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SPC Douglas Bolton
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Lt Col Charlie Brown Didn't even know about this place. Interesting.
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LTC Jason Mackay
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Edited 5 y ago
Lt Col Charlie Brown I would not say unsinkable aircraft carrier. Maybe stationary. It's inches above sea level and in recent years been vulnerable to tsunamis. Or Strategic ballistic Missile pummeling.

The international legal issues...so the U.K. Looks bad. Ok. We rented it. The indigenous people were relocated in 1973. Why the battle now? Life in their adopted home isn't going well. Ok, this is the story of every island people short of the U.K. Weather, disasters, and dependence on outside economy (like tourism) are a shaky combination that plagues islands. This is the story of the Carribean. Many who live in Hawaii have a similar experience. The track record of displaced islanders is they are not allowed to return. Reparations will be paid or have already been paid. As the last ones pass on with a physical claim, the claims will go away. From the theme of the article, the Chaggosians want to go back, so they can potentially carve out a living from the base. It's not OR it's AND. Else their return to a virtually resourceless speck inches from being swallowed by the ocean would be a likely death sentence. I don't even think the island has organic fresh water. Are the Mauritanians and Cagossians just sensing opportunity with a declining US, a sympathetic ear at the UN in a time where the US may shoot cash from the tee shirt cannon to get this to go away?

Assume for a second, the US gives up on it. We leave tomorrow. No infusion of capital. No shipping industry. No essentials shipped or flown in including water and food. Will the Chagossians still leverage the claim and actually occupy the island? The US might bend on letting some return and work on the base. I doubt the PLAN will offer such a deal. No other nation-state really has the economic and military hootzpah to sustain it. The Brits might. It's more in their interest for the to lease it, and if they need it, they'll just ask the US for help which we'll likely provide without batting eye.
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Lt Col Charlie Brown
Lt Col Charlie Brown
5 y
I agree with that analysis. Without the US or the UK, the island has nothing to recommend it as a place to live.
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LTC Jason Mackay
LTC Jason Mackay
5 y
Lt Col Charlie Brown assuming all 6000 move back the Economy will be watching each other blink in between Typhoons
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