|
|||
|
The US has been interested in using the Lancelin Defence Training Area (DTA) for quite some time. In 1995 the commander of the US 7th Fleet Vice Admiral Archie Clemins came here specifically to inspect the Lancelin DTA with a view to its future use by US forces To quote
a story in the West Australian: The big attraction here is that they are allowed live firing including ship to shore bombing, and now it is intended also air to ground bombing. There are only 55 training ranges in the actual US that allow live firing and most only artillery fire. Only 6 allow Air to Ground and these are enormous areas out in the western deserts. Even so some like Fallon Air Base in Nevada have cancer clusters in the towns nearby. The children of Fallon are more than 100 times more likely to be stricken with leukemia then children elsewhere in the country They have closed all ship to shore ranges on the US mainland due to risks to public health and the environment. Even the uninhabited island of San Clemente 68 nautical miles off San Diego is under threat of closure due to the presence of several rare plant species. The only
site where they are allowed live air to ground and ship to shore bombing
is the Puerto Rican Island of Vieques, which is a territory, and its
citizens do not have a vote in US elections. The public health effects of this bombing of Vieques are horrific for example the cancer rate for children 11-19 yo is 256% higher than the rest of Puerto Rico There are numerous other illness that are more prevalent than the rest of Puerto Rico... eg heart disease 73% - hypertension 64% - diabetes 58% - there is no industry on Vieques the only possible source is the military training The military had agreed to cease bombing Vieques by May 2003 but since Sept 11th they now say they wont leave until they find a suitable replacement area! A suitable replacement is proving hard to find ...they have already been kicked out of bases and training areas all over the world and have left behind a trail of pollution and environmental health disasters. At the
International Grassroots Summit on Military Base Cleanup held in Washington
DC in 1999, Gary Vest, Assistant Deputy, Undersecretary of Defence for
Environmental Security, said Some other quotes from this summit :- "The United States is dumping hundreds of thousands of acres of contaminated military lands on host countries throughout the developing and developed world. At the height of the Cold War, the United States military operated some 370 major and over one thousand minor bases overseas. Military bases are often places of major industrial operations involving aircraft and warships operations, weapons, ordnance and equipment manufacture and maintenance, live fire practice and equipment training. The result is the toxic and hazardous contamination of the air, soil and water, which can threaten human health and the environment. Carcinogenic chemicals, mutagenic metals and unexploded bombs pepper nearly 300 closing American bases overseas. " "Unfortunately current US policy denies all responsibility for contamination and is generally uncooperative with efforts to investigate the pollution caused by its activities. " " The US spends $1.72 billion a year on base cleanups in the USA but even at that rate of spending on cleaning up its domestic mess, it could take a century to complete the task" The total budget in 1999 for overseas cleanup was barely $16 million. For example: - when they had to leave Panama in 1999 and they left a deadly contamination that includes large amounts of chemical weapons in the jungles and depleted uranium dispersed in the ground and air. It was for many years the site of an extensive chemical weapons program that included testing of VX gas mines, rockets and projectiles, and sarin rockets In the Philippines Manila Bay and the closed bases of Subic and Clark have been converted into some of the most contaminated places in Asia - and the US government refuses to take any responsibility for the environmental clean up. Today there are over 7,000 families living on what was a former vehicle maintenance yard at Clark Air Field in the Philippines, drawing water from shallow wells in what is likely to be contaminated groundwater. Rashes, still births and gastroenteritis are frequently reported maladies at Clark that can be linked to toxic exposure. A recent study by Dr. Rosalie Bertell of Toronto found that the communities surrounding Clark Field were experiencing abnormally high rates of kidney disease and low growth rates in children It is US policy to have a dress rehearsal before going to war ... in the past much of this has taken place at Vieques ...During the Vietnam War, for instance, the military used Vieques to practice carpet bombings and its ignoble napalm program... During the last war in Iraq and the on going bombing since the U.S. forces' "success" is said to be due to the troops' extensive dress rehearsals in Vieques Now with a replacement unable to be found on the Atlantic and another Iraq war looming it would seem Lancelin is an ideal replacement. The "wish list" was to expand the area to nearly double its size but in the face of public opposition the Federal govt backed down. Even so the expansion did not give a larger buffer between the community and the bombing. The Lancelin DTA is currently 30,000 ha Vieques is only 26, 000 acres ….. and the civilians in Vieques live 8.7 miles from the range, whereas in Lancelin some of us are only 8km away.
|
|||
 |
|||
"Vice
Admiral Archie Clemins, told The West Australian that traditional US
Training grounds around the world were disappearing and Australia was
an attractive option. Vice-Admiral Clemins has spoken with Australian
military officials about training here and personally inspected Lancelin
during a recent visit to Perth. "One of the greatest things we
lost in the Philippines were (bombing) ranges to train," he said.
"You have to have places to drop bombs, you have to have places
to shoot live weapons, places to fly planes over that make noise, places
where you can actually test and exercise your capabilities. "I
think Australia in the future is going to be one of the places we'd
like to exercise with the Australians, as well as with the US Navy.
"You now have some of the finest ranges in the Western Pacific
which we cannot get anywhere else. "