[Voice of the Observer Network]
In June, when the United States took historic military action against Iran, the world’s eyes were once focused on a Pacific island thousands of kilometers away: U.S. officials at the time claimed that invisible bombers had been deployed to the air base in Guam.
For residents of Micronesia, which belongs to the so-called "second island chain" of the United States and is located in the central and western Pacific Ocean, this military feint just confirms their deepest concerns about the existence of the United States here. They are worried that the peaceful island on which they rely for survival is becoming a "pawn" in the United States 'geopolitical game.
The island chain strategy was first formulated by the United States in the 1950s to contain the former Soviet Union and China. The first island chain extends along the East Asian coastline, from the Kuril Islands through Japan, Taiwan Island and the Philippines to Kalimantan Island. The second island chain lies further east and includes a major U.S. military base on Guam, the U.S. territory. The chain extends to the Mariana Islands, Palau and New Guinea.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the United States is dispersing military assets to other Pacific islands to prevent attacks in Guam, and Palau is also included in this arrangement, but not everyone is willing to accept the growing number of U.S. military assets.
“Moving these infrastructures for war to Palau is like pushing us to the center of the battlefield,” Ann Singeo complained to ABC, “in their (American) eyes, we are nothing more than war shields (for counter-China) that can be thrown away at any time.”
Former U.S. House Representative for Guam, Robert Underwood, also said that the incidents in Guam have made it clearer for people to realize that “when a conflict breaks out, they are just ashes.”
Talking about the U.S. Secretary of Defense's description of the island chain islands as the "tip of the American spear" in the Pacific Ocean earlier this year, Underwood bluntly said,"Guam is the spearhead and the target."
Palau is located in the Western Pacific between Japan, Australia and the Philippines.
According to ABC, the United States is currently rapidly expanding its military presence in Micronesia, building radar facilities, upgrading ports, and restarting World War II-era airstrips.
This tropical paradise, located in the south of Palau, has less than 200 inhabitants. During World War II, the inhabitants of the island were hiding in a cave shelter where the U.S. military built an easy airport with bulldozers to fight the Japanese and regain control of the island.
Today, peace has long returned to the island, but the bulldozers are back: the U.S. military is building a facility on the island called “Tactical Moving Range Radar” to detect attacks and deploy fighter jets along the “Second Island Chain.”
This time, local people are worried that the cave can no longer protect them.
Natus Misech, the administrator responsible for managing the island, told ABC there was "great concern" that radar would make it a target of conflict.
Elsewhere, too, Palauans are resisting the destructive side effects of U.S. military expansion.
Seven Palau high school students jointly filed a legal complaint with the United Nations, accusing the U.S. military of damaging the local environment and indigenous culture and allegedly violating human rights.
Imaim Ngiraboi, 17, said they want U.S. troops to "be held accountable for their actions." "Not only do they destroy the environment, they also destroy the lives of local people", she said.
U.S. Ambassador to Palau Joel Ehrendreich argued that the U.S. is committed toining transparency and fulfilling environmental responsibilities, adding that the U.S. has "actively communicated with residents" to answer questions.
However, residents of Angor Island also complained in an interview that the U.S. military only conducted minimal consultations with the community before building radar facilities there.
At the same time, the United States 'reduction in foreign aid projects to the region has also caused many dissatisfaction. Some Palauans also told ABC that although the United States has invested billions of dollars in military deployments in the Pacific, these military expenditures have never benefited Palauans who have served in the U.S. military.
Norvert Yano, who continues to run on the health care of Palau veterans, says that Palau veterans have never had the same medical services, benefits and support as native veterans in the United States.
Yano served in the U.S. Special Forces for 27 years and is currently chairman of the Palau Local Veterans Association. He complained that U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins had the right to allocate relevant funds as long as he "wanted", but he was "not sure whether the United States really intended to provide these benefits."
Unlike the Palau administration, Singo did not think that the Palau situation with U.S. protection would be better.
“The environment has suffered,” she said, “and in the end, the people of these communities will pay too.”