While not entirely obsolete, it is nowhere are important as it was back when the Atlantic/Mediterranean Fleets had to counter a huge Soviet presence. Everything that was done a AFWTF can be done elsewhere.
Serves the left right that they will be blamed for helping the US make the decision to leave.
I wonder what fat cat was behind the Vieques thing just to get a discount on some tourism property?
The irony is that five years from now, after Fidel is gone and a Free Cuba has opened up again, tourist locations everywhere else in the Caribbean are going to suffer greatly. Cuba is *really* nice and will dominate as a vacation spot among Americans. Vieques is a dry, dusty island... its most useful purpose what exactly what it was: a bombing range. Whoever thinks they will make money there opening a tourist resort doesn't have his (or her, maybe all this is Hitllary's idea?) head screwed on very tight...
Yep, there's some property speculators and corrupt politicians that look to make a lot of money on this U.S. Taxpayer rip-off. That's for certain.
You make a lot of good points about Cuba's eventual impact on the tourism industry in the Caribbean.
But don't forget the drug smuggling trade, though.
For the first time ever, the PR newspapers mentioned the dirty little secret that everybody knew. Most of the young men taking up fishing on Vieques are using their fishing boats to smuggle drugs.
The Navy was a big thorn in the side of the drug cartels. They want that Over-The-Horizon, 'HARP' radar installation on Vieques out of there, too.
I've heard reports that as much as 45% of our illegal drugs are smuggled through PR.
No doubt, a lot of the protests were funded with drug money.