On May 5, 2:55=EF=BF=BDpm, Capitalist Pig <cochon-capitali...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
> Puerto Rico was raising heck about the US Navy using that nothing
> little island just off the coast of Puerto Rico for bombing practices,
>
> which they had used for the past 75 years ?
>
> Demonstrations were held; Hollywood left wingers, Al Sharpton, and his
> fellow demagogues went down there to demonstrate to get the Navy out?
>
> I am sure it infuriated you just as it did me at the time. Well, here
> is our revenge. Always be careful what you ask for, you just may get
> it !
>
> One of the many headaches that the U.S. has had was the Puerto Rican
> island of Vieques . In the waning years of the Clinton Administration
> protesters demand that the US Navy abandon bombing and naval gunfire
> exercises that had taken place on the largely uninhabited island for
> nearly seventy years.
>
> In 2002, the bombing exercises were transferred to an Air Force
> bombing range in central Floridanot far from Jacksonville and
> Pensacola Naval Air Station s. 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."
>
> The following February, 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 have 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 the
> 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. We are
> interested in both staying in Puerto Rico .
>
> When asked, the Commander-in-Chief, Western Atlantic Command, said,
> "Without Vieques, I see no further need for the facility at Roosevelt
> Roads. None."
>
> So, Yankee go home? Fine. But we'll take our DOLLARS with us. Hasta la
> vista, baby !
>
> On February 21, the Secretary of Defense also 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, Rinelandand Wurttemburg, protested the loss ofnearly $6
> billion US revenue each year from the bases and manpower to be
> displaced. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry spec ulated 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 think "Aufwiedersehen, linesmen" is a good translation.
>
> Oh, isn't it nice to see a government with guts and a good memory ???
>
> Also, here are some statistics and conclusions about a different
> subject.
>
> If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in
> the Iraq theater of operations during the last 22 months, and a total
> of 2,112 deaths, when this was written) that gives a firearm death
> rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.
>
> The firearm death rate in Washington D. C. is 80.6 per 100,000 for the
> same period. (...and that was while handguns were outlawed!!)
>
> That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in
> the U. S. Capitol, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in
> the nation, than you are in Iraq.
>
> PASS THIS ON 'cuz you can be sure that CNN,NBC, ABC and CBS won't!
> Conclusion: Just maybe the U.S. should pull out of Washington ,
> D.C. !!!!
Thanks for this reminder. Good job.
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