Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnR
Square mileage of the island is not overly important. There is room, many of the residents want more military presence and the $$ that comes with. And it is vital to the security of the US, in fact, it is part of the US (personally think they should be states myself).
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It looks like the proposal will increase the area of the Island under US Military Control about 30% so that 40% of the entire island is military. The population of the island would rise 10%!
These are pretty dramatic numbers. I can see why Congress would want to be sure the island and population can handle the change.
The area certainly does matter here as you're stuffing a lot more people into a pretty small box. Guam already has a pretty high population density, about the same as Japan.
As for Guam being a strategic interest, I don't think this was ever in question.
-spence