This time it is Guam, but it is just another sad example of what happens when the U.S. military doubles its presence in the Asian-Pacific region and decides to build more bases.
In this video University of Guam Professor Michael Lujan Bevacqua details the environmental and societal devastation ahead for Guam if the U.S. proceeds to expand its military bases there (they already cover 1/3 of the island).
What happens to the people who are displaced? What happens to the land that is destroyed? What happens to the plant and animal life that is destroyed?
In America it is easy for activists to find ways to avoid dealing with the military boot print that is impacting people living near the 1,000 U.S. bases around the world. Sure we need to take personal responsibility by reducing our consumerist life style back here at home. That is an important step. But that does not alleviate the suffering that is happening today.
We also must find ways to stand in solidarity with people around the planet who are literally pleading with us to help them deal with the U.S. military machine that is being paid for with our tax dollars.
We must get real. Why can't we do more to call for an end to U.S. militarism?
Thank you for this Bruce.
ReplyDeleteIt's unbelievable that Obama is suggesting a freeze on domestic expenditures while increasing military spending to record levels and the US is planning to building military bases while local residents are in opposition to them in Okinawa, Jeju Island, Guam, Vicenza, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan -- and in other places?
And none of this is in the major media -- except for Okinawa which is framed as a "row" between the Japanese and US government which completely ignores historical, democratic, environmental and geo-political contexts. Japan and Okinawa already "host around 100 bases."