Calling Guam a Pacific Paradise is perhaps a bit over-blown. This island, at the southern end of the Mariana chain, is reported to have lost much of its native fauna to the predations of the brown snake and one third of its territory is already under the jurisdiction of the United States military. But it could be a paradise, especially if future military activity is more protective of the environment than it has been in the past. We surely don't want to see a repetition of what's happened to Tarawa, one of the 24 small islands that make up the Republic of Kiribati.

Secretary Robert Gates paid a visit to Guam last week and it was well covered by the New York Times and other major papers.

Secretary Gates Visits Guam Military Base

By ERIC SCHMITT

Published: May 30, 2008

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam — Dipping low over this tropical island in a Navy helicopter on Friday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates gazed out over one of the largest American military construction projects in decades.

Over the next six years, the Pentagon is planning to spend $15 billion to upgrade and expand World War II-era air bases, barracks and ports, and carve out of the jungle new housing and headquarters to accommodate thousands of additional troops and their families who are scheduled to arrive.

Although the reporter was taken with the "underlying theme,"

An underlying theme of the trip, Mr. Gates said, will be “affirming that the United States is not distracted by our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from our long-term interests here in Asia.”

which caught the eye of the blogger, Springbored who was prompted to observe:

No region is more emblematic of the United State's distraction by the endless "Wah on Terrah" than the Pacific.

what caught my attention was this assertion,

It is all part of the military’s effort to remake Guam into a strategic hub in the western Pacific, underscoring both the increasing geopolitical importance of Asia to Washington as well as the Pentagon’s priority to project power from American territory rather than foreign bases.

While the buildup of facilities in Guam has been underway for some time, in part because Japan seems keen to see the back of the U.S. presence and is even willing to chip in six billion dollars to facilitate the relocation, his announcement that the U.S. intends to "project power" from American soil, rather than foreign bases, needs to be highlighted, since that's what the Air Force seems to see as its main mission.

How this policy shift fits into the news coming out of Iraq that the U.S. is trying to negotiate basing rights for some 50 facilities, isn't quite clear. After all, the original goal before the invasion was just 14. Perhaps it's just one of those bureaucratic ploys that's designed to get unequivocal citizen input.

A second American official in Baghdad said that the Iraqis appeared to be unwilling to make any concessions before the provincial elections scheduled for later this year that would seem to voters to be too accommodating to the occupying forces. “They are playing hardball right now,” the official said.

American and Iraqi negotiators are far apart on a number of issues, said Mr. Adeeb and another senior lawmaker close to Mr. Maliki, Haider al-Abadi, in interviews on Friday.

The Americans want to continue to have “a free hand” to arrest Iraqis and carry out military operations, and they want authority for more than 50 long-term military bases, Mr. Adeeb said. He said that he doubted that a security pact along the lines sought by the Americans would pass in the Iraqi Parliament.

Mr. Abadi, another senior member of Dawa, said Americans were insisting on keeping control of Iraqi airspace and retaining legal immunity for American troops, contractors and private security guards.

Blaming this position on Iran strikes me a bit disingenuous.

The United States official familiar with the negotiations accused Iran of orchestrating a disinformation campaign to undermine the negotiations, saying, “This is Iran’s playbook.”

Surely the Iraqis don't need Iran to tell them what's happening in their own country and they can count how many bases, munitions bunkers, radar installations, and satellite dishes there are on the ground. On the other hand, Iraqis seem to have a habit of identifying people according to their political sympathies. Which would account not only for the identification of Sunnis as "al Qaeda in Iraq," but for the characterization of certain Iraqi Shia as "the Iranians," much as Alabama natives might refer to New Englanders as "Yankees."

Perhaps because the New York Times has just discovered what's been planned for Guam, not just to accommodate Japan, but to anticipate having to vacate Diego Garcia, Globalsecurity actually has more information.

A U.S. territory more than 3,000 miles southwest of Hawaii, Guam offers a prime strategic location with ready access to potential hot spots throughout the Pacific as well as to U.S. allies, explained Air Force Brig. Gen. Doug Owens, commander of 36th Wing and Andersen Air Force Base. It’s two to five hours by air and two days by ship from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia and other key western Pacific locations.

This forward location reduces time required to respond to a crisis or contingency in the region. For example, one of the two Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft that delivered relief supplies to earthquake-stricken Chengdu, China, flew from Guam.

“This is not just another base,” a senior defense official traveling with Gates said. “This is a place where you can project power from the continental United States and Hawaii -- ships, aircraft and land troops, as well.”

Speaking of China, there's an interesting tidbit in connection with Tarawa, Kiribati.

The “China Space TT and C Station”, opened in 1997, is on a back road on Bikenibeu islet, near Tarawa’s airport. Responding to local concerns, in September 1999 Chinese officials opened their space telemetry tracking and command station on Tarawa atoll in Kiribati to inspection. The station in recent months had aroused local suspicion that it may really be intended to monitor the major US missile range at Kwajalein in the adjacent Marshall Islands....

The China Space Telemetry Tracking Station is fenced off and its dozens of workers live in a secure compound. When an AFP reporter was able to go inside the base in 1999 its satellite dishes were aligned northward toward Kwajalein. Inside there is a substantial two storey dormitory, currently occupied by three men but capable of many more. The station has a large power station with four generators -- enough electricity for most of Tarawa. There are two large satellite dishes mounted on military trailers with cables run into permanently parked buses in garages.

But, the Chinese are gone from Kiribati, which lies a bit east of Guam, for now. Sort of.

Beijing and Taipei's diplomatic maneuvers have left many in Kiribati with the sense that their country has become a battleground for Taiwan and China. Given that Taiwan's Vice President Annette Lu has described the cross-Taiwan Strait rivalry as "a state of quasi-war," it is not surprising that the archipelago nation would become a key actor in the two countries' strategic calculations.

At the heart of the issue is China's former satellite tracking station on Tarawa. This facility, formerly known as the China Space Tarawa Tracking and Control Station, was central to China's successful manned space flight in October 2003. But Taiwanese defense experts said it also has a less benign purpose.

"The base was designed to help China with its missile and space warfare programs," one military official told Pacific Magazine on condition of anonymity. "Now that it is gone, China will have real difficulties carrying on with its programs until a replacement site is designated."

So, Guam seems a much more practical location for U.S. military installations. Moreover, back in March 2008, Admiral Mullen did say U.S. forces have a plan to leave Iraq quickly.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told reporters Monday that the military has plans in case the nation elects a president who wants a fast withdrawal from Iraq.

‘‘We have plans. We plan all the time. We plan based on certain conditions, whatever they might be. That’s about all I would say about any kinds of plans we have for the future,’’ Mullen said.

And, while Senator John McCain says, "I'll never surrender in Iraq," that hardly seems the issue. Though he may have surrendered after he was shot down in Vietnam, where McCain needs to capitulate, if he doesn't want to be out of step, is in the several United States, whose citizens are ready for a change, as well.