Take Notice

The US military’s expansion on the island of Guam did not come up as a topic of discussion during Adm. Timothy Keating’s recent trip to China. But the admiral, who as the commander of US Pacific Command is the highest ranking US military official in the region, said yesterday he hopes that Chinese officials are taking notice of it. “We are doing our best to make sure that they do,” he told the Defense Writers Group yesterday. “We want them to understand that we are going to continue to course around the Pacific in ways apparent and maybe not quite so apparent, but we are going to utilize all of the arrows in our quiver.” Indeed, as committed as the US is to pursuing peaceful coexistence with China in the Pacific, Guam exemplifies US resolve to remain a military force in the region, Keating said. “We have got a number of B-2s in Guam now,” he said, noting US policy to maintain a continual presence of bombers on the western Pacific island to deter aggression. Guam will also host RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles starting in 2009 and will be home to thousands of marines. (For more on Keating, read Postcards from China)