DEIS Perspective : What lies ahead are D.C.’s ‘pompous’ lies

DEIS Perspective : What lies ahead are D.C.’s ‘pompous’ lies

Monday, 25 January 2010 01:04
DEIS Perspective : by Tony Artero

(This is in response to Derick Hills,’ “DEIS Perspective: What lies ahead,” published in this section on Jan. 21.)

THIS draft environmental impact statement for the military buildup is with major misgivings. It is following the historic wrong “politically correct” practices and, like the mafia, it must be stop. Without changing our direction, fixing the problems, and doing everything right here on out will not be any different from the first buildup in the 1940s after World War II that left us in this dire state.

The people could not return to their once productive livelihood. The excessive land taking extinguished their chance to recover from the War.

The people were forced to start over, but under dependency upon the government for economic sustenance. The government officials’ struggle had always been in trying to create something from nothing.

Aside from the issues of war reparation and equal treatment, the economy had always been the top priority. Tourism was finally allowed after the lifting of the federal “security” restriction. The economy flourishes, but only for a few years.

I do not have any misunderstanding. No one can create something from nothing. The military economy, like tourism, come and goes without our say. Guam is now like a junky car along Marine Corps Drive. When the 80,000 people with the Marines arrive, Guam will be a bombed-out junk car with us in it.

The thinking of Guam’s strategic location is now obsolete with the militaristic technologies we have today, but Guam's "strategic location" theory is still the perfect, yet lame, excuse to continue the discrimination against Guam's indigenous people. This excuse will never put America back to work. If Guam is truly strategically located real estate for America’s defense, why abandon the Declaration of Independence? America is shooting itself in the heart.

This military buildup is the U.S. government pushing its agenda, which will not even be a window-dressing to Guam's World War II battle wounds. Guam will be overrun again.

Washington D.C. is still full of pompous lies. Okinawa is closer to the “hot spot” than Guam will ever be. Besides, Guam’s strategic location is not defending America. Just the opposite, attacks by terrorists started with the bombing in Oklahoma City on 4-19-1995, which signals the dawning of America’s downfall, but the beat goes on. The attacks on 9-11 show that America’s sword diplomacy is a failure, but the beat still goes on.

The conditions on Guam have been spiraling downward since WWII and will spin even faster with the dramatic changes this military buildup will bring to us. The United States of course thinks mainly of its own benefit. The consequences on us are of minimal concern. However, the federal deficit is sky rocketing with “security” that is more questionable and the global economy in chaos.

If there ever was a time when enlightenment was needed, it is now.

(Tony Artero, a retired submariner with the U.S. Navy, is a resident of Agana Heights.)