The Base or the Bird

The US Air Force is building more bases in the Pacific Ocean. Object: war with China?

The Air Force is clearing out what's left of the jungle on tiny Tinian Island for use "in case Guam gets knocked out." The US maintains three military bases on the Pacific island of Guam, taking up about a third of the island.

The Pacific Air Forces Commander told reporters, “We want to continue to evolve so that we enhance our warfighting capabilities with the primary objective of being to deter violence in the Indo-Pacific, but if that deterrence doesn't work, we have to be ready to be able to win."

The US plans to build more bases across the Pacific over the next decade.

Tinian island is part of the

Marianas archipelago.

It has an area of 101 km2 and a population of 2044 (in 2020).

The island has a history of colonisation by the Spanish, the Germans and the Japanese before being taken over by the

Americans.

Tinian is home to many wild creatures, including the lovely Tinian Monarch, a small bird that lives only in forests on the island of Tinian but is now threatened by habitat loss.

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References

https://news.antiwar.com/2023/09/13/us-air-force-clearing-out-jungles-in-pacific-for-new-airfields/

https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-us-air-force-is-clearing-out

https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2023/09/air-force-clearing-out-jungles-pacific-bolster-airfield-options/390210/

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/construction-of-airbase-on-tinian-island-in-case-guam-gets-knocked-out-has-begun

https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2023/09/air-force-clearing-out-jungles-pacific-bolster-airfield-options/390210/

https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2023/08/air-force-expanding-number-bases-pacific-over-next-decade/389834/

https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/birds/Tinian_monarch/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinian