Dude, all I can say about George Bush and this Island Bombing range,is that i am dissapointed as hell that they would crumble to those 'Americans" the way he did . I thought he supported a strong military. I have the discomfort of saying I can't believe it but I am not suprised. What next? And what about those immediate pay raises. The Navy personnel on that island probably made the difference in this past election

Robert

I am also dissappointed. While we have other bombing sites, I dont think this will harm our combat readiness or proficiency, but I think Bush showed another sign of weakness when he decided to pull out. Fox News said that Bush said the protesters helped him make his decision. Thats a BAD thing.

However, I still support him, and I think he will still do a lot of good for our country. I think we should all stop and think about what would be happening if Algore was president. Thank GOD for Dubya.

First off let me state that I am a strong Bush supporter. On the other hand, I am also very vocal and am not afraid to express my displeasure with something I believe is wrong or was a bad decision.

Now, personally I think Bush probably did the right thing in respect to this decision. In reality its a damned if you do damned if you dont situation. Look at it from the point of the inhabitants of the island. How would you like it if you were raising small children that played outside all day and just a couple of miles away there were live munitions being dropped, with the occasional accident occuring where bombs/missles were going off the range and even killing people. How safe would that make you feel? Ill tell you right now, I would be pissed.

How hard is it going to be to replace a bombing range? How many thousands of square miles does the government own to test munitions in the middle of the Nevada desert? Areas which are many hundreds of miles away from any inhabitations where they can safely drop bombs and not even care if they happen to fall miles from the intended target?

Put yourself in the shoes of the people who live on the island. They have as much right to live in a safe place away from falling bombs as much as any other American. I wonder how people who are so short sighted to even see how this could affect those people are able to even read these posts. It was a bad place to put a range in the first place and the people were finally fed up with it.

I don't see how this will affect out militaries readiness at all. That notion is simply rediculous, they will simply train somewhere else.

Michael

The problem is that the protests have wrongly been associated with the likes of Al Sharpton. The point is that, would you like munitions flying over your town and blowing up so close you can hear them. In addition, there have been alot of injuries and deaths, not just the most recent one. Bush made the right decision. Before you speak, go live in Vieques for a while. You'll agree with Bush very quickly. There is also the issue of D.U. Cancer levels are much higher on Vieques than they were before the advent of D.U. Yet the military claims its safe. Hell, its still 40% radioactive. But, the data shows that it causes Gulf-War Syndrome and other diseases. The Navy can easily find a replacement. This is not a sell out of the military it is doing something that should have been done years ago. By the way, bombing on Culebra (Just north of Vieques) was stopped by Ford after a bomb was 'accidently' dropped in the town reservoir. The government had to pay to build 'em a new reservoir. Simply put, my father was born in Georgia, but moved to Vieques as a child and grew up there. He left in 1968, and returned to the mainland U.S. He saw what happened when Vieques was really used (Early Vietnam War.) Innocent civilians were hurt or died so that SF and Marines could train on Vieques. I know that good training is necessary. But an inhabited island is unacceptable. The Navy used to have another island near Hawaii all to themselves. The only problems, ancient burial grounds. Hell, they were dead already, yet we gave it back. That was wrong, artifacts aren't worth a lack of training, but don't risk innocent civilian lives. Perhaps they could find an island all to themselves. Then I say go for it and blow it to hell. If no civilians are in danger, drop whatever you want, all you want.

I think one of the only reasons Al Sharpton went there in the first place is because he believed that Bush would make the right decision. Therefore, before the decision was made he ran down there and made a big deal about it, so it would look like he was actually doing something instead of just sitting around being the piece of shit he really is.

Don't think Bush "caved" in to the likes of Reverand Al, he simply made a wise decision to protect the wants and rights of American citizens.

Michael

Have we even been able to use the range in the past few years? I constantly see these "human shield" hippie protestors in their tents out there.