Recently, the tap water near Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was found to have fuel infiltration, and the source of these fuel oils was the local U.S. Navy's Red Mountain fuel storage site. Originally, this matter may have been just a fuel spill problem, but I did not expect that the attitude and methods of the US Navy to deal with this matter have triggered a large wave of US military experts to worry about the strength of the US military. He even said that if US President Joe Biden does not pay attention to such incidents, the MILITARY bases deployed by the US military on the front line against China will suffer a huge blow and cause irreparable losses.
It is reported that since November last year, the families of military personnel have successively reported the relevant situation, claiming that there is a suspected smell of fuel in the tap water, and even some people feel unwell. In this case, there are suspicions that a fuel leak may have occurred at the Red Mountain Fuel Storage Site, which is located just above the aquifer, so it will be suspected if there is a problem.
The Red Mountain fuel storage site belongs to the U.S. Navy, which reportedly claimed that there were no problems with the equipment until the investigation was clear, and it was not the fuel leak caused by the equipment problem.
The facts have proved that there is indeed a fuel leakage situation, of course, but the equipment problem naturally does not cause such a big dissatisfaction, the real dissatisfaction is that the US Navy in the subsequent process of treatment, not only chaotic and slow response, long-term delay on the local water resources and ecological environment caused greater harm. This caused great dissatisfaction among the local people and the government.
But the most notable thing about this incident is that the U.S. Department of Defense originally built a lot of military facilities on multiple islands in the Hawaiian Islands, such as key exercise sites, military depots and satellite tracking stations. But the ownership of the island is not owned by the U.S. military, the U.S. military only leased the place, and the lease now seems to have less than 7 years left.
If the Hawaiian government does not renew the contract with the United States after the lease expires, then the U.S. Navy's military base group in Hawaii will have to be withdrawn, and the U.S. military footprint in the Hawaiian Islands will be directly reduced by 20%. You know, the Hawaiian Islands are located on the third island chain, if the US military strength here is weakened, it is not a good thing for us, perhaps from behind to break through the US blockade of China will become more feasible.
Moreover, if the US military strength in Hawaii is weakened, the US military's ability to operate in the Indo-Pacific region may be subject to unprecedented constraints, and it will not be so easy for the US military to act arbitrarily in the Indo-Pacific region.
Some people may think that it is just a group of military bases in Hawaii, and the United States has built hundreds of military bases in non-US contiguous areas. It should be known that the US Hawaiian base group is the link between the US mainland and the western Pacific base groups, the core location of the US military's third-line base group in the Pacific region, and most importantly, the Hawaiian base group is the general hub of pacific sea and air transportation.
You know, maritime shipping is not just a shipping so simple, it can be disguised as another kind of sea power, take the first island chain at the entrance of China, the United States deployed military bases around China, the formation of the so-called first island chain, is to block China. If the mainland has navigation control over the first island chain, then the so-called blockade of the US military will not fall apart directly.
And this is only from the military status point of view, if from other aspects, the control of the navigation channel is more important, take the previous Suez Canal blockage, it was blocked for a few days, the losses caused by it are a huge amount of money, let alone the control of navigation rights. The Hawaiian base group is the general hub of sea and air transportation in the Pacific Ocean, and if the U.S. military loses its military footprint here, it is really not something that can be easily compensated.
Back to the Hawaii military base itself, there are many irreplaceable ground observation stations such as the Pacific Missile Range and ammunition storage depots, which in some ways are the biggest strength for the US military to maintain its presence in the Pacific.
However, for the United States now, perhaps the third island chain we mentioned above is the most important reason for this, and the increasing tension in Sino-US relations has led to actions between China and the United States in every aspect being regarded as part of the competition, and small actions between the two sides may be misunderstood and misjudged as wanting to provoke conflict. Especially in the United States, this itself is the first to be provoked by the United States, and now it can be said that it is getting worse and worse, if you think that your own losses have led to the decline of the United States' own strength, and you can finally recognize the status quo, it is not impossible.
After all, according to the current trend, the arrogant and arrogant US military will obviously not consider its own mistakes, and the US top level will obviously not consider the actual situation, but will only blindly be strong and blindly demand "America first." Huber warned that the sleepy Biden administration must wake up immediately and face the crisis of the U.S. Department of Defense, or it will cause irreparable damage.