Bye Bye Guam Buildup?

Strained Defense Department budgets may eventually derail the grand plan to transfer 8,600 Marines and 9,000 dependents from Okinawa to Guam.

The Senate Appropriations Committee in its report on the 2012 Defense Department budget bill deferred the Navy request of $181 million to design and construct facilities next year for the planned Marine move, questioning such a costly force restructuring "at a time of severe budget restraints...."

Since 2010, the Committee said, Defense has requested over $1 trillion -- that's right a trillion bucks -- in military construction funds to support the Marine shift, "but has yet to produce a detailed master plan, realistic cost estimate, or construction timeline encompassing all aspects of the plan."

Don't you hate it when Congress gets so picky over a $1 trillion investment?

I've had the pleasure to visit Guam three times in my life, and I can't imagine how the 212-square-mile island, which has a population of 177,000, can even absorb 17,600 Marines and their families.

And, if they do all move, it sure will make it hard to get a seat in the famed Jeff's Pirate Cove BBQ joint in Talofofo.