Quote:
Originally Posted by AOII Angel
Oh puhleeeeeese...he was not serious about it tipping over, he was talking about overpopulating an island and the environmental impact.
|
Exactly. Per the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Johnson’s office said the boss is simply a tremendous deadpan — and that he was using a facetious metaphor. (More on that below) But the admiral didn’t know that, and played it straight:
“We don’t anticipate that. The Guam population, I think, currently about 175,000, and again, with 8,000 marines and their families, it’s an addition of about 25,000 more into the population.”
. . .
Here’s a formal response from Johnson, via his spokesman:
“I wasn’t suggesting that the island of Guam would literally tip over,” said Johnson. “I was using a metaphor to say that with the addition of 8,000 Marines and their dependents – an additional 80,000 people during peak construction to the port on the tiny island with a population of 180,000 – could be a tipping point which would adversely affect the island’s fragile ecosystem and over burden its already overstressed infrastructure.
“Having traveled to Guam last year, I saw firsthand how this beautiful – but vulnerable island – is already overburdened, and I was simply voicing my concerns that the addition of that many people could tip the delicate balance and do harm to Guam.”