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Training deaths at Fort Drum, New York, were the first topic at a hearing by the Subcommittee on Readiness of the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 21st. "We need to train the way we will fight," said Dr. Paul Mayberry, the deputy undersecretary of defense and representatives of the armed services agreed, despite risks demonstrated just the previous day. At that same hearing, senators were reminded that potential uses of U.S. troops were inherently unpredictable. Secretary Mayberry mentioned that America was using "soldiers on horseback" in Afghanistan. The issue of continued military training on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, can only be understood in this context. The U.S. Marine Corps must be certified for 23 different missions, including storming a beach against a hostile enemy. This sort of assault has been practiced on Vieques since World War II until three years ago this month, when a Puerto Rican security guard, David Sanes, was accidentally killed by an errant munition. Since April, 1999, the island's three major political parties (Statehood, Commonwealth, and Independence) have agreed that the U.S. training must be removed from Puerto Rico. This rare unanimity, along with the concentration of Puerto Rican votes in places like New York, Chicago, and Florida, has gained the "U.S. Out of Vieques" crusade support in unlikely places. Rep. Rod Blagojevich (D., Ill.), now running for governor of Illinois, wrote President Bush a letter last month urging an executive order ending the training. As a Republican, New York's governor, George Pataki, was able to do much more. According to the American Prospect:
While practicing
politics is part of any politician's job description, one would hope that
the international impact of the expulsion of the American Navy from American-owned
soil could be taken into account as well. Inhofe might well have also been referring to the efforts of Cuba to get the United Nations "to order the halt of [United States] armed forces' military drills and maneuvers on Vieques Island." To no one's surprise, Cuba's resolution was supported by Iraq. A new spate of protests have begun as Navy bombing runs resumed earlier this week on the island. Nobel-Prize winnerRigoberta Menchu is going to be protesting Navy training in Vieques later this month. She'll likely be joined by the usual assortment of Hollywood types and liberal leading lights. These protests continue even though the Navy is using inert ammunition, per an earlier Clinton deal with Puerto Rico. (Military experts agree that this it is not as effective as live-fire training.) Unfortunately, the protests appear to be succeeding. The governor of Puerto Rico, Sila Calderon, said on Monday that President Bush has personally promised her that the Navy would leave by 2003 and "I believe in President Bush's word." A law passed by Congress, though, after Sept. 11, says the Navy can use Vieques until it finds an "equal or superior" alternative. And Calderon did urge "the people of Puerto Rico [to] remember the war-like situation that the U.S. is in." Of course, few of the "boot the U.S." crowd thought the United States would be in a worldwide war prior to Sept. 11. But some people did. They planned and trained and sometimes died in order to be ready when America needed them. Politicians of both parties should keep those brave people in mind as they decide the future of military training on Vieques. — Jim Boulet Jr. is executive director of English First. |
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