Channel 3 reached out to the U.S. military for comment on this petition. A public affairs officer with the U.S. Navy cited a statement given by Lt. Gen. Charles Hooper, the Director of Defense Security Cooperation Agency, following the shooting.
“When international military students attend training and education in the United States, they are exposed to our values, our culture and our people,” Hooper said in December. “These human relationships serve as the building blocks for our long-term strategic and defense relationships.”
Then read the response from the author of the public affairs officer with the U.S. Navy:
To Public Affairs Office of the U.S. Navy, Date: January 21, 2020
I write in reply to your response to our petition with the upmost respect for the United States Military and I write with the upmost sincerity.
The article referenced in response to my petition is quite informative and instructive but it also raises more serious concerns. I would prefer that someone from the U.S. Military reach out to me privately rather than us having to go back and forth in the spotlight of the public because making knee jerk public responses are liable to bring embarrassment to the U.S. Military and the U.S. Military Industrial Complex and that is not my goal with this petition. So as much as I don’t want to have this particular conversation in the broad light of day in letter format, I am being forced to respond in the public because, apparently no-one bother to call me for clarification about the motivation for my petition which is the same motivation for thousands of residents of Pensacola, Florida and in the United States who are not about to have our concerns about direct threats to our public safety brushed aside with idealistic and overly optimistic response to an earlier press release.
In the first place let me say that our petition does not seek to end the foreign military training program at NAS, but rather to put some common sense restrictions into place that will keep people from training within the United States when they come from “problem countries” which are well known for anti-American sentiment and radicalization.
In spite of the eloquence of the press release by Lt. Gen. Charles Hooper as referenced to our petition, here are some troubling themes that casual readers can infer from the press entire press release:
1. There are a lot of people in the United States that are making a lot of money by selling arms around the world where the purchaser’s are being guaranteed that their pilots will be allowed to come into the United States for training, no matter where they are from and no matter what level of animus against the United States is known to exist within those countries from which the foreign pilots will come.
2. In addition to the millions already paid into the non-profits of various U.S. politicians, apparently Saudi Arabia must be paying a fortune to the United States and it’s interests because even though their military representatives have just committed acts of terrorism and murder in our communities, the people in our communities do not appear to have any say in whether or not pilots from this particular country are allowed back into our community.
3. The U.S. Department of Defense is not interested in holding a dialog with the people in the Pensacola area who have created and signed this petition because the top brass has already made up their mind that training will go on no matter what the risks, so our concerns don’t matter. There’s too much money on the line and too many promises have been made to countries outside of Pensacola for attention to be paid to the people of the small community of Pensacola, Florida.
4. Your eloquent response contains this beautiful and idealistic sentiment without any qualification regarding a major act of terrorism that recently took place:
- “International military students are here as student visitors to learn skills and professions, but also to learn about our people, our culture, and our values. And this cannot be overstated. The benefits of these programs are intangible. When you break bread with someone, learn about their family, and create memories you are creating a bond. These human relationships promote long-term defense and strategic relationships, increase our interoperability, and enable partners to contribute to our shared security objectives over the long term.”
Unfortunately, the Saudi pilots in training have broken bread with the citizens of Pensacola and it is our citizens in Pensacola who have learned a great deal, in the most painful and expensive way possible about the foreign fighters training in our community, in our country, their people, their culture, and their values and we don’t like what we see.
Lt. General Hooper’s statement does contain some beautiful statements and concepts that could come straight of any U.S. military training manual without reservation, but it fails to address one of the most important reasons for the petition. One fundamental problem that remains unaddressed is that there is no amount of vetting or security precautions that are going to prevent the people of Pensacola from rejecting these Saudi military members in their community and on the military base in their community as time goes on. As a result of the recent revealing, terrorist and cowardice act, Saudi military personnel in Pensacola will forever be treated with suspicion and in a unwelcoming fashion from now on both privately and publicly. Many people in Pensacola will forgive those responsible for committing these vial acts because it is in their nature as God loving tolerant people who only want peace. But in forgiving them it does not mean that we are required to take on the unnecessary risks associated with continuing to have these people in our community in the future. Please keep in mind that this is not the first or only act of terrorism against the U.S. people that can be traced to the intellectuals of Saudi Arabia. It is imperative that you understand that in light of the negative sentiment that will be imposed upon Saudi military personnel by the people who live in Pensacola moving forward I wonder what these Saudi pilots will learn from these kinds of “human relationships” and how this kind of negative relationship “will serve as a building blocks for our long-term strategic and defense relationships.” I wonder what Saudi pilots in training in Pensacola who are subjected to suspicion and hostility will “learn about our people, our culture, and our values.” … “And THIS cannot be overstated.”
The simple peace loving people of little old Pensacola are not ignorant enough to think that the concerns for the safety of our lives and the quality of life for the unfortunate Saudi’s that remain training or may come in the future to our base at NAS are going to completely overturn the apple cart that is the training of foreign military personnel in our back yards. We also understand the training of foreign military forces in the United States will not end and we are grateful that it does provide for great cultural experiences between people from around the world when the people visiting do not come from a countries that are prone to extremism.
The people of Pensacola are also aware that the training of these pilots in our community creates jobs and money for people our community and so we are not asking to completely end the program. We may be simple people but we are not so ignorant that we are blind to the substantial fortunes that are being made by the military industrial complex, politicians, the relatives of politicians, the friends of politicians and their constituents related to the training of foreign pilots that takes place at NAS Pensacola. We understand that those who benefit financially will never allow for the complete shut down of this program no matter what level of risks are involved. We are not asking for the entire program to be shut down, and for all of those politicians and our own community to be financially bankrupted. We are asking for people in charge of the U.S. Military to sit down with some ordinary concerned citizens in our community to so we can address certain obvious concerns regarding specific fighters from specific countries that we believe pose additional threats to our community and who we are prepared to reject.
Could someone reach out to us through this website so that we can all sit down and have a private conversation before this all gets out of hand and embarrassing public and private protests and gestures begin to occur that make this response to the initial response to this petition look charming in comparison. Please remember that Pensacola is in the South of the United States and people down here don’t take kindly to foreigners coming and disrespecting the members of our military, law enforcement and the good people in our community. Rest assured that the people in this community will not be denied and that there will be push back from this community. Please reach out to me, before anyone representing the U.S. Government makes any other “knee jerk” public responses that only tend to confirm suspicions that the military, politicians and big business plan to roll over the people in our community who are already hurting. Please reach out to me privately so we can get together and organize a meeting with other concerned citizens and work something out that actually helps solve the problem and helps to relieve as much tension as possible.
Respectfully,
E.M.