'More military planes than birds': US militarisation in Guam self-defence or provocation?

The United States' plans to expand and bolster its military prowess in Guam has gripped the undivided attention of geopolitical observers, as the leader of the Western world tries to solidify its defences against perceived hostility from its enemies.

But for ordinary people living in the US territory - which locals tongue in cheek call a "military recruiters paradise" - geopolitics is the least of their concerns.

For Guamanians, and the indigenous Chamorro people, who are landowners and veterans, news the US is forging ahead with proposed missile testing on the island to boost its military capability only "raises suspicion…because things just aren't adding up".

The federal government is spending $8.7 billion dollars on the missile testing system in what has been described by critics in Washington as an arms race with China.

Long-range missiles are set to be tested in Guam twice a year for a decade, starting in December.

On top of that, 5000 troops will be transferred from Okinawa in Japan to Camp Blaz in Guam by the end of the year.

It is part of the Pentagon's plan led by the Missile Defence Agency (MDA) to build a shield, known as a 360-degree defence system, to protect Guam.

"It is terrible that in today's world, under the flag of a country which is supposed to stand for very high ideals of democracy, we are the tip of America's spear," a Chamarro historian, Dr Michael Bevacqua, told RNZ Pacific.

"Fundamental decisions about the safety of our families, children, the safety of our island, whether we are a target, these things can be made without our consent, it is the opposite of democratic participation. It is frustrating, it is frightening," he lamented.

The MDA, however, has a different perspective and say the defence system is comparable to Israel's Iron Dome.

"We're talking about launching missiles in order to stop bad missiles that are filled with explosives or possibly other things from hitting the island," Mark Wright, the agency's public affairs officer explained.

"This would be a contingency, of course, but it's [the] most remote part of the US territory, and it needs to be protected."

But Guamanians know first-hand that living alongside the military comes at a cost.

Military activity means the "drinking water is contaminated, housing is under pressure…there are more military planes than birds, [on the island] and the threat of a missile attack is as common as a party invitation," Bevacqua said.

Striking a balance

The US owns 30 percent of the land in Guam. It is used for three bases by the navy, military and air force, which Chamorro activists describe as living in a "hyper-militarised reality".

According to one New Zealand academic, the Washington-Guam relationship "remains incontrovertibly imperial-an arrangement [the US] exploits to manage the frictions that inevitably arise in America's security alliances with sovereign nations".

But Guam's government recognises it needs the US onside and view the rapid militarisation as nothing more than the sign of the times.

Governor Lou Guerrero told RNZ Pacific it was about striking a balance between working alongside the US military and the indigenous Chamorro people as or "measures to maintain peace in our island".

"I know exactly the challenges of militarisation but if the US get up and leave right now, we would be worse off. I certainly don't want to be under Chinese rule," she said.

But while the Governor believes the US military was protecting them from Beijing, her chief adviser on military and regional affairs, Carlotta Guerrero, is still trying to reconcile with the ramp up.

"Personally, I hate the idea that we are going to have a 360-missile defence system going up, and what that is going to mean, and what that is going to look like, and what that is going to do."

MDA's Wright said they are working closely with allies, such as Japan and Australia, on missile defence architecture and systems "to figure out more effective ways that we can use missile defence to defend our various homelands and islands in that area".

'We should have more say' - veteran

Guam has experienced many conflicts, including being colonised by the Spanish during the 16th and 18th centuries, and during the Pacific War in World War II that took place on Guam in the Mariana Islands between Japan and the US.

Its history is saturated in conflict and partially points to why Chamorros have the highest enlistment rate for the US military.

Although Guam has its own government, the island is held at the mercy of the US federal government and Congress.

People born in Guam are US citizens who cannot vote for the US president and whose only senator in Congress is a non-voting member.

While, many Guamanians and Chamorro RNZ Pacific spoke to view the US as their liberator and were "proud to be American citizens", there were others who felt differently.

Ton Ada, a Chamorro veteran and a Guam legislator, said although he was "pro-military", the lack of information about missile testing and "inconsistencies" in the MDA report provided to the public, gave him cause to be "suspicious".

"I think we should have more say in what the military does out here."

Another veteran, the founder and president of the Pacific Association of Radiation Survivors, Robert Celestial, proved Guam was subjected to nuclear exposure between 1940-1960, which Celestial said the federal government tried to cover up until he discovered unclassified documents online.

"I believe the majority of my people have been indoctrinated from the time the US Navy took control of Guam. My people have been brainwashed."

Celestial said many of his members had died due to cancers related to nuclear exposure. He had been battling for over two decades to have Congress approve nuclear compensation which the island was never eligible for, but it expired without an extension in June.

"Our people did not even know that they were being exposed to Agent Orange nuclear radiation. And so, we really do have to assess this incoming project as something that is going to cause a lot of harm, and how can we anticipate more harm if we haven't reconciled with the harms that we're still facing?" Celestial said.

Military build-up 'not adding up', says activist

Activists protesting the military activity on the island have called for an end to militarisation, raising concerns the presence of the troops has done more harm than good.

Chamorro activist Monaeka Flores was making sure the voices of fishermen and landowners are not forgotten.

"The military say there is no harm, there is no significant impact.

"However, they are going to require land restrictions, they are going to require a lot of people coming here to do this military work. It is not adding up."

She said the island still had not reconciled with previous impacts caused by the military presence and the impact of nuclear fallout on Guam in the 1940s through 1960s.

Flores' demand is simple: leaders must act.

"The threat of nuclear war is very real," she said, adding "The leaders need to rise for diplomacy instead of building up forced projection in the Pacific that only provokes tension, provokes conflict and stokes war," she said.

Unprecedented militarisation

A former US Congressman for Guam and currently the Pacific Island Security Centre chair, Robert Underwood, calls the advancement of military activity "historic and comparable to what happened in the immediate period before World War II".

"[It was] unprecedented and created great and dynamic change in Guam since that time, [and] that is what is occurring today, particularly in connection with this proposed missile defence system," he added.

Underwood said the island was the largest known storehouse for nuclear weapons in the world.

"They have diverted airfields in the Northern Marianas, they have a diverted airfield in Palau, they are setting up a radar system there. There's conversation about expanding the runway in Yap [in the Federated States of Micronesia]. These are areas they anticipate that [if] there is going to be a conflict, they have a place to put their assets, so that all their assets won't be here in Guam."

Underwood said the role of the government of Guam was to arm individual citizens regarding these activities and Governor Guerrero had been "inadequate" in that regard.

"The issue is, how do individual people in Guam get the capacity to understand what is going on around them? And is their government empowering them in coming to an informed conclusion."

Leeland Bettis, who works alongside Underwood, said the military's use of words says it all: "There's a very specific sort of framing for the military uses, which is that what they are doing is to establish deterrence. They always say, 'but if deterrence fails, we must be ready to fight'."

Threats are real

Governor Guerrero maintains China is a ''very real threat'' and that Guam would never be truly independent because without the US they do not have their own defence forces to protect their island, which she said, "attracts conflicts".

People have learned to live alongside the military and have accepted that if it was not America then it would be someone else, Washington has no doubt that would be China, she added.

During RNZ Pacific's visit to Guam, many attempts were made to secure an in-person interview with the US Navy, Military, Air Force and Joint Region Marianas Commanders.

All our requests were declined because their commanders were "off island".

Some written statements were provided from the Marines which helped confirm some information about the defence architecture planned for Guam, but many questions were also left unanswered and referred on to Joint Region Marianas.

The Air Force, however, did provide an interview about life on base, but refused to comment on any military expansion and missile testing on Guam.