The 2006 agreement between the United States and Japan to shift 8,000 U.S. Marines from bases in Japan to the island of Guam by 2014 is likely to have more far-reaching implications than just a change of address for some units of the Marine Corps’ III Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF). The move is accelerating the return to prominence of Guam in the U.S. defense posture and fostering a higher level of cooperation among the U.S. armed forces in the Pacific region. ...
Guam, which is located 3,500 miles west of Hawaii and 1,300 miles southeast of Japan, is the largest and southernmost island of the Marianas Island chain. With a population of 160,000, Guam hosts more than 12,000 military personnel and their family members. The island supports two major facilities: Naval Base Guam, home to three attack submarines and a submarine tender, and Anderson Air Force Base, home to a Navy helicopter squadron and rotating deployments of Air Force bombers and tankers. ...
“There’s some value in distance in that you are out of immediate strike range of China’s power-projection capabilities,” he said. Guam “could certainly serve as an excellent patrol base and important inter-theater staging base, and relatively secure rear area in event of a crisis or conflict, particularly one extending over a period of time.”
As I wrote before, locating on Guam provides a base close enough to intervene quickly to support frontline forces in South Korea and Okinawa (and Taiwan) but far enough away not to be an easy target for a surprise attack. Guam, Australia, and Alaska provide forces and bases that back up the front and are well forward of main bases in Hawaii or CONUS:
This intermediate line of defense makes it less likely that China will think it can successfully carry out their own Pearl Harbor on our most forward forces since we will not be pushed back to Hawaii at a stroke.
This is not a retreat or a smaller commitment to Asia, or anything like that. This is good repositioning.
