Posted on 10/17/2006 8:15:37 AM PDT by 3AngelaD
Do you remember when Puerto Rico was raising heck about the US Navy usingthat 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. Well, 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, 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 February, 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, Yankee go home? Fine. But we'll take our dollars with us. Hasta la vista, baby!
Germany
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?" I think "Aufwiedersehen, liebshen" is a good translation.
Also, here are some statistics and conclusions about a different subject. If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theatre of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.
The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000 for the same period.
That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. Capitol, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are in Iraq.
Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington.
"U.S. Navy, get out of Puerto Rico."
Most of us wish we were as successful with the "USA out of the UN" issue.
Couldn't agree more. Move it to Caracas.
The stupidity and uselessness of the liberals never ceases to amaze me -- and somehow they survive...
Paybacks are hell.
ping for later - excellent email
The station was closed on March 31, 2004.
The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000 for the same period.
Our troops in Iraq are heavily armed and live in military bases. DC residents do not.
close the bases where we're not needed nor wanted. they can all get stuffed anyway. i grew up in singapore for the first third of my life and wondered why the u.s. didn't have a base there like the poms and the aussies - afterall, we were sandwiched between 2 nutter muzzie countries - malaysia and indonesia. thankfully, singapore and the u.s. got smart and opened up a small base there.
Yet!
Mind boggling, isn't it?
The story you posted was slightly embellished, but is largely true.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/vieques.asp
I did not write this, so I did not "get" the firearm death rate. It is probably fairly easy to find on the internet.
They said, "Don't come back here, Yankee!"
But if I ever do, I'll bring more money, cuz all she wants to do is dance (and make romance)
A common misconception. They are no longer alive. They merely vote.
The email isn't specifically dated, but the 22 month mark in Iraq would have happened in January, 2005. This isn't one of those round the world emails, is it? I thought the Puerto Rico story was about that old anyway.
Ah, the laws of unintended consequences. Gets the libs every time.
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