|
Voices of Peace
Vol.VI
Some call it the Friendly Frontier;
others see it as the starting point for the third world war
Small Alaskan town prepares for missile site in wilderness
by Duncan Campbell
in Delta Junction, Alaska
Saturday June 15, 2002
The Guardian
'People say this is going to be Ground Zero now but I'd rather be at Ground Zero
than 200 miles away and die of radiation," says Tom Van Eyck, looking up from
beneath his leather, coin-ringed cowboy hat as he sits by his van in the midsummer
sun selling wood carvings and walking sticks made out of diamond willow.
"I'd rather vapourise than die slow. I think it's great. I don't remember if
they asked us about it or not but you could say that the local people are for it."
"It" is the missile defence system site for which a ground-breaking ceremony
will be held today just down the road at Fort Greely, a ceremony that will transform
this little town of 800 people beyond recognition and is already transforming the
international debate on nuclear weapons.
While its supporters say that the system will throw a protective shield across the
United States and warn off its enemies, its opponents say that it will accelerate
the nuclear arms race and could turn this idyllic wilderness into the place where
the third world war begins.
Delta Junction is 100 miles south of Fairbanks in the heart of Alaska, reached by
a highway dotted with place names like Moose Creek, Beaver Avenue and North Pole.
It is called the Friendly Frontier and its inhabitants would probably be content
to continue hunting caribou, moose and bear, worshipping at the local Lutheran and
Baptist churches and living their lives far removed from the Lower 48, as they describe
the other states. Instead they find themselves in the world spotlight with a new
missile defence base due to become operational by 2004. With work starting today
on five new underground missile silos and a satellite communications and command
centre as part of a national $7.5bn programme, they are aware that life is about
to change for ever.
"This area has a philosophical belief in the missile defence system," said
Pete Hallgren, the city administrator, sitting in his office, a modest one-storey
building that shares roof space with the town library. "We are proud to be here
defending all 50 states. I grew up in Chicago during the cold war and I knew Chicago
and all the other big cities were targets then but at least this time if I'm in an
area that's a target, I won't feel it's a useless gesture."
The ceremony comes two days after President Bush officially withdrew the US from
the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty and the decision to build the missile defence
system at Fort Greely has been broadly welcomed locally and throughout Alaska, a
Republican state which owes much of its history to the military. Local politicians,
the press, the unions have all backed the site which means hundreds of construction
and other jobs in hard economic times.
When they had a meeting in Delta Junction about the plan last year, the only voice
raised against it was a local subsistence hunter who worried how the influx of people
might affect his profession. The town's relationship with the military goes back
to the second world war when a base was first built there and it suffered economically
when the base was closed in 1995.
But even if the locals are welcoming the boom, some are already feeling what they
call "the dread factor". Bernie Holland, a former policeman who works in
security, was having a root beer at Diehl's Delights with his wife and daughter.
"This is the end of the last frontier," he said. "You'll see a sharp
rise in crime, drugs, hookers. It used to be a sleepy little place but Delta Junction
is no more. I see a lot of strange faces and I don't mean that in a good way either.
I'm concerned for my children." A few miles south stands the heavily guarded
entrance to Fort Greely, Home of the Rugged Professional as the sign says. Ruggedness
is certainly required by those who have chosen to live in the area, with temperatures
dropping to minus 60 in winter and savage mosquitoes in full combat mode now.
A small caravan of protesters against the site have set up camp nearby. A tall, red-headed
woman, Stacey Fritz, is the coordinator of No Nukes North. She became activated,
she said, as she did her masters thesis on missile defence at the University in Fairbanks.
"The military has used Alaska as a remote national sacrifice zone, so remote
that they can get away with anything and nobody finds out about it," she said.
"The modus operandi of the Bush administration is that they'll do what they
like regardless of objections from the world or from their own citizens. Our basic
mission is to provide information on this - we want an educated opposition."
A car goes past and the driver gives the protesters a single-fingered gesture. "Our
first yahoo," said Fritz with a shrug. "But we've had surprisingly little
hostility. There is a great deal of support, both from liberals and conservatives."
A major from the base had just dropped by and bought a couple of No Nukes North stickers
and a CD of protest songs by singer Holly Graham, who is also part of the peace caravan
and camp.
Graham, who lived in England in the late 60s and early 70s, said: "Our population
has been dumbed down by the corporate media. We're still fighting battles we should
have won 30 years ago but this confrontation between India and Pakistan should have
proved something to a lot of people."
Bruce Gagnon, from the Florida-based Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power
in Space, has come north for the protest. "It's not about defence, it's all
about controlling and dominating space ...This is a brand new issue about war in
the heavens." He does not think that a country nervous about further at tacks
is less receptive to arguments against missile defence. "I think it's been easier
since 9/11. More people are paying attention. People know something is going on -
that's the public but with politicians it's been more difficult. The Democrats have
just rolled over. There's a real disconnection between the public and the politicians."
Not that the withdrawal from the ABM treaty has gone entirely without mainstream
political opposition. This week, 31 members of the House of Representatives filed
a suit against President Bush in an effort to prevent him from withdrawing. "The
constitution of the United States is being demolished and we need to challenge that
in court," said the Ohio Democratic party congressman Dennis Kucinich, who is
heading the challenge.
Stacey Fritz surveys the wilderness stretching away towards the snow-capped Alaska
Range, beyond the glacial outwash plains, past the black spruces and aspens, the
pair of hovering eagles. "Alaska is such a symbol to the rest of the world of
a free, open wilderness and now, instead of that, it's going to stand for the end
of the ABM treaty and the dawn of a new nuclear arms race. What a shame."
|