Votes and bombs

In a symbolic victory, the people of Vieques voted overwhelmingly Sunday to demand the immediate withdrawal

of the U.S. Navy and the cessation of the live-ammunition exercises that have pounded their tiny Puerto Rican island for six decades. In a petulant response, the Navy said the bombing would resume today.

More than 80 percent of the island’s 5,900 voters cast ballots on this highly emotional issue; more than 68 percent backed the resolution put forth by Puerto Rico Gov. Sila Maria Calderon demanding the Navy’s departure. Roughly 30 percent want the Navy to stay as is, while less than 2 percent endorsed President Bush’s reasonable but too-late plan to cease Navy operations in 2003.

Local resentment clearly is high, and understandably so. The U.S. military appropriated two-thirds of the 18-mile-long island 60 years ago, when the world was at war and when live-fire training for beach landings was necessary. Vieques was one of many inhabited places making this sacrifice then; today, it is the only such place.

Adding to the resentment, and to the explanation of why Mr. Bush’s plan was so utterly rejected, is the fact that Vieques is virtually unique among places hosting a military base in that is enjoys scant economic benefit. The gorgeous island is desperately poor – because the troops come in, train and then leave, with only a tiny ongoing presence, there are none of the

off-base businesses to provide opportunity; because two-thirds of the island is regularly subject to shelling and bombing, there is little tourism. Studies have documented the higher than normal levels of cancer,

infant mortality and breathing and skin diseases, but the Navy’s unscientific and biased response is that the studies are unscientific and biased.

The Navy has its supporters, including many in Congress who say that if Puerto Rico wants the benefits the military brings – in Vieques’ case, the theoretical benefits – this particular group of Americans must endure something no other Americans are asked to endure. The pro-Navy vote Sunday was based on nothing more than fear of retaliation, the entire campaign was one big threat of repercussions.

The Navy has had ample time to address this issue; a program to begin phasing out live-ammunition exercises at other populated places began during the 1970s. Resentment in Vieques took root when they were left out of that program; it has grown as they’ve watched the nearby island Culebra, once a live-ammunition range, prosper after the firing stopped; it exploded when a civilian was killed by errant bombs two years ago. After all that, the Navy’s recent offer of $100 payments to fishermen whose livelihoods are disrupted by the exercises is absurd.

The Navy lost more than a political campaign Sunday; it also lost its military-necessity argument. While Viequans were voting, deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said in a television interview that modern weapons make the tactics for which Vieques provides such essential training simply obsolete. They’ve been obsolete

for years, they’ll be obsolete when the Navy resumes the bombing today.