Remember when Puerto Rico was raising hell about the US Navy using that
nothing little island just off the coast of Puerto Rico
for bombing
practices, which they had used for the past 75 years? Demonstrations were
held, Hollywood
left wingers, Al Sharpton, and his fellow demagogues went
down there to demonstrate to get the Navy out? I am sure it infuriated you
just as it did me at the time. Wellllllllllllllll, here is our revenge.
Always be careful what you ask for, you just may get it!
One of the many headaches that the U. S. has had was the Puerto Rican
Island
of Vieques. In the waning years of the Clinton Administration, Protesters
demanded that the US Navy abandon bombing and naval gun fire exercises that
had taken place on the largely uninhabited island for nearly seventy years.
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 Olmos,
Michael Moore and
Ramsey Clark, just to name a few.
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."
The following Feb, 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 have 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
the 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. We are
interested in both staying in Puerto Rico."
When asked, the Commander-in 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!
On February 21, 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.
does anyone know the German translation for
"Hasta la vista, baby?"
Oh, ain't it nice to see a government with guts and a good memory.
GOD BLESS AMERICA
