 he
U.S. Navy may soon be forced to cease critical training in Vieques,
Puerto Rico, on land they have used since World War II. President
Bush told reporters at a June 15th press
conference: "My attitude is that the Navy ought to find somewhere
else to conduct its exercises — for a lot of reasons."
How did this
controversial decision happen? There are three reasons.
First, a good
part of the Clinton-Gore team still remains in place at the Department
of Defense, as a look at this June 13th White House press
release demonstrates. Team Bush is still awaiting its own folks
in all too many key slots.
The Clinton
holdovers served an administration who readily placed political
considerations, both real and imagined, above the needs of America's
national security. Such people are likely giving Team Bush the same
advice they provided to the Clintonistas.
Second, there
are a number of Republican strategists who have decided that winning
the "Hispanic vote" is essential to future Republican
dominance. Accordingly, any issue that provokes a complaint from
any person of Hispanic persuasion becomes radioactive.
This sort of
pandering is based on a false assumption. There is really no "Hispanic
vote" as such. Gregory Rodriguez of the New American Foundation
explained why in the March 11th Bergen (NJ) Record:
Latinos don't
have either the shared suffering and oppression that made the
African-Americans and Jews each become one people, or the ethnic
narrative that Jews have. The Republicans learned that after the
1996 election, when they said, "What will we do about Hispanics?"
and Newt Gingrich decided to talk about making Puerto Rico a state,
not knowing that Puerto Ricans might care, but other Hispanics
would not. Mexicans don't give a damn about whether Puerto Rico
becomes a state.
Since people
like Karl Rove have elected a president and I haven't, let's look
at the exit poll
numbers from the 2000 election. Hispanics voted 80%-18% for Gore
over Bush in New York State, but Bush beat Gore among Florida Hispanics
by 49%-48%. One suspects, correctly, that Cuban-Americans in Florida
were far more interested in Elian Gonzalez than Vieques.
The third reason
for this startling decision may well be that Rove is not getting
the whole story. Rove is a sophisticated political tactician. Rove
was also busy doing other things during the 1998 congressional debate
on statehood for Puerto Rico and the 1999-2000 debate on Vieques
and must depend on others for information.
Unfortunately,
some of the people who may be advising Rove were working hard on
behalf of the interests of Puerto Rico's statehood-party governor
during those years, interests which included urging the Navy to
give up its Vieques land. (Puerto Rico spent
freely to advance its interests in Washington.)
If conservative
gatherings lately are any indication, Team Bush has been getting
an earful about how pro-American and conservative Puerto Rico's
statehooders are and that the Vieques issue is a plot by pro-independence
Puerto Ricans.
Seldom do these
speakers mention that statehood party governor Pedro Rossello asked
the United Nations to order the Navy out of Vieques in 1999 and
solicited the aid of Fidel Castro. They hope their listeners have
forgotten Gov. Rossello's October 19, 1999 statement
that "not one more bomb" would be allowed on Vieques as
well as his threats against U.S. Sen. James Inhofe (R., OK).
Rev. Al Sharpton
praised President Bush for "validat[ing] what we have been
saying all along, that the Navy can do these exercises elsewhere,
and it is not necessary to continue these exercises in Vieques."
Thankfully, "Admiral" Sharpton will not have the last
word on this matter.
Navy officials
considered the exercises so vital that they threatened high-profile
resignations when Clinton suggested a similar withdrawal in 1999.
Sen. Inhofe, Rep. James Hansen (R., UT) and other pro-defense congressmen
and senators may have something to say about this new Vieques policy
as well. Stay tuned.
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