President Obama will be traveling to Guam at the end of the month to discuss the proposed military expansion there, but at this point, he has no plans to talk with residents of Guam who will be most affected by the build up. A group called We Are Guahan is organizing a petition calling on Obama to go outside the confines of the military base to meet and talk with the residents.
In the article below, East-West Center fellow Denny Roy was cited: “Moving Marines from Okinawa to Guam is Plan A — and there really is no Plan B — so Obama needs to make Plan A work, Roy said.”
Wait, does that sounds familiar?
In an Asahi Shimbun interview, Richard P. Lawless, former deputy undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Defense in charge of Asia-Pacific affairs said: “So frankly, there is no plan B, because Henoko was the chosen solution.”
I guess the spin masters in the Obama administration have distributed talking points to media pundits and opinion makers.
Ask the people whether the military expansion should take place in Okinawa or Guam. They would choose “none of the above”.
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Obama to discuss buildup: Guam economy, environment on President’s agenda
By Brett Kelman • Pacific Daily News • March 5, 2010
President Barack Obama and Gov. Felix Camacho will discuss ways to “revitalize the economy while protecting the environment” during a meeting on Guam this month, according to a testimony transcript on the U.S. Department of State Web site.
This brief glimpse into Obama’s on-island agenda was given by Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, during testimony to a House of Representatives committee on Wednesday.
Yesterday, East-West Center senior fellow Denny Roy, an expert on northeastern Asia security issues, said he believed Campbell meant Obama’s meeting with the governor was about the relocation of troops from Okinawa and the coming military buildup.
Roy said he didn’t think any other Guam issue would really warrant the president’s time, but the movement of troops out of Okinawa is creating conflicts between the United States and Japan.
“(The troop realignment) is an important enough issue for the president to make time to meet with the governor of Guam,” he said. “There may well be other issues, but I have to think this is the principle way that Guam is salient to the president of the United States — as the host for military bases.”
Roy said he didn’t think Obama would have the time to make a public address or answer questions from local residents. The White House has announced that Obama will visit Guam in late March, but no official arrival date has been confirmed, according to e-mails from the offices of the governor and Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo.
The East-West Center is a congressionally established think-tank in Hawaii designed to promote relations and understanding between Asia, the Pacific and the mainland.
Roy specializes in strategic issues in this region, and the troop realignment is one of the biggest as of now, he said. The transfer of troops out of Okinawa has grown to be about more than just service members and military bases, he said.
Concessions
To preserve a strained relationship with an important ally, the United States must make some concessions in Okinawa, he said. At the same time, the United States cannot forfeit influence in this strategically and economically important region, so the troops must go somewhere nearby, he said.
Moving Marines from Okinawa to Guam is Plan A — and there really is no Plan B — so Obama needs to make Plan A work, Roy said.
So any concerns that threatened to derail the buildup in Guam, such as those raised by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month, could have an impact on relations with Japan, he said.
In a Feb. 17 letter to the Department of the Defense, the U.S. EPA said the plans for the buildup in the draft Environmental Impact Statement are “environmentally unsatisfactory” and provide “inadequate information.”
The letter stated that:
- The influx of 79,000 people by 2014 could create a drinking water shortage or overwork the island’s aquifer.
- The military should help plan and pay for the wastewater upgrades that will be needed to treat the increase in sewage.
- And the military is underestimating how much coral must be dredged to make way for aircraft carriers in Apra Harbor.
If the concerns aren’t addressed, U.S. EPA will take the issue to a White House council that acts as a referee when federal agencies disagree on major matters.
The Council of Environmental Quality is led by Obama’s chief environmental adviser.
Roy wasn’t aware of these U.S. EPA concerns, but if they threatened to disrupt realignment plans, they are worth Obama’s personal attention, he said
“If there has been recent evidence that this going to have a serious negative impact on the quality of life in Guam, that would help explain why this would be a weighty enough matter that the president of the United States would meet with a local leader,” Roy said.
‘Get this right’
Roseann Jones, a University of Guam economist, said she was inspired that Campbell mentioned economics and environment in the same breath.
For too long economists considered environmental impacts an afterthought or a hurdle in the way of progress, but now they should be core to any major plan, she said.
So far, most debates about the Guam buildup have weighed a tradeoff of economics versus environment, but now the president himself wanted to talk about preserving both, she said.
This bodes well for a better buildup, she said.
“What a great opportunity for Guam to demonstrate to the world that you can have significant economic growth while protecting the environment,” Jones said. “If we could to that, it would be the ultimate ‘being put on the map.'”
“If we could get this right — if Guam could be both a leader in economic advances and at the same time balance and sustain its incredible environmental resources, that would have global intentions,” she said. “The president coming here to talk about it nails it front and center on the agenda.”
Camacho’s office didn’t comment because officials from the White House have not confirmed a meeting between the governor and the president, according to an e-mail from governor’s spokeswoman Charlene Calip.
“The governor will make every effort to meet with the president and encourage a visit with the people of Guåhan, … ” Calip wrote.
Public address
Obama will meet with the governor while he is on island, but it is still not clear if he will talk to the rest of Guam.
It is unknown if Obama will give a public address or discuss buildup issues with other members of the government or community.
In the past month, several local senators and community group We Are Guåhan have made efforts to entice Obama off military property. Sens. Judith Guthertz, Rory Respicio, Frank Blas Jr. and Frank Aguon Jr. have urged Obama in letters to meet with the civilian population.
Yesterday, Roy said he thought it would be unlikely Obama could spare the time.
If Obama were to speak on Guam, he would have to sink hours into studying up on the island so he would not look uninformed, Roy said.
A massive amount of research is needed before every public address or town hall meeting, and the president would better spend that time preparing for his visits to Indonesia and Australia — where he will face questions, Roy said.
Taking questions in Guam would be “risky,” Roy said. Obama couldn’t be certain that a town hall meeting wouldn’t backfire and result in “negative media moments,” he said.
“There is a huge opportunity cost in investing his time in every issue he decides to take on (personally,)” Roy said. “It’s not at all sensible for him, given the other things on his mind, to set aside some hours to devote himself to boning up on issues of concern to get to the extent where he would be comfortable giving that kind of public appearance.”
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