IT’S revolting to watch the ongoing attempts at damage control by our elected officials as they scramble to downplay their not-inconsequential part in generating radical downward revisions in the proposed Okinawa/Guam troop realignment. Others have tiptoed around this issue. It’s time to call it what it is.

For years, certain elements here – including Sens. Cruz, Respicio, Won Pat, Guthertz and Pangelinan, with help and support from Muña-Barnes, a Republican or two and local activists – have done their best to obstruct and derail buildup plans. They’d like you to believe that their incessant whining about ‘inside versus outside the fence’ war reparations, the reconsolidation of public schools, reversion of military water resources, the Pågat fiasco and countless other protestations and demands had nothing whatsoever to do with what’s now happening as Marines and other troops are diverted to alternate locations: the Philippines, Australia, Hawaii, and elsewhere.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Those in the know – including those actually privy to private conversations and opinions and views expressed by Sens. McCain, Levin and Webb following their Guam visit – can tell a much different story. You won’t find those views spelled out in any formal reports. That’s not the way they do things. The fact remains that there’s a disproportionately vocal and politically influential dissident faction in Guam opposed to anything military, those who make final decisions on America’s global military posture know it well, and we are now seeing the effect.

It’s not difficult to identify the more reactive and short-sighted involved. Recall, if you will, Sen. Guthertz’s short-lived proposal to erect toll booths at every federal facility on Guam. Miffed at some perceived slight, she attempted to use her elected position to “punish” those responsible. Or perhaps you read Sen. Won Pat’s address to the United Nations wherein she accused the United States government of 50 years of “economic exploitation and political oppression” and hinted at atrocities and war crimes. And then there’s Gov. Calvo’s letter to that same UN gathering that claimed: “We have been dealing with taxation without full representation, with quasi-citizenship and partial belonging.” To what taxation does he refer? What, precisely, is the nature of his “quasi-citizenship and partial belonging?”

Consider remarks by Ed Alvarez, Decolonization Commission executive director, at the 2011 UN Decolonization Committee conference in the Virgin Islands. He noted, “The final impact of the militarization of Guam to be discussed is the people of Guam's dangerously high rates of enlistment in the U.S. Armed Forces. A number of private and public high schools on the island, as well as the University of Guam, all host JROTC programs.”

Our senators, Delegate Bordallo, Gov. Calvo and others give frequent lip service to and extol the high Guamanian military participation rate while Ed calls it “dangerous.” Who should we believe?

I ask you – do you really believe that three or four years of such acts and comments went unnoticed and fell on ears completely deaf to their implications and import? Had you been on the receiving end might you not get the idea that the military may not be fully welcome on Guam? Would you think about friendlier and more welcoming places to send the troops?

As the next election nears, you’ll hear much more in the way of excuses and disclaimers from those who had a hand in destroying much of the best economic and social opportunity to come the way of this community in decades. Don’t buy into it, and keep it in mind come November.