One reason I have pretty much parted ways with a lot of the mil-blogging community, is it unrelenting tendency to “pile on” on relatively minor issues while refusing to dig deeper on issues of major import to the military community. It has become almost an article of faith, that a milblog is supposed to echo the right wing party line-regardless of the issue.
A good example of this has been the repeated postings by various bloggers ridiculing Rep Hank Johnson from Georgia for asking whether Guam would “tip over” from the infusion of 9000 additional service personnel in the form of US Marines moved from Okinawa and additional USAF and Navy personnel who will be sent to the island.
Of course the island of Guam is not going to tip over. But not one-and I do mean not one-of these so called “expert” military bloggers dug a little further and asked the question that a lot of Congressmen should be asking of the psychopath the PACOM commander: “Why did the United States agree to this incredibly rotten deal in the first place? And second, Admiral Willard-why did you, with all of your Pacific expertise, not speak out publicly about the problems with this deal instead of quietly acquiescing to it, to continue your blind ambition to higher office?”
The deal that was signed for US Japan defense re-alignment is a bad one. Its really bad-and it in turn is creating the pre-conditions that have led to the current government of Japan turning to stone about relocating Futenma MCAS. There are, of course a couple of logical alternatives that would probably satisfy everyone-especially given the obscene amount of real estate the USAF controls in Okinawa. But we didn’t. And part of that is because of the other bad deals we agreed to.
Bad deal #1: Moving the FDNF Carrier Air Wing to Iwakuni. Stupid and completely unnecessary. If anything-that should be the unit moved to Guam. The air wing would have a better ability to train-including with live ordnance.
Bad idea#2: Not agreeing to move Marine aircraft to Iwakuni and Kadena. Between those two options all of the units could have been accounted for and no movement to Guam would probably have been required.
Bad idea#3: Trying to stick the government of Japan with whole bill for the move. You want to know what is at the heart of DPJ’s objections? That’s it.
Now each of these issues is worth a long blog post in discussion. But the issue for me in this post-is that for all of the condescension that comes from the mil-bloggers about one misinformed Congressman ( who may in fact be a lot smarter than anyone is giving him credit for-Guam is not prepared for its upcoming “invasion”), there is no one asking the really important questions.
Why are we doing this to ourselves? And why didn’t the senior leadership of the US government in 2005 and 2006 listen to the valid objections that were voiced by military personnel who actually had to make it work?
Mil–bloggers whine and whine about the current deficit. If they are so concerned about the monetary situation of the government they should definitely be concerned about these additional costs:
1) When Carrier Air Wing Five moves to Iwakuni-its going to cost you about twice what it used to cost you to move the air wing aboard USS George Washington. It is also going to cost you a lot more fuel dollars because Iwakuni does not have enough training airspace available for both the Marines and Navy. Add to that the additional costs of running new DODDS schools and a new hospital and intermediate maintenance facility. ( None of which would have been done if they had stayed put in Atsugi).
2) Guam is not ready to receive 9000 Marines and the family trail that comes along with them. Sure the Japanese are paying 6 billion yen for the initial construction-but the operating costs from then on, come from your tax dollars. Add on to that the added transportation required to get them to Korea if the balloon goes up.
3) That’s on top of the extra housing etc needed for the Marines and Navy and Air Force personnel that are coming. Don’t forget the need for additional DODDS schools since Guamanian schools suck.
4) There is still no new base for Marine helo’s. But take it to the bank-Futenma will close. That is going to be a problem.
5) And finally-as an extra added bonus, there will be repairs required to the Big Navy harbor.
Hear anything about that from mil-bloggers? Nope. And you won’t either-because the author of this idea was not the current occupant of 1600 PA avenue.