ACCORDING to history Dr. Dirk Ballendorf, Guam was not fortified prior to WWI. Therefore leaving Guam vulnerable to foreign occupation, in that case, in the hands of Japan, is the implication. So if you don’t fortify, you risk getting invaded. And if you do, you are inviting others to launch a first strike?
Looks like we are going to be susceptible either way to evil, foreign or domestic, national or transnational. Which means people should be working together with their neighbors, both on Guam and neighboring nations to pre-erupt war which is usually brought by industrialists that go unchecked. And who does the fighting? Ordinary men and women who come from the farms and rural areas in the United States and Guam (Micronesia). Not sons and daughters of politicians and the elite class that have their friends in the media.
Another source of invitation to peace is religious fundamentalism. Many Christian conservatives would not have cheered Mr. Bush into the Iraq war. The president did not proclaim himself to be a born-again Christian in 1999 when he was laying the groundwork for the “power grab.”
Historically, empires and nations have crumbled when they overreach into long, unending war so much so that new constitutions are written up in their aftermath to throw religion out of public life (example: Ottoman Empire). And in the case of Japan and Germany, liberal pacifist constitutions where the occupying nation, in this case, the United States, still calls the military shots, if you will.
How would a Japanese, with his great national pride, feel in the 21st century that his nation cannot “get militaristic” like the days of yore? But even they don’t “hate” the United States because they have seen first-hand the fruits of economic success if the war budget does not become a central focus.
On Guam, we have “haters” in high places and low places, who seem to be never satisfied no matter what, when Guam does not have to worry about national defense just the economy. And do a “bang up” job with the better.

MATT PHILLIPS
Mangilao, Guam