.S. is an abysmal failure except in the military sector.

“Boeing said the C-17 deal with India will support 650 suppliers in 44 U.S. states and support the company’s own C-17 production facility in Long Beach, California, for an entire year.” [4]

Other deals included an $822 million contract for General Electric to provide 107 F414 engines for the Tejas lightweight multirole jet fighter being developed by India.

Rahul Bedi, Indian-based correspondent for Jane’s Defence Weekly, recently revealed that since U.S. sanctions enforced after India’s 1998 nuclear tests were lifted in 2001 “India has concluded and signed arms contract worth $12 billion. This includes maritime reconnaissance aircraft (Boeing P-81), missiles, artillery guns, radars and transport aircraft.

“India is also buying heavy lift transport for the air force (C-17s). An artillery radar contract was the first of its kind worth $142 million. Over the next years, India is going to go for repeat orders of C-17s [Globemaster IIIs], C-130J Super Hercules [military transport aircraft], etc.” and “these contracts are worth another 7 to 8 billion dollars.” [5]

The projected purchase of 126 multirole combat aircraft will account for another $10 billion and other contracts for assorted military helicopters are also being pursued by Washington. What is in question is $15 billion in weapons deals.

With already concluded and potential contracts, “we are talking about very, very big business. We are talking about the shifting of Indian military hardware, completely.

“Shifting from Russian components to American ones is a big shift. In the mid-90s, the Pentagon had assessed that by 2015 [it] would like India to source it’s 25 per cent of hardware. They seem to be well on their way in meeting their target.

“The profile of Indian military hardware is becoming US-oriented. This will bring definitive change in Indian military doctrine because it’s dependent on [imported] equipment.”

The U.S. is also pressuring the Indian government to sign several military-related agreements, including a Logistics Support Agreement which could prove “dangerous because the use of US ports by Indians will be zero while the US can or may use Indian bases frequently because of their presence in the region. So, technically speaking, if the US should have problem[s] with Iran or Pakistan they, under the agreement, may use our bases. Indian soil can become a lunching pad for refuelling or servicing.” [6]

Addressing the U.S.-India Business Council in Mumbai on November 6, Obama said: “There is no reason why India cannot be our top trading partner (from 12th position now)….I’m absolutely sure that the relationship between India and the US is going to be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century.” [7] That is, one of the decisive political-military alliances of the century.

In the words of Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, “The simple truth is that India’s rise, and its strength and progress on the global stage, is deeply in the strategic interest of the United States.” [8]

Obama will leave India on November 8, when Clinton, Gates and Mullen gather in Australia, and head to Indonesia where he will exploit his childhood history and then to the G-20 meeting in South Korea and the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit in Japan.

Indian troops are currently participating with U.S. airborne forces in this year’s annual Yudh Abhyas joint military exercises “involving airborne specialist operations in sub-zero temperatures in Alaska” of a sort that could be put to use along India’s Himalayan border with China in the event of an armed conflict like that which occurred in 1962.

“The exercise will test the mettle of the Indian Army men in performing operations in extreme cold conditions in Alaska where the temperature hovers around minus 20 degree Celsius.

“The exercise is designed to promote cooperation between the two militaries to promote interoperability through the combined military decision-making process, through battle tracking and manoeuvring forces, and exchange of tactics, techniques and procedures.” [9] Last year’s Yudh Abhyas, held in India, was the largest U.S.-Indian military exercise to date. [10]

From September 29-October 4 personnel from the Indian army, air force and navy trained with the U.S.’s 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit at the latter’s base in Okinawa in the East China Sea during the Habu Nag 2010 “bilateral amphibious training exercise between India and the United States, designed to increase interoperability during amphibious operations,” the first time “the Indian military had the chance to work alongside Marines in this situation.” [11]

“Okinawa is located close to China and has a significant US presence where several military bases are concentrated.” [12]

Clinton began her six-nation tour of the Asia-Pacific region on October 27 by visiting a military base in Hawaii, meeting with the head of U.S. Pacific Command and assuring the foreign minister of Japan that the U.S. is prepared to honor its military commitments under terms of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty in the event of further clashes between Japan and China over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea. [13]

The next day U.S. and Japanese warships participated in an advanced ballistic missile interception test off the coast of Hawaii and on November 2 the U.S. launched the two-week Orient Shield 11 (XI) military exercise with 400 U.S. National Guard and 200 Japanese troops in the latter’s nation.

“Since World War II concluded, the United States has worked to build a better relationship with Japan. In 1960, the U.S. and Japan signed the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, a binding agreement for both countries to support each other from enemy attack.” As such, “United States Army Japan facilitates a two-week Orient Shield exercise in Japan each fall….”

In the words of the commander of the Japanese forces involved this year, “Our main goal is to enhance the interoperability between the U.S. and Japan.” [14]

Since Hillary Clinton spoke this July of U.S. intentions to intervene in territorial disputes in the South China Sea between China and its neighbors, the Pentagon has conducted three joint military exercises with South Korea, including in the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan/East Sea, and one with Vietnam in the South China Sea.

Last month the U.S. led a 14-nation Proliferation Security Initiative [15] naval exercise off the southern port city of Busan, “marking the first time for South Korea to host such a drill.” [16] In addition to the U.S. guided missile destroyer USS Lassen and two South Korean destroyers, a Japanese ship and personnel from Australia, Canada and France participated.

In late September China’s Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo warned that “A series of military drills initiated by the US and China’s neighboring countries showed that the US wants to increase its military presence in Asia.”

“The purpose of these military drills launched by the US is to target multiple countries including China, Russia and North Korea and to build up strategic ties with its allied countries like Japan and South Korea.” [17]

Secretary of State Clinton arrived in New Zealand on November 4. Like South Korea, Australia, Malaysia and now Japan (which has announced plans to deploy Self-Defense Forces medical personnel), New Zealand has troops serving in Afghanistan.

“New Zealand has participated in the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan, with 140 personnel carrying out reconstruction work in Bamiyan and 70 special forces troops in the country believed to be operating in Kabul.”

Her visit revived and expanded military ties between the U.S and New Zealand that had been dormant since 1986, “mark[ing] the end of a row over nuclear weapons dating back almost 25 years,” according to Prime Minister John Key.

“U.S. and New Zealand troops could train together” again, the press reported, and two days before Clinton’s arrival the New Zealand government published a 100-page defense white paper, the first in 13 years, detailing “closer military relations with the United States, Australia, Britain and Canada, as well as enhanced front-line capabilities.

“On the ground the army will get more front-line soldiers and Special Air Service elite troops, while on the seas the Anzac frigates will be upgraded….Hillary Clinton arrived in New Zealand for a three-day visit, prompting one newspaper to suggest it was a perfect gift for her.” [18]

Though not of the same scope, the New Zealand white paper follows one by Australia last year that calls for a post-World War Two record $72 billion arms build-up. [19]

Clinton’s next stop was Australia, where Pentagon chief Gates had also arrived to “reinforce the U.S. commitment to the region with a longstanding U.S. ally and an increasingly close partner,” according to Defense Department Press Secretary Geoff Morrell.

Clinton, Gates and U.S. military chief Admiral Mullen will meet with Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Defense Minister John Faulkner on November 8 for the 25th anniversary Australia-United States Ministerial (AUSMIN) meeting.

The Pentagon spokesman added that “This year’s talks will cover a broad range of foreign policy, defense and strategic issues, including ongoing military operations in Afghanistan,” noting that “Australia is the largest non-NATO contributor to the International Security Assistance Force” in Afghanistan. [20]

Morrell emphasized the meeting would strengthen the U.S.’s alliance with Australia and would contribute to increased collaboration with regional partners to ensure “maritime security” in Asia. As a news source put it, “US officials often employ the phrase ‘maritime security’ to refer to concerns about China’s assertive stance over territorial rights in the Pacific, particularly in the South China Sea.” [21]

A local news report recently divulged that “Australia has agreed to a major escalation of military co-operation with the US,” including “more visits by American ships, aircraft and troops and their forces exercising here regularly….”

“Access to Australian Defence Force facilities will allow the US to step up its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region…as concern grows about China’s military expansion.”

Three “big announcements” on military cooperation will be made after the Australia-United States Ministerial consultations and “Increased numbers of US personnel in Australian facilities are expected within months, and the tempo of military exercises will be stepped up as that happens.” [22]

The military installations that the Pentagon will gain access to are expected to include army and air force bases at Townsville, the new Coonawarra naval base in Darwin, the Stirling naval base on Garden Island and the Bradshaw Field Training Area.

“The Australian development is part of a new US strategy to step up its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region after reviews of strategic policy concluded that the Bush government’s attempts to project power from North America were not working.” [23]

When Clinton arrived in Melbourne on November 6 she “signalled increased military cooperation with Australia.”

“Easier use of Australian bases, more joint training programmes and more visits by ships, planes and troops are proposed. There could also be stockpiling of US military equipment and supplies at local bases, and a joint space tracking facility that would monitor missiles, satellites and space junk.”

In her own words: “I think it’s going to be an issue of discussion at AUSMIN (Australia-US ministerial level talks Monday) about the cooperation on a range of matters, including space, cyber-security and so much else.”

New Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard confirmed that her administration would “welcome the United States making greater use of our ports and our training facilities, our test-firing ranges.” [24]

The focus of U.S. military strategy has shifted from Europe, subjugated through NATO expansion, and Africa, subordinated under U.S. Africa Command, to Asia. An Asia-Pacific analogue of NATO and AFRICOM is being expanded by the day.

Notes

1) Radio Netherlands, November 4, 2010

2) Global Times, July 13, 2010

http://world.globaltimes.cn/asia-pacific/2010-07/550830.html

3) Anika Anand, The Real Reason For Obama’s Trip To India: The Sixth Biggest

Arms Deal In U.S. History

Business Insider, November 6, 2010

http://www.businessinsider.com/top-10-us-arms-deals-in-history-2010-11

4) CNN, November 6, 2010

5) Sheela Bhatt, As Obama arrives, US bids for heavy arms business

Rediff News, November 5, 2010

http://news.rediff.com/special/2010/nov/05/obama-visit-special-as-arrives-us-bids-for-heavy-arms-business.htm

6) Ibid

7) Press Trust of India, November 6, 2010

8) CNN, November 6, 2010

9) Press Trust of India, November 4, 2010

10) India: U.S. Completes Global Military Structure

Stop NATO, September 10, 2010

India: U.S. Completes Global Military Structure

11) United States Marine Corps, October 5, 2010

12) Indian Express, September 22, 2010

13) U.S. Supports Japan, Confronts China And Russia Over Island Disputes, Stop NATO, November 4, 2010, http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/u-s-supports-japan-confronts-china-and-russia-over-island-disputes

14) U.S. Army Japan, November 2, 2010

15) Proliferation Security Initiative And U.S. 1,000-Ship Navy: Control Of World’s Oceans, Prelude To War, Stop NATO, January 29, 2009, http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/proliferation-security-initiative-and-us-1000-ship-navy-control-of-worlds-oceans-prelude-to-war

16) Korea Herald, October 13, 2010

17) Global Times, September 26, 2010

18) United Press International, November 4, 2010

19) Australian Military Buildup And The Rise Of Asian NATO, Stop NATO, May 6, 2009, http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/australian-military-buildup-and-the-rise-of-asian-nato

20) U.S. Department of Defense, November 4, 2010

21) Radio Netherlands, November 4, 2010

22) Australian Associated Press, November 6, 2010

23) Ibid

U.S. Marshals Military Might To Challenge Asian Century, Stop NATO, August 21, 2010, http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/08/21/u-s-marshals-military-might-to-challenge-asian-century

24) Deutsche Presse-Agentur, November 6, 2010

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Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato

Blog site: http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/

© Copyright Rick Rozoff, Stop NATO, 2010

The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=21804

Using tactics familiar to demilitarization activists in Hawai’i, SWAT was called in to intimidate protesters of the military expansion that threatens the ancient Chamorro cultural and sacred sites in Pagat. The military held closed door meetings to discuss the handling of cultural sites and resources under the consultation process of the National Historic Preservation Act.

Below is an article from the Pacific News Center:

http://pacificnewscenter.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9147:swat-called-in-to-programmatic-agreement-meeting&catid=45:guam-news&Itemid=156

Swat Called In To Protect Meeting on Programmatic Agreement

Last Updated on Friday, 05 November 2010 19:34 Written by Clynt Ridgell Friday, 05 November 2010 18:38

Guam News – Guam News

Guam – The Guam Police Department’s SWAT Team had to be called to Adelup Friday to calm some boisterous demonstrators who had gathered outside a meeting on the Programmatic Agreement which will govern the handling of historical artifacts uncovered during the military buildup.

GPD swat was called to provide security during the meeting between Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Navy Don Shregardus and local organizations including the Chamoru nation and the Chamorro tribe.

“We are Guahan, Fuetsan Famalao’an and the Guam Boonie Stompers. The meeting is on the contentious programmatic agreement. It was a closed door meeting and in fact senator Ben Pangelinan and Vice-Speaker BJ Cruz were almost not allowed inside. “My one comment to Shregardus and to Manley is the same comment I made to them last night was that we want the Guam legislature as a recognized consulting party to this agreement,” said Vice-Speaker BJ Cruz.

DoD officials have pressured the Guam State Historic Preservation Officer [SHPO] Lynda Aguon to sign off on the agreement despite her initial objections. The document has since gone through a couple of revisions none of them to the satisfaction of the Guam SHPO. One major area of concern was the fact that the programmatic agreement was never given any public attention or a public hearing for that matter.

This despite the fact that public involvement is required by the National Historic Preservation Act. Finally after months of requests by the Guam SHPO, We are Guahan, the Chamoru tribe, Fuetsan Famalaoan, the Guam Boonie Stompers, the Guam Historic Preservation trust, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation a public hearing was held on the programmatic agreement just last night at Okkodo Highschool. But the public hearing was held just two days after Guam’s general election and without much publicity. We are Guahan member Julian Aguon says that the public hearing was a Disappointment. “From what I understand it’s the only public hearing and it was barely a public hearing because you didn’t get to hear anything there were actually no oral comments being accepted so what they were accepting was only written statements you put in a box,” explained Aguon.

Aguon was also present at today’s closed door meeting. “I actually think the example with the senators is the clearest manifestation of what’s so deficient about this whole process you had in the room when I was there senator or Vice-Speaker BJ Cruz and senator Ben Pangelinan in fact begging to be consulting parties and the fact that our own territorial legislature has to sort of appear as beggars is really problematic for me,” he said.

One of the reasons that this programmatic agreement is so contentious is that it provides a loophole in it that essentially would allow the Guam SHPO to sign off on DOD’s plans for Pagat. “The community We are Guahan and other groups like Fuetsan Famalaoan and all these other people are so unequivocally opposed to the taking of Pagat the desecration of those ancestral human remains but that’s all falling on deaf ears and that’s why litigation is the next anticipated move,” said Aguon.

The comment period on the programmatic agreement is only five days long and ends on Tuesday November 9. Speaker Judi Wonpat has sent a letter to the Department of Defense officially requesting that the comment period on the buildup be extended at least until Nov. 30th and that the legislature be included as a consulting party.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a strategy speech while on a stop over in Honolulu.   One military website reported:

The U.S. goals in the Pacific are to sustain and strengthen America’s leadership in the Asia Pacific Region; to improve security; to heighten prosperity and promote our values, said the Secretary.

The United States has been practicing forward deployed diplomacy, which means they have adopted a proactive footing.

“We’ve sent the full range of our diplomatic assets including our highest ranking officials, our development experts, our teams from a wide range of pressing issues into every corner and every capital of the Asia Pacific Region,” said Clinton.

“We know that much of the history of the 21st century will be written in Asia,” said Clinton. “This region will see the most transformative economic growth on the planet,” she added.

Clinton also remarked on how important America has been as Asia has moved forward in the future.

“The progress that we see today in Asia has not only been the hard work of leaders and citizens of across the region, but the American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that protect borders and patrol the region’s waters; the American diplomats that have settled conflicts and brought nations together in common causes; the American business leaders and entrepreneurs who invested in new markets and formed trans-pacific partnerships; the American aid workers that have helped countries rebuild in the wake of disasters and the American educators and students that have shared ideas and experiences with their counterparts across the ocean,” said the Secretary.

Clinton underscores the critical importance of the region as the geopolitical center of gravity.    But she also seems to overcompensate for America’s dwindling power with strident pronouncements of U.S. dominance and indispensability.     Although the Obama administration has stepped up diplomatic efforts in the region, the U.S. increasingly resorts to its vast network of military bases as its primary source of power.  In fact, even diplomacy is becoming more militarized, with the Pacific Command assuming many roles typically handled by the State Department and the State Department taking on more militarized language. e.g. “forward deployed diplomacy”.

Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. is sending mixed messages to China:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraged greater U.S.-China cooperation in Asia, even as she stressed that the U.S. will increase its effort to remain a military and economic power in the region.

Similar to the speech she gave when she visited Hawai’i in January 2010, Clinton reaffirmed Washington’s intention to remain top dog in the Asia Pacific region:

“Now, there are some who say that this long legacy of American leadership in the Asia-Pacific region is coming to a close. That we are not here to stay. I say, look at our record. It tells a different story,” Mrs. Clinton said Thursday in Hawaii.

The U.S. rivalry with China is bad news for the small islands of the Pacific, including Hawai’i, Guam, Okinawa.  As the Telegraph reports:

Local residents’ concerns, however, have been sidelined by the US-China strategic competition. China has significantly expanded its fleet during the past decade, seeking to deter the US from intervening militarily in any future conflict over Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own, and to project power across disputed territories in the gas and oil-rich South China Sea.

Beijing’s naval build-up is also intended secure the sea lanes from the Middle East, from where China will import an estimated 70-80 per cent of its oil needs by 2035 supplies it fears US could choke in the event of a conflict.

Despite claims that China does not have imperial desires to establish foreign military bases, it has undertaken a military base race of its own:

China has therefore invested in what are called its “string of pearls” a network of bases strung along the Indian Ocean rim, like Hambantota in Sri Lanka and Gwadar in Pakistan and in developing a navy which can operate far from home.

http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/2-us-department-of-defense-is-the-worst-polluter-on-the-planet/

2. US Department of Defense is the Worst Polluter on the Planet

Top 25 of 2011

1 Response for “2. US Department of Defense is the Worst Polluter on the Planet”

In 2007 at a climate change DPI and NGO meeting at the UN, the Peace Caucus and the Anti-Militarism Caucus prepared a Declaration, The Elephant in the Room; MiIitarism. We attempted to present the Declaration to the plenary but we were prevented from doing so. One of the issues we raised was the fact that the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has refused to calculate the impact of militarism on greenhouse gas emissions. We also called for the disbanding of NATO and the reallocation of the global military budget. Also for COP15, in Copenhagen, I co-authored a a statement which included a number of references to Militarism and at COP 15 I raised these issues at Press Conferences.

A Native Alaskan company got the contract for clean up of the U.S. missile base in Kwajalein.  It is probably a “special 8A” contract, meaning that under the contracting laws, a native-owned company may get sole-source (i.e. no-bid) contracts of unlimited size.    The problem is that often these companies become fronts for large defense companies to get the subcontract without competition.   A similar Native Hawaiian preferential status federal contract economy is developing in Hawai’i.

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Site Investigations Announced for Kwajalein Missile Base Clean-up

Aenet Rowa
Yokwe (Marshall Island)
October 18, 2010

The Alaska native-owned company, Sivuniq, announced last month that it has been tasked by the the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command to help with environmental site investigations at nine locations on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

“The Army is putting forth a good faith effort to clean up spills, restore the sites and make them productive,” said project manager Norm Straub.

Six decades of military operations have left contamination on the islands at the atoll, said the company newsletter.

Kwajalein is home to USAKA (United States Army Kwajalein Atoll) and the premier missile facility, the Ronald Reagan Test Site (RTS).

…

For the entire article, see
http://www.yokwe.net/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2697

—

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

– Horton, from Horton Hears a Who

Hundreds of people of all ages, across the political spectrum turned out to protest the U.S. military’s record of decision (ROD) on the military expansion plans for Guahan (Guam).  Is Washington D.C. listening?  The Pacific Daily News wrote:

A few hundred protesters linked arms on the Adelup lawn and yelled together, hoping their unified cry would become a voice in the military buildup.

“Louder than that! Louder than that!” shouted Melvin Won Pat-Borja. “Until they hear us in Washington, D.C., get louder!”

That was the highlight of a “Realize our Destiny” rally held last night, which united groups including We Are Guåhan and much of the Guam Legislature in response to the Record of Decision, which was released Sept. 21.

The voices of opposition have been clear and constant.  Does Washington D.C. not hear?  Or does it not care?   Does it not care that its obsession with “national security” destroys small treasures like Diego Garcia, Jeju, Kwajalein, Okinawa, Hawai’i and Guahan, and generates greater animosity and insecurity around the world?   Not care that the $4 trillion wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have killed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, destroyed entire countries, destabilized regions,  bankrupted the United States, and robbed future generations of Americans?

It reminds me of the climax of the Dr. Seuss classic Horton Hears a Who.  All of Whoville raising their voices to save their world, trying to get people outside to hear them.  They needed that one last tiny Who to speak.  We are all Whos. Raise your voices to stop the military invasion of Guahan!