Raceman
04-23-2003, 09:45 PM
Subject: Be Careful What You Ask For....
>
> Another lesson learned the hard way:
> Be careful what you ask for, you just may get it!
>
>One of the many headaches that George W. Bush inherited from his
>predecessor was the Puerto Rican Island of Vieques. In the waning years of
>the Clinton administration, protesters demanded that the U.S. Navy abandon
>bombing and naval gun fire exercises that had taken place on the largely
>uninhabited island for nearly seventy years. It became a leftist cause.
>Liberal icons bumped into one another to fly to Puerto Rico, boat over to
>the island, trespass (but never on a day that there was an exercise
>scheduled) and get arrested for the benefit of the New York Times or
>Newsweek. They included the Reverend Al Sharpton, Mrs. Jesse Jackson, Joan
>Baez, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Edward Olmos, Michael Moore, and Ramsey Clark,
>just to name a few. Hillary Clinton, then running for the U.S. Senate in
>New York, chastised the U.S. Navy for not bowing to the "will of the
>citizens of Puerto Rico," until her husband, a week before the election,
>issued an executive order to phase out the facility !
> by 2003, despite recommendations to the contrary by his own Secretary of
>Defense and the Chief of Naval Operations.
>
>In 2002, the bombing exercises were transferred to an Air Force bombing
>range in central Florida, not far from the Jacksonville and Pensacola Naval
>Air Stations. In January, many of the protesters were back in Puerto Rico,
>celebrating the final bombing exercise on Vieques and waved Puerto Rican
>flags and placards that read "U.S. Navy, get out of Puerto Rico." On
>February 21, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced that the U.S.
>Navy will close the Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station in Puerto Rico in
>2004, eliminating 1200 civilian jobs as well as 700 military positions.
>This naval facility is estimated to put nearly $300 million annually into
>the local economy.
>
>The next day a stunned Governor Sila Calderon, held a news conference in
>San Juan, protesting the base closure as a serious blow to Commonwealth's
>fragile economy. The governor stated that "The people of Puerto Rico don't
>now or never did have an interest in closing the Vieques bombing range or
>the Roosevelt Roads naval base. My government is interested in both staying
>in Puerto Rico."
>
>When asked, Admiral Robert J. Natter, Commander-in Chief, Western Atlantic
>Command, said, "Without Vieques, I see no further need for the facility at
>Roosevelt Roads. None."
>~~~~~
>So, Yanqui go home? Fine.. But we'll take our dollars with us. Hasta la
>vista, baby!
>
> ... and then, this:
>
>On February 21, the Secretary of Defense announced that starting this year,
>the U.S. European Command would begin moving most if not all of its active
>combat and support units from bases in Germany to others being established
>in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Turkey to "better position them
>for rapid deployment to likely hot spots in those parts of the world".
>
>Immediately the business and government leaders in the German states of
>Hesse, Rhineland, and Wurttemburg protested the loss of nearly $6 billion
>in revenue each year from the bases and manpower to be displaced. A
>spokesman for the Foreign Ministry speculated that the move may be "what
>the Americans call 'payback' for the actions of this government in opposing
>military action in Iraq."
>~~~~~
>Does anyone know the German translation for "Hasta la vista . . . baby?"
>
>(I believe "auf weidersehen, "schatzi!" would be an acceptable
>transliteration)
>
>
> Another lesson learned the hard way:
> Be careful what you ask for, you just may get it!
>
>One of the many headaches that George W. Bush inherited from his
>predecessor was the Puerto Rican Island of Vieques. In the waning years of
>the Clinton administration, protesters demanded that the U.S. Navy abandon
>bombing and naval gun fire exercises that had taken place on the largely
>uninhabited island for nearly seventy years. It became a leftist cause.
>Liberal icons bumped into one another to fly to Puerto Rico, boat over to
>the island, trespass (but never on a day that there was an exercise
>scheduled) and get arrested for the benefit of the New York Times or
>Newsweek. They included the Reverend Al Sharpton, Mrs. Jesse Jackson, Joan
>Baez, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Edward Olmos, Michael Moore, and Ramsey Clark,
>just to name a few. Hillary Clinton, then running for the U.S. Senate in
>New York, chastised the U.S. Navy for not bowing to the "will of the
>citizens of Puerto Rico," until her husband, a week before the election,
>issued an executive order to phase out the facility !
> by 2003, despite recommendations to the contrary by his own Secretary of
>Defense and the Chief of Naval Operations.
>
>In 2002, the bombing exercises were transferred to an Air Force bombing
>range in central Florida, not far from the Jacksonville and Pensacola Naval
>Air Stations. In January, many of the protesters were back in Puerto Rico,
>celebrating the final bombing exercise on Vieques and waved Puerto Rican
>flags and placards that read "U.S. Navy, get out of Puerto Rico." On
>February 21, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced that the U.S.
>Navy will close the Roosevelt Roads Naval Air Station in Puerto Rico in
>2004, eliminating 1200 civilian jobs as well as 700 military positions.
>This naval facility is estimated to put nearly $300 million annually into
>the local economy.
>
>The next day a stunned Governor Sila Calderon, held a news conference in
>San Juan, protesting the base closure as a serious blow to Commonwealth's
>fragile economy. The governor stated that "The people of Puerto Rico don't
>now or never did have an interest in closing the Vieques bombing range or
>the Roosevelt Roads naval base. My government is interested in both staying
>in Puerto Rico."
>
>When asked, Admiral Robert J. Natter, Commander-in Chief, Western Atlantic
>Command, said, "Without Vieques, I see no further need for the facility at
>Roosevelt Roads. None."
>~~~~~
>So, Yanqui go home? Fine.. But we'll take our dollars with us. Hasta la
>vista, baby!
>
> ... and then, this:
>
>On February 21, the Secretary of Defense announced that starting this year,
>the U.S. European Command would begin moving most if not all of its active
>combat and support units from bases in Germany to others being established
>in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Turkey to "better position them
>for rapid deployment to likely hot spots in those parts of the world".
>
>Immediately the business and government leaders in the German states of
>Hesse, Rhineland, and Wurttemburg protested the loss of nearly $6 billion
>in revenue each year from the bases and manpower to be displaced. A
>spokesman for the Foreign Ministry speculated that the move may be "what
>the Americans call 'payback' for the actions of this government in opposing
>military action in Iraq."
>~~~~~
>Does anyone know the German translation for "Hasta la vista . . . baby?"
>
>(I believe "auf weidersehen, "schatzi!" would be an acceptable
>transliteration)
>