Friday, February 08, 2008

Federal Takeover Inevitable

Federal takeover inevitable
Guam Variety
Friday February 8, 2008

During the last two weeks, several historic milestones have evolved.

First, we witnessed the failed attempts of the Democratic eight majorities to wrest the Legislature's control by the six minorities.

Secondly, our delegate from Washington delivers her message on the "need for partnership with the federal government."

Thirdly, today's Variety Article (Feb. 7, 2008) "Guam left out of the loop on military buildup planning."

Perhaps, the three items appear unrelated to each other. The relevancy, however, is the matter of "timing." The clock is ticking loud, and no solution appears to be resolved.

The Legislative leadership's resolution does not appear on the horizon, and our delegate from Washington urged local-federal partnership, while the Feds work on the basis of the "need to know" --- negating the need for real partnership with the military buildup.

Having worked for the military as a civilian planner for several years, I learned that the military's mission function on Guam rest on the island's geographic location to serve our nation's defense interest.

This mission would be accomplished with or without the consent of the local population. And if, by circumstance, this benefits the locals, all is well, but not necessarily a contingent requirement.

Our delegate has repeatedly demonstrated this fact, through the several visitations of congressional delegations to Guam to primarily evaluate the capacity of the local military establishment, including the "scrapping of the CNMI Covenant with the U.S. Government" by the passage of the federalization law in CNMI, as part of the total military planning within our Asia-Pacific region.

The next apparent federal "targets" would be the FSM, Republic of Palau and Marshals. The eventual federal takeover is a matter of timing - it may not be in our time, but it will happen.

Joe T. San Agustin
Dededo, Guam

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