Inouye pursues goal of basing carrier here

• Guam seen as platform for U.S. air power

By Frank Oliveri
Advertiser Washington Bureau

INOUYE

"The Pacific Asian region is a place to be concerned with," Inouye said.

"It makes better sense to be in Hawai'i than in San Diego. That's just geography."

Inouye, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, who has helped appropriate billions of dollars for the military, said one of his priorities is to convince Senate colleagues and military officials that Hawai'i should serve as the base for the carrier in the Pacific.

Guam, thousands of miles closer to Asia, also is lobbying for an aircraft carrier, but Hawai'i has a much better infrastructure.

A key issue to be resolved is where to base a carrier's 70 to 80 aircraft. Inouye has said he prefers the former Barbers Point Naval Air Station.

Inouye noted that nuclear powers India and Pakistan have recently been at the brink of war, North Korea has developed nuclear missiles, tensions are building between Taiwan and China, and Indonesia and the Philippines are terrorist hot spots. "The cloud of terrorism is just as heavy in the Pacific as it is in Europe," he said.

Inouye also said Japan depends on U.S. military protection.

"I'm comfortable the Japanese have demonstrated they are pretty wise," he said. "They know their strength and stability depends a lot upon their relationship with the United States. It makes it possible for them to carry on their lives without maintaining a heavy defense budget."

But he warned that if Japan feels compelled to spend more on defense, "this would be the beginning of the world's most massive arms race" in Asia.

In a wide-ranging interview last week, Inouye also said he likely will endorse presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts as the Democratic contender best positioned to take the White House away from President Bush. More liberal candidates, including former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, would not do as well against Bush in the general election, Inouye said.

"If you analyze the nominating system, as it relates to the Democrats, the delegates attending the convention more often than not are members of the liberal community in the party," he said. "And when the candidate is nominated, he finds that the real world is not made up of liberals."

Inouye said that if the national election were held today, Bush would win handily, "but this is January."

"I always look at papa Bush," Inouye said of Bush's father. "At this stage in his election, he had a 92 percent approval rating. That's pretty good, you know."

Bush's father lost his bid for re-election, and Bush also is vulnerable, Inouye said. The U.S. economy is undergoing an "uncertain, shaky recovery at best," he said.

"When you speak of employment, I think the numbers are dangerous," he said. "They don't give a clear picture. If you are working for McDonald's, you are employed. But can you tell me from your heart of hearts that you are employed?"

Inouye, third in seniority in the Senate, has served in Congress for 45 years — he was elected to the House in 1959 and began his Senate career in 1962. A World War II hero and Medal of Honor winner, Inouye will turn 80 in September but said he plans to seek re-election to an eighth term in November.

Inouye then rattled off his vital signs: Blood pressure 130 over 70, cholesterol 166, and a heart rate under 130 beats per minute on a treadmill.

"For me to say I'm retiring to go into another career, it's rather absurd," Inouye said. "If I'm physically fit, I should present myself as a candidate and put it up to the people."

Guam seen as platform for U.S. air power

WASHINGTON — The Air Force wants to return to the Cold War-era practice of basing fighter jets and other strike and support planes on Guam, which is in quick striking distance of the Korean Peninsula, the Air Force's top officer in the region said yesterday.

"It's an active proposal," said Gen. William J. Begert, commander of U.S. Pacific Air Forces.

While no final decisions have been made to add air power in the Pacific, the Air Force has made the case for basing a variety of aircraft on Guam, a U.S. territory that generally welcomes an expanded military presence, he said.

"The ability to project force from Guam is very valuable to us," Begert said.

Aircraft and other U.S. offensive forces that had been based on Guam during the Cold War were withdrawn as part of the 1990s defense budget cuts and drawdown of U.S. military capabilities worldwide.

A few years ago the Air Force began building up the infrastructure on Andersen Air Force Base, the main air base on Guam, including stockpiling large amounts of munitions.

In 2002, the Navy based two attack submarines at Guam — the USS San Francisco and the USS City of Corpus Christi — and it plans to add a third this year. The Navy also is considering basing an aircraft carrier there.

Begert mentioned basing a fighter wing on Guam as well as air refueling aircraft, the new unmanned Global Hawk spy plane, and long-range bombers such as the B-2, for which special air-conditioned hangars were positioned there last year before the start of the Iraq war.

These are "very attractive kinds of options that in today's world, with the importance of Asia in this century, all make good sense," he said. Begert noted that last spring the Air Force temporarily deployed B-1 and B-52 long-range bombers to Guam.

Begert also noted that Guam is about 1,500 miles from the Korean Peninsula and a similar distance from the Taiwan Strait, which is a potential flashpoint for conflict with communist China.

"As I travel around Asia it's clear to me that the countries in Asia like our presence in Asia," he said. "They don't see us as threatening; quite the opposite, they see us as stabilizing. So I don't see (that) if we make decisions to put forces at Guam that anybody's going to be threatened by that at all."

Guam was ceded to the United States by Spain in 1898. It was surrendered to the Japanese on Dec. 10, 1941, and it remained under Japanese occupation until July 1944, when U.S. forces led by the 3rd Marine Division liberated the island.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Guam in November to get a firsthand look at U.S. military facilities there, including Andersen Air Force Base and Navy installations.