US military spreads its wings in Asia

[dArKeR]

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, GUAM
Thursday, Apr 08, 2004,Page 16

Washed by a southwesterly Pacific breeze, a line of B-52 Stratofortress bombers stand parked on the hot tarmac here, their tails stenciled with "MT," a reminder that they flew here recently from the snows of Minot, North Dakota.

Away for more than a decade, the B-52s, the US' largest bombers, are back in Guam, part of a wide-ranging drive by the Pentagon to make this island, a US territory, a "power projection hub" on the edge of Asia.

"We are openly talking about putting a fighter wing there, a tanker squadron there, a Global Hawk group there," General William Begert, commander of Pacific Air Forces, said by telephone from Hawaii, almost 4,000 miles (6,437km) east of here. The Global Hawk is an unmanned surveillance plane.

"Guam, first of all, is US territory," Begert said. "I don't need overflight rights. I don't need landing rights. I always have permission to go to Guam. It might as well be California or New Jersey."

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2004/04/08/2003135884

[burrowowl]

1. Oh goody! (sarcasm)

are we going to carpet bomb Fallujah!? and other stratigic targets?!?!
Pacification during the VN war went into Cambodia, etc.