Posted on 05/14/2003 8:50:00 AM PDT by budanski
May 9, 2003: Bowing to political pressure, the Vieques bombing range in Puerto Rico was closed earlier this month. While there are bombing and artillery ranges all over the United States, this was the first time shutting one down because a popular political cause. Eventually the politicians caved. But it turns out there will be consequences. The nearby Roosevelt Roads naval base serves mainly to support ships using the Vieques bombing range. The base is being closed. The base provided 1200 local civilians with jobs, as well as 700 military personnel. The base put $300 million a year into the local economy. The jobs, and the navy ships and aircraft, are moving north to Florida, where an existing bombing range will be used. The weather conditions are not as placid in Florida as in Puerto Rico, meaning there will be more training delays for bad weather, and the waters off Florida are more crowded, meaning more expense to keep areas clear when the warships and warplanes are exercising. The governor of Puerto Rico complained about the loss of the jobs, but he and his fellow Puerto Rican politicians never got behind the navy with support to keep Vieques open, and apparently missed the fact that Roosevelt Roads would close as a result. Moreover, the activists who wanted Vieques closed thought that the bombing range would be cleaned up (unexploded bombs removed) so the area could be bought by developers and tourist facilities built. But cleaning up the old bombs is too expensive, and the Vieques range is being turned over to the Department of the Interior for use as a wildlife refuge. The fence around the range will warn people to keep out, because of hundreds (no one knows exactly how many) unexploded bombs and shells in there. Agitating to get Congress to appropriate billions to clean up the Vieques site is likely to fail, there being so many other more worthy things to do with the money.
From useful to useless in one fell swoop!
U.S. Congressman, Jose Serrano, told ABC's John Stossel that President George Bush will order the Navy to keep Roosevelt Roads Base open, regardless of how useless the Navy says it is.
Got to pander to the Hispanic vote don't you know?
Base Yes, Bombs No: Do Vieques Protesters Want It Both Ways?
As far as the billions required to clean the entire island of Vieques up for the developers, the panderers have that one figured out, too.
Vieques will be declared a 'Super Fund Site' by the EPA's, Christy Todd Whitman.
The Bush Administration will then see to it that as many billions of the U.S. Taxpayer's hard-earned dollars as are necessary are squandered on the clean-up of Vieques.
I doubt the Interior Dept. of the U.S. will own an acre on Vieques in 5 years.
The anti-American, ingrates in Puerto Rico will have the last laugh on the U.S. Taxpayers. They know how to work our system and to pressure our politicians.
Most U.S. Taxpayers don't have a clue.
Do they ever?
Bite your tongue!
The island's populated with approx. 4 million Leftist/Socialist/Marxist/Liberals that would hand control of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of our government to the Left for all time.
France
We owned 24,000 acres on Vieques and 11,000 on Puerto Rico at Roosevelt Roads. We've paid for billions of dollars in infrastructure at both installations.
We're going to give it all away for free after the EPA spends billions of dollars more of our money to clean it all up.
I see a lot of FReepers laughing on this thread, but we're the ones that are getting screwed.
From what I've been able to learn, they were a mix of greedy realtors,vote-hungry politicians, Fidelistas , and other assorted Marxists.
The Marxist contingent wanted the removal of Roosevelt Roads,from which US Naval patrols had run fairly effective interceptions of "cocaine ships", and from which Tio Fidel and his Merrymen could be kept under surveillance.
Now that the Navy has been removed, and money is getting tighter, the Marxists have fertile soil in which to sow their poison - on what is no-passports-required American territory.
For the people - a loss. For the Marxists, a win-win situation !
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