Security Concerns of Hispanic Americans

By Patrick Ortega
The Washington Times, 4 January 2000

At the outset of his presidency, Bill Clinton plunged his administration into turmoil from which it has never fully recovered. He did so by pursuing a course of action vehemently opposed by the nation’s military in order to pander to politically active homosexuals insisting on the right to serve openly in the armed forces.

Now, he seems determined to complete his tenure by once again sacrificing national security in the hope of currying favor with another special interest, Hispanic-Americans, to whom he believes the permanent cessation by the U.S. armed forces of live-fire training exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques is an important priority.

Mr. Clinton is wrong if he thinks denying the men and women who wear our country’s uniform the best possible preparation for combat before they are sent into harms’ way will improve the electoral prospects of first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Al Gore among Hispanic voters. The vast majority of us are as supportive as are Americans of other ethnic origins when it comes to our troops and the national interests they are asked to defend at great personal risk and sacrifice.

Unfortunately, sailors and Marines operating in and from the Atlantic Ocean – including some 3,500 Hispanic-American personnel who are typically trained at Vieques each year – are not being properly prepared today. This is due to an illegal occupation of the live-fire range by demonstrators exploiting understandable public outrage over a tragic accident that killed a civilian Navy employee there last April. (Tragic though his death was, he did sign a contract acknowledging and accepting the risks associated with being an armed guard at the bombing range.)

Yet, if President Clinton has his way, that range will be permanently closed in the future.

The conventional wisdom has it that all parts of the Puerto Rican body politic – and, for that matter, all Hispanic-Americans – oppose the resumption of the kind of realistic, combined-arms exercises that can be uniquely performed at Vieques. This perception is being skillfully exploited by the island’s governor, Pedro Rossello (who also happens to be a co-chairman of Al Gore’s fund-raising efforts there), to elicit a commitment from Mr. Clinton to bar the resumption of live-fire training on Vieques and, within at most five years, to end all Navy activity on that island.

The effects of such a presidential decision on military readiness would be dramatic and very harmful. Senior commanders have all declared the live-fire training on Vieques to be essential to the combat effectiveness and safety of our troops.

These adverse impacts are all the more insupportable if, in fact, the majority of the people of Vieques actually do not want the Navy to end its utilization of the live-fire range. Based upon extensive conversations last month with scores of officials, religious leaders, demonstrators, businessmen and others among the 9,300 inhabitants of Vieques, I believe most Viequenses are actually prepared to accept continued, realistic military operations on their island – provided their legitimate concerns about safety, environmental responsibility and just compensation are addressed in good faith by the Pentagon.

To be sure, this is not the view of a vocal minority. They want the Navy out and threaten intensified civil disobedience and even violence if so much as one more piece of explosive ordinance lands on Vieques. I discovered, however, that a number of the prime-movers behind the effort to prevent resumption of live-fire training at Vieques are not even natives of that island. Prominent among them is Roberto Rabin, one of the self-designated leaders of the “Commitee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques.” Mr. Rabin, whose name originally was Robert Rabinowitz, first came to the island as a student from the University of Massachusetts, and wrote his thesis on U.S. intervention in Third World countries and its negative effects.

By applying well-honed techniques of propaganda, indoctrination and intimidation – and, importantly, by drawing support and resources from like-minded radicals and leftist-chic types from Puerto Rico and the mainland – the opponents of continued live-fire training on Vieques have largely succeeded in suppressing overt opposition to their cause. With Gov. Rossello’s belated support and that of other leading Puerto Rican politicians, they are poised to parlay their claim to speak for the people of Vieques into the sort of special interest political leverage that moves President Clinton to act.

It is striking, though, that in tape-recorded interviews I conducted with some of these leading opponents of live-fire exercises on and near Vieques, they adamantly opposed the idea of putting the question of whether those operations should continue to a vote by that island’s residents. Their vehemence suggests a lack of confidence that their position, in fact, enjoys anything like the popular support they claim for it.

President Clinton has a responsibility far higher than the one he obviously feels to help the campaigns his wife and his chosen successor are mounting. He has a duty to look out first for the interests of the nation as a whole and those of the men and women – Hispanic-Americans and others alike – who serve in its defense.

The one way that would allow Mr. Clinton to fulfill that larger responsibility in a democratic and above-board fashion (as opposed to doing backroom deals with radical leftists and self-serving politicians) is to hold an honest plebiscite among the people most immediately affected – the Viequenses. It should be held a few months from now, affording an opportunity for both the U.S. military and its opponents to make their best cases. While there is no guarantee how such a referendum will come out, if it is genuinely free and fair, I believe a majority of the people of Vieques will see the right thing for their community and the country to be a resumption of live-fire training on their island by America’s armed forces committed to conduct such training in a safe and responsible manner.

Patrick Ortega is the founder and president of the Civic Family Institute in Los Angeles, a public policy organization dedicated to educating Hispanics on the American political system and current civic affairs.