By Lee Webber
Last week I began my column with this sentence: “Si vis pacem, para bellum.” It is a Latin adage translated that means, “if you want peace, prepare for war”.
After chatting with some friends I thought that writing it again – with a different twist – would be a worthwhile effort.
As residents continue to work together through the environmental impact study timeline with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency this age-old adage is an excellent one to remember.
Guam is sitting on the cusp of becoming the location of the world’s strongest and likely most concentrated air defense system.
On a national scale, if you lived in New York and they built that in Alaska or North Dakota you may not give it much thought.
But when you live on a 212 square mile Island in the middle of the Pacific and the missile or radar sit next to your village or school it takes on an entirely different physical and mental dimension.
But again, there are basically two choices in life, you can either be prepared to win or do nothing and in so doing prepare to lose.
In such serious and potentially-adversely impactful events, it is always better to be prepared and to win than to lose.
In this case we (Guam) and the U.S. Military are apparently seeking the national dimension of “win” or “lose.” We are the proverbial canary in the mine!
This plan relates not just to Guam but rather to the entire free world.
It is also good to remember that there are costs involved (personal and global) in being prepared just as there are costs involved in not doing so.
To me, it makes much better sense to deal with and cover those costs, up front, in preparation than to end up paying dearly for not doing so should a serious event ever occur.
Living on Guam, the only piece of U.S. soil ever occupied by a foreign force, locally, we have a different perspective than those in the U.S. mainland.
Due to significant natural storms we have also learned to harden our homes and have backup water and power systems to prepare for such inevitable problems.
But this effort is much larger and far costlier to accomplish – but then it would be far costlier if we were not prepared.
What we really need to do is work closely together, understanding the extreme diversity of challenges to ensure that what we eventually (sooner than later) arrive at together is truly the best solution and placement.
Together we stand strong and divided we fail.
Guam has been a strategic location on the globe for hundreds of years. The majority of us have simply chosen to live in a very strategic and beautiful location in the middle of the Indo-Pacific region.
With that, in this day and age, comes certain preemptive safety requirements.
I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to walk the path of war, physical confrontation and the challenges those events carry with them as well as the path of peace in my life.
The majority of us have endeavored to raise our children (now adults with their own families) to understand the realities of life and not to wish things but to create what is necessary in any given set of circumstances.
Or, as Charles Dickens said, “The most important thing in life is to stop saying ‘I wish’ and start saying ‘I will.’ Consider nothing impossible, then treat the possibilities as probabilities.”
Knowing that whatever we create must be created in the best interests of the majority of our population, rather than a minority.
Take the opportunity to get out and meet with the military and Missile Defense Agency representatives and political officials. Ask them to explain this very complicated and precisio- based system that is planned for our backyards.
Always remind them that it is our backyard, while at the same time understanding that a backyard in a free republic is always better than a backyard under communist rule.
Take the time to do this for yourself and your family. Take every opportunity to remind them that doing this NOW would be good.
Guam is OUR home and it is imperative that we properly prepare it for the potential storms of nature as well as any unfriendly adversaries who may seek to change our current way of life.
The recent (August 3, 2023) Guam: Defense Infrastructure and Readiness report references the importance of this effort and what is needed (see pages 37 & 38).
Harden up Guam – Let’s make Guam Great Again!
Esta.
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Lee P. Webber is a businessman and civic advocate, the former publisher of the Pacific Daily News, a former president and publisher of the Honolulu Advertiser, and a former director of operations for USA Today International/Asia
