Editor,

U.S. Pacific Cammander Admiral Timothy J. Keating's recent visit to Tonga (Re: U.S. Pacific Commander thanks Tonga, 18 September, 2007 [2]) is a long-overdue photo-op occasion from such a high profile U.S. Government official.

As one of the few loyal friends of America in the world, the Kingdom of Tonga has been rewarded with nothing but empty thanks from the U.S. Government. As most recently as a couple of years ago the U.S. Consul from the Suva Embassy, in Fiji, had the guts to lecture the Tongan Government as a "human-rights violator."

In an affluent country such as America where human beings are homeless and die of hunger on her city streets, the U.S. has no room to lecture Tonga on human rights issues. Tonga has no starving homeless people.

While much larger countries such as New Zealand which benefited the most from America's sacrifice in World War II (New Zealand soldiers were in Europe fighting Nazism while Americian soldiers defend the Pacific from Japanese imperialism) refuse to support present American policies in Iraq, Tonga remains loyal to the U.S.

Admiral Keating can do us all a favor to back up his words of "thanks." As powerful as World War II Pacific Commander Douglas MacArthur, Keating could see that the sacrifices of the Tongan soldiers serving in Iraq are rewarded as true loyal friends of the United States of America.

Otherwise, those words of "thanks" are as just as empty as the benefits Tongans would get from sending their sons and daughters to die in the American Iraq War.

Visa applicants

He could help out the impotent U.S. Consul in Fiji to give preference status to all Tongan visa applicants to travel to-and-from the U.S. The total number of Tongans we are talking about here is a miniscule, drop-in-a-bucket worry for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Compared to the 12 million illegal aliens that have come across the Mexican Border, and even if all of the whole Tongan population was to immigrate to the U.S., it is still a win-win situation for both countries.

The Tongan economy would benefit greatly, and America can always count on a Loyal Friend that steps up to the line-of-fire when America asks.

And in re-examining Tonga's part on this issue, our incompetent Peoples Representatives should have addressed this issue with the American Consul before agreeing to send Tongan soldiers without getting anything in return.

Sione A. Mokofisi

samokofisi [at] mac [dot] com