Organizing Notes

Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....

My Photo
Name:
Location: Brunswick, ME, United States

The collapsing US military & economic empire is making Washington & NATO even more dangerous. US could not beat the Taliban but thinks it can take on China-Russia-Iran...a sign of psychopathology for sure. We must all do more to help stop this western corporate arrogance that puts the future generations lives in despair. @BruceKGagnon

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

OKINAWA BASE ALSO CAUSES PROTEST


This video is about another controversial military base in the Asian-Pacific. This one is about a U.S. Marine air field that is also now under development in Henoko on Okinawa, Japan.

In this case the air field would extend out into the ocean and destroy coral and habitat of the Dugong sea mammal.

Okinawa is loaded with U.S. military bases already and the people want them all closed.

The similarity to the fight in Okinawa and on Jeju Island is striking. But the real question is why are these bases being built? Is it because of North Korea?

Absolutely not. It is because the U.S. Pentagon is now doubling its military presence in the Asian-Pacific as it attempts to encircle China's coastal region. This aggressive U.S. move for global domination is being resisted by the people in South Korea, Japan, and Guam (where other U.S. bases are being dramatically expanded.

The U.S. base at Futenma is one of 30 bases in Okinawa, an island that makes up only 1% of Japan’s land mass while shouldering the burden of 75% of the U.S. military installations in Japan. That presence includes over 28,000 American troops, rivaling the number deployed to the active war zone of Afghanistan.

In the case of Jeju Island in South Korea it is the South Korean government building the base as a homeport for Aegis destroyers. With full confidence we can say that U.S. Navy Aegis destroyers (made right here in Bath, Maine) will also be ported at the new base on Jeju primarily due to its proximity to Chinese shipping lanes which they use to import 80% of their oil. These Aegis ships carry "missile defense" systems whose job is to take out China's nuclear retaliatory capability after a U.S. first-strike attack. Hard to believe I know, but the Space Command has been annually computer war gaming such an attack in recent years.

U.S. Secretary of War Robert Gates comments were quite revealing last spring when he said, "We're converting more ships to have ballistic missile defense that would help against China."

Put the pieces of the puzzle together and see the writing on the wall.

A second excellent video about U.S. militarism on Okinawa

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home