did you know we are paying 10 bil. to build a new base on Guam?

[donsu]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/HK17Ae01.html

Into the breach again: US looks to Filipinos


When the United States moves to downsize its military facilities in Okinawa, Japan, and begin construction on new military bases designed to house 8,000 marines and their families on the Pacific island of Guam, Filipino construction workers will likely do most of the heavy lifting.

(slave labor)

In September, Philippine labor officials accepted an invitation from Guam - a US territory - to discuss hiring 15,000 Filipino construction workers to work on the new military facilities, including barracks, administration buildings, schools, training sites, runways and entertainment establishments. On-land construction activities on Guam are set to begin early next year and the estimated US$10 billion project is scheduled for completion in 2014.

The US Congress' Overseas Basing Commission had earlier estimated that the cost of relocation and building the new base in Guam, including facilities for a new command post and housing for the marines' family members, at about $2.9 billion. For undisclosed reasons, the US military now says the total cost will be closer to $10 billion, of which Japan has agreed to shoulder 59% of the bill. Cheap Filipino labor, it is believed, will help bring down those spiraling costs.

(why ever would the Japanese pay 59% of the cost?)

If the deal is done, it will mark the latest big hire of Filipino workers by the US military and its affiliated business interests. The US has employed more than 7,000 Filipino workers - nearly half of them undocumented - in its four main military camps in Iraq, according to Philippine labor officials. Neither the Philippine nor US governments has publicly owned up to how thousands of Filipino workers have slipped into Iraq and found work on US military facilities.

(I've posted an article before telling how they get the Filipinos into Iraq)
-snip-
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I want to know what Dems voted for this.

and the military industrial barons keep raking in our cash.

[Horse with no Name]

1. Why do we need a new base in Guam?

Out of curiosity?

[donsu]

2. money, money, money

nt

[bigscott]

3. easier to bomb Tokyo

as revenge for Pearl Harbor

[Benhurst]

4. When you are The World's Only Superpower, you have money

to burn on the military, especially if you don't provide squat for medical care and social services for your own people.

[plcdude]

5. North Korea

I think that about sums it up.

[rkc3]

6. You could probably make a case for China too.

They hold a big, big chunk of our debt. If they do anything stupid, like ask for their money back or get better returns on financing our debt, this country would be in serious trouble.