 Hasta la vista, Baby.
One of the many headaches that George W. Bush inherited from his
predecessor was the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. In the waning years
of the Clinton administration, protesters demanded that the U.S. Navy
abandon bombing and naval gun fire exercises that had taken place on the
largely uninhabited island for nearly seventy years. It became a leftist
cause. 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 Olomos, Michael Moore and
Ramsey Clark, just to name a few. Hillary Clinton, then running for the
U.S. Senate in New York, chastised the U.S. Navy for not bowing to the
"will of the citizens of Puerto Rico", until her husband, a week before
the election, issued an executive order to phase out the facility by
2003, despite pleas from his own Secretary of Defense and the Chief of
Naval Operations. 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." On February 21, Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced that the U.S. Navy will close the
Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station in Puerto Rico in 2004, eliminating
1,200 civilian jobs as well as 700 military positions. This naval
facility is estimated to 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, Yankee 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 W?berg, 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." Whatever. 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).
Thanks, George. Keep up the good work.
Thanks to Chief Morey of the LP San Diego Bureau for this one.
8:07:51 PM 
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