Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
Jeju Island International Peace Conference
24-26 February 2012
United States’ military strategy in the East Asia and U.S. military
bases in Hawai’i and Guam
By Bruce Gagnon
Coordinator of the Global Network
Let me begin by saying what an honor it is to be here on Jeju Island with all of you. We
are happy to be able to show support for Gangjeong villagers and to bring the good
wishes of our many friends back home.
Dave Webb and I just came from Hawaii where we were joined by another Global
Network board member, Lynda Williams, who is a physics teacher in California. The
three of us got a tour of the island of Oahu where we learned more about the growing
role of the Pentagon’s Pacific Command that is headquartered there. PACCOM, as it is
called, is now in charge of Obama’s massive military “pivot” of U.S. foreign and military
policy toward the Asia-Pacific region.
While in Hawaii we also visited the island of Kauai, where US Navy Aegis warships test
their Missile Defense (MD) systems at the Pacific Missile Range Facility. This base is the
world's largest training range. It is the only range in the world where subsurface, surface,
air and space vehicles can operate and be tracked simultaneously. There are over 1,100
square miles of instrumented underwater range, and over 42,000 square miles of
controlled airspace. It is clear that the Pentagon has big plans for the Asia-Pacific region.
MD (really missile offense) is a key part of U.S. first-strike strategy. If the U.S. were to
initiate a first-strike attack, MD is the “shield” that would be used to hit the retaliatory
launches. Missile defense systems have also proven to be capable anti-satellite
weapons and they are ultimately driving a new arms race with Russia and China.
The Pentagon is now encircling Russia and China with MD systems. Why Russia?
Could it be because Russia has the world’s largest supply of natural gas and significant
supplies of oil?
Why China? The U.S. knows it can’t compete with China economically. But China
imports more than 60% of its oil on ships. If the Pentagon can choke off China’s ability
to transport these vital resources, then the U.S. would hold the keys to China’s economic
engine.
Each year for the past several years, the U.S. Space Command has been computer wargaming a first-strike attack on China, set in the year 2016. The war game uses the new
military space plane that is now under development, and will be able to fly through space
from one side of the world to the other in just under an hour. In this computer war game,
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the Pentagon launches an attack on China’s nuclear forces. In reality, China has about
20 nuclear missiles capable of hitting the west coast of the U.S. In the game, after the
initial U.S. attack on China’s nukes, China fires its remaining retaliatory nuclear missiles.
It is then that the Pentagon’s MD systems, the shield, are used to destroy the remaining
Chinese nuclear weapons.
The Pentagon has positioned PAC-3 (Patriot) MD interceptors in Taiwan, in Japan, and
in South Korea. Aegis warships with MD systems are now or will soon be ported in
Australia, Japan, Guam, and South Korea. The proposed Navy base here on Jeju Island,
just 300 miles from China’s coastline, would become a strategic port for these Aegis
destroyers and other warships.
In recent years India, at the urging of the Pentagon, has created its own Space
Command. Copying the provocative language from the U.S. Space Command, India has
undertaken a crash program to build and test MD and anti-satellite systems. India’s role
is to help with this U.S. “containment” of China.
Despite pressure to cut spending, President Obama has made clear that he will put a top
priority on maintaining the U.S. military's dominant role in East Asia, which is evident in
the following actions.
The U.S. and the Philippines have just agreed to hold more joint military exercises and
U.S. troops will frequently rotate through that country.
In Australia, Obama recently announced that the U.S. would deploy 2,500 Marines in the
northern city of Darwin by 2016.
In Singapore, the U.S. Navy plans to forward-deploy littoral combat ships.
Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby recently said: "We're going to rebalance our
focus more to the Asia-Pacific, which is going to require a much more robust partnering
program than we've had in the past with many nations in that region."
This means that islands like Okinawa, Guam, Jeju, the Philippines, and Hawaii would
become further militarized in this so-called “partnering program” with the U.S. Pentagon.
In a major report just released, the Center for a New American Security called for
Washington to pursue a policy of “cooperative primacy” in the South China Sea.
“Diplomatic and economic engagement with China and others will work better when
backed by a credible military posture,” the report reads.
The South China Sea is considered one of the world’s most valuable and strategic
bodies of water. Long a rich fishing ground and now perhaps the world’s single most
important trading route, the South China Sea connects the Indian Ocean to the Western
Pacific through the Strait of Malacca.
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The Obama administration maintains that the U.S. has a “national interest” in preserving
freedom of navigation and open access in this region.
The report says that to maintain U.S. control, Washington should reverse the decline of
its Navy, and encourage its partners and allies in the region to strengthen their own
military capabilities and establish new security arrangements with each other so that the
cost of this increased militarization is shared among U.S. “strategic partners”.
The Chinese are watching all of these moves by the U.S. on the global chessboard and
they are not happy about it.
Chinese spokesperson Geng Yansheng had this to say in a statement last month:
"There is a movement towards greater peace and stability across the Asia-Pacific region.
"We urge the United States to follow the prevailing trend, take an objective and balanced
view of China and its military and behave cautiously and in a manner conducive to
developing good relations."
Today, the U.S. has almost almost 1,000 military bases around the world, including 108
in Japan and 82 in South Korea. To my knowledge, China has no significant military
bases outside of its borders.
The U.S. cannot afford to play this global military game any longer. Our social fabric in
North America is collapsing as the gap between rich and poor is rapidly widening.
People all over our nation are organizing as part of the Occupy movement and are
demanding an end of control by the 1%. We must call on the U.S. to close its military
bases and return its troops and weapons systems home. We must call for the
conversion of the war machine to peaceful and sustainable production.
The U.S. could prove its peaceful intentions by closing the Futenma base and
withdrawing its entire military presence on Okinawa; by closing all its bases in Japan; by
cancelling the multibillion-dollar base buildup on Guam and returning that island to the
people; by ending its long military colonization of the Hawaiin Islands, by withdrawing its
armed forces from South Korea and leaving north and south alone for real talks in
reunification, and of course the U.S. should withdraw its support for the development of
the naval base at Gangjeong village.
All of these demands must be made by our peace movements over and over again and
we must continue to find more ways to support one another. Meetings like this help us
expand our global peace networks that will overtime counter the power of corporate
globalization and its military arm that we have come to understand is none other than the
U.S. Pentagon.
Thank you.
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