Ann Wright: Green-Washing War, Sinking Ships, Drones from Submarines — Largest International War Games around Hawaii

Post Date July 26, 2012
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Category Asia, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Environmental Impacts, Global Justice and Peace Movements, Ke Awalau o Pu'uloa / Pearl Harbor, Projects and Campaigns

Ann Wright wrote an excellent article in Op Ed News on the RIMPAC exercises in Hawaiʻi, the Pacific “pivot” and protests from Okinawa to Pohakuloa:

Green-Washing War, Sinking Ships, Drones from Submarines — Largest International War Games around Hawaii

By  

Reflecting the Obama administration’s “pivot” to Asia and the Pacific, the United States military is now hosting in the Pacific waters around Hawaii, the largest and most expensive international maritime war games in the history of the world.

Called Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC, war games, for 36 days during July and August, 22 countries, 42 ships, six submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are conducting amphibious operations, gunnery, missile, anti-submarine and air defense exercises, counter piracy, mine-clearance operations, explosive ordnance disposal, diving and salvage operations and disaster-relief operations in the Pacific.

Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, South Korea, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, the United Kingdom and the United States are participating in this year’s RIMPAC exercise.

RIMPAC began in 1971 and is held every two years. According to the US Navy the purpose of RIMPAC is to “provide a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s oceans.”

22 Countries in RIMPAC War Games — But Not China

This year, pointedly excluded from the Pacific war games, is China, the largest country in Asia and the Pacific. China was invited in 2006 to observe part of the Valiant Shield war games off Guam and in 1998, a small Chinese contingent observed the RIMPAC military exercises. However, since 2000, direct military to military contact by the U.S. with China has been prohibited under the National Defense Authorization Act of 2000.

The Chinese Communist Party newspaper, the Global Times, wrote, “Watching from afar, China is feeling uncomfortable. But it should be forgotten soon. The exercise is nothing but a big party held in the U.S. which is in a melancholy state of mind due to difficult realities.”

However, China was concerned in early July, when the U.S., South Korea and Japan conducted three-day joint exercises in the area of Jeju island, south of the Korean peninsula, where the Korean government is constructing a controversial naval base to homeport Aegis missile destroyers, a part of the US Missile Defense System. According to Hawaii’s Star Advertiser, a Chinese navy representative said those exercises were aiming to “threaten North Korea and keep China in check.”

Russia included for first time; but Kiwi vessels not allowed into Pearl Harbor

America’s cold war rival and major Asia and Pacific player, Russia, is participating in RIMPAC for the first time. Three Russian naval vessels, a destroyer, tanker and salvage tug, initially were allowed to dock inside the huge U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor.

However, the U.S. ally, New Zealand, had to dock its two naval vessels outside U.S. naval facilities. For 30 years, New Zealand has had a “no nukes” policy and has refused to allow U.S. naval ships into Kiwi waters as the United States will neither confirm or deny whether its military ships carry nuclear weapons. In a tit-for-tat move, the U.S. refused to allow New Zealand military ships into Pearl Harbor.  New Zealand sailors are not upset by the U.S. decision to exclude them as the two Kiwi naval ships are docked at Aloha Towers in the commercial harbor of Honolulu in midst of a busy tourist area.

Green-Washing War Games Extremely Expensive

In an attempt to green wash the largest naval war games in the world, the United States is using 900,000 gallons of 50/50 biofuel and petroleum-based marine diesel or aviation fuel blend and calling the armada the “Great Green Fleet.” The nuclear aircraft carrier USS Nimitz carried some of the biofuel to refuel aircraft and Destroyers Chafeee and Chung-Hoon, Cruiser Princeton and Oiler Henry J. Kaiser used bio fuel. E-2C Hawkeye early-warning radar aircraft and helicopters gassed up with biofuel.

In support of the 2012 RIMPAC “green” war games, in December, 2011, the Pentagon purchased 450,000 gallons of biofuel for $12 million, the largest US government purchase of biofuel in history and the most expensive. While the Navy generally pays $4 per gallon for petroleum bases fuel, biofuel ended up costing $26 per gallon but dropped to a mere $15 per gallon when blended with petroleum. The difference in price between petroleum bases fuel and biofuel had some Congressmen challenging the rationale of “greening” of war games during times of economic stress. U.S. Representative Randy Forbes told Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus that “I love green energy, but it is a question of priorities.” Most of the biofuel came from restaurant cooking oil, through a contract with Tyson Foods, Solazyme and Dynamic Fuels.

SINKEX — Environmental groups protest sinking of three ships in target practice   

As a part of the mammoth war game, despite outcries from the environmental community, including the Sierra Club, Earthjustice, the Center for Biological Diversity and Basel Action Network, the US Navy resumed using old war ships for torpedo and bomb target practice and sinking them. On July 22, the last of three ships to be sunk as a part of the RIMPCAC exercises was sent to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The USS Kilauea, a decommissioned ammunition ship, was sunk by a torpedo from an Australian submarine, in 15,500 feet of water, 63 miles off the coast of Kauai. The USS Niagara Falls and the USS Concord were sunk off the northwest coast of Kauai earlier in the war games.

The EPA gave the US military an exemption from Federal pollution laws that prohibit dumping in the ocean, under the proviso that the military “will better document” toxic waste left on the ships. According to EPA guidelines, the ships had to be sunk in at least 6,000 feet of water and at least 50 miles offshore.

US Navy sinks twice as many ships as recycles them

The U.S. has six approved domestic ship-breaking facilities, but since 2000, the Navy has gotten rid of 109 US military ships by sinking them off the coasts of California, Hawaii and Florida. During that period only 64 ships were recycled in domestic facilities. The Navy claims that only 500 pounds of PCBs were on the ships that were sunk.

Submarine Launched Drone

During the war games, the U.S. Navy will test a submarine-launched unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) and blue-laser underwater communications technology. The Navy will attempt to launch a drone called the “Switchblade,” which has previously been used by US Army and US Marine ground troops in Afghanistan. The Navy’s version of the “Switchblade” drone is enclosed in a special launch canister and fired from one of the submarine’s trash chutes at periscope depth. The canister floats to the surface, opens up, the electric-motor unfolds the folded-wings and the drone launches itself.

“Tiger Balm” Army War Games on Land in Hawaii

Not to be left out as the huge naval war games take place off Hawaii, the U.S. Army is training Singaporean soldiers on Oahu in a military exercise called “Tiger Balm.” Using the U.S. Marine’s $42 million Infantry Immersion Training facility on Oahu built to simulate a southern Afghanistan village, the joint US-Singaporean task force practices clearing the village of enemy fighters.

The U.S. Army Pacific command plans on 150 multi-lateral military engagements with Pacific and Asian countries in 2012.

U.S. Marines in Hot Water in Hawaii and Japan over Osprey Helicopter

While a battalion of U.S. Marines from Hawaii were sent recently to Okinawa and a smaller detachment sent to Australia, those remaining in Hawaii are in hot water. Increasing administration emphasis on Asia and the Pacific has emboldened the Marines to attempt to increase the number of MV-22-tilt-rotor Osprey, Cobra and Huey attack-utility helicopter training helicopter flights in the Hawaiian Islands

Last week, Hawaiian activists on Molokai forced the Marines to back down from increasing from 112 to 1,383 the number of helicopter flights into the tiny airport that serves the National Park at Kalaupapa and the home of the surviving patients of Hansen’s disease.

The activists also build a “kuahu,” or stone alter on July 15 on the site of the proposed Marine helicopter fuel depot at Hoolehua, next to the Molokai airport “topside,” on the mesa above Kalaupapa. “It’s a statement that we have cultural significance there, that they cannot disregard what the people have been telling them. We represent people who do not want any military presence on Molokai,” said Molokai resident Lori Buchanan.

On the island of Oahu, residents around the Marine base in Kaneohe on July 16 at a Windward Neighborhood meeting, opposed flights of the Osprey from the base citing safety and noise concerns.

Protests in Japan over the arrival of the Osprey

In Japan, on July 23, the first 12 Osprey’s arrived to protests. The Ospreys will be on the Japanese mainland at Iwakuni Air Base only briefly, but opposition there has been “unusually strong, with both the mayor and the governor saying they do not support even temporarily hosting the aircraft. Opposition to the large military presence on Okinawa is deep-rooted. Protesters on July 23 held a sit-in outside the base where the Ospreys are to be sent.”

The US Embassy in Toyko countered on July 23 by stating that the 12 Ospreys are critical to defending Japan,   “Deployment of these aircraft in Japan is a vital component in fulfilling the United States’ commitment to provide for the defense of Japan and to help maintain peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region.”The next day, on July 24, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda told the Japanese Parliament that no Osprey flights would take place until investigations into the Oprey’s April crash in Morocco and the June crash in Florida were completed and Japan was satisfied the aircraft are not a safety hazard.

The deployment of the Osprey to Okinawa is a political headache for Japan because of intense local opposition. Half of the 50,000 US troops in Japan are located in Okinawa. The deployment of the aircraft has become another rallying issue for base opponents.

Protests of RIMPAC on Oahu and the Big Island

On Oahu

On July 2, 2012, activists in Honolulu held their first protest of the RIMPAC exercises. In front of the two New Zealands ships easily accessible at Aloha Tower in Honolulu’s commercial harbor, one activist held a sign saying: “Mahalo (Thank you) New Zealand for anti-nukes; No Aloha for RIMPAC war games.”

RIMPAC protesters in front of two New Zealand ships at a commercial dock at Aloha Towers as US government would not allow Kiwi ships into Pearl Harbor Naval Base

More protests occurred at Pohakuloa military training base on the Big Island of Hawaii

On July 15, 2012, 30 protesters challenged the desecration of Hawaiian lands in a protest against RIMPAC war games. As they gathered opposite the main gate of Pohakuloa Military base, a red flag flew over the base indicating that live fire and bombing was taking place. Concerned citizens from Hilo, Kona, Waimea and   Na’alehu, included old time Kaho’olawe Island “Stop the Bombing” activists (Kaho’olawe Island was used for bombing practice for over 50 years and only stopped in 1990 after a decade of protests by the Hawaiian community Members of the Ka Pele family who several years ago led a peace gathering to pray and build an ahu (stone altar) at Pu’u Ka Pele on Pohakuloa in opposition to the bombing found that access to the ahu and pu’u has been blocked by concrete barricades and chain linked barbed wire fence.

 

The Great Pacific Shuffle – US Troops to Move from Okinawa to Guam, Hawaii, Australia

Post Date June 29, 2012
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Category American Empire, Asia, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Global Justice and Peace Movements, The Military in Hawai'i (All Islands)

Discussing the so-called Pacific ʻpivotʻ of U.S. policy, Cara Flores Mays (We Are Guahan), Terri Kekoʻolani and Kyle Kajihiro (both with Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice and DMZ-Hawaiʻi / Aloha ʻAina) were guests on the Asia Pacific Forum radio program on WBAI (New York) with host Hyun Lee. Listen to the program here:

The Great Pacific Shuffle – US Troops to Move from Okinawa to Guam, Hawaii, Australia

The US military is playing a game of shuffle in Asia Pacific – planning to withdraw 9000 troops from Okinawa and transfer them to Guam, Hawaii, and Australia – according to a deal reached at the US-Japan summit last month. The plan reflects “US’ attempt to save its long-standing alliance with Japan in the face of unrelenting resistance by the Okinawan people” against the presence of US marines there, according to Kyle Kajihiro of DMZ Hawaii. What does this sudden announcement mean for the people of Guam and Hawaii? How much will the move cost US taxpayers, and will the minority but growing voices of concern in Washington about unlimited military spending check the planned troop transfer? APF talks with Kyle Kajihiro, as well as Terri Keko’olani of the Hawaii Peace and Justice Center and Cara Flores-Mays of We are Guahan.

Guests

  • Cara Flores-Mays is an indigenous Chamorro small-business owner specializing in creative media. She is an organizer for the grassroots organization “We Are Guåhan”, which has played a significant role in educating the Guam community about the potential impacts of the proposed military buildup. She provides strategy and resource development for the group’s initiatives, including “Prutehi yan Difendi”, a campaign to increase public awareness and support for a lawsuit against the Department of Defense for which We Are Guåhan was a filing party.
  • Kyle Kajihiro is a fourth generation Japanese in Hawaiʻi and was born and raised in Honolulu. He has worked on peace and demilitarization issues since 1996, first as staff with the American Friends Service Committee, and now with its successor organization, Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice. He writes and speaks about the demilitarization movement in Hawaiʻi and has traveled internationally to build solidarity on these issues. In the past, he has been active in anti-racist/anti-fascist issues, immigrant worker organizing, Central America solidarity, and community mural, radio and video projects.
  • Terri Keko’olani is a native Hawaiian and sovereignty activist/community organizer with DMZ Hawai’i Aloha Aina and the Hawaii Peace and Justice Center.

Listen to the program by downloading the MP3: http://www.asiapacificforum.org/downloads/audio/APF20120604_743_TheGreatPa.mp3

Occupy APEC with Aloha

Post Date November 18, 2011
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Category American Empire, Asia, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Global Justice and Peace Movements, Hawaiian Sovereignty, Land, Culture & Human Rights, Projects and Campaigns, Social and Economic Impacts

Christine Ahn wrote an brilliant article in FPIF on the Moana Nui conference and peoples’ resistance to the APEC neoliberal – militarization agenda.   I quote liberally from the article below.  You should read the full article here.

“The time has come for us to voice our rage,” the Hawaiian artist Makana sang as he gently strummed his slack-key guitar. “Against the ones who’ve trapped us in a cage, to steal from us the value of our wage.”

Makana wasn’t serenading the Occupy movement; rather his audience included over a dozen of the world’s most powerful leaders, including President Obama and China’s Premier Hu Jintao, at the world’s most secure, policed, and fortified event: the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) dinner in Hawaii.

[…]

Makana, however, wasn’t the only one voicing his outrage during the APEC summit. As government and corporate leaders from 21 Asia-Pacific economies plotted how to expand a global free trade agenda, civil society activists from throughout the Asia Pacific gathered across town at the Moana Nui (the Great Pacific Ocean) conference to discuss pressing issues facing people and the planet, such as climate change, income inequality, and militarization of the region.

Organized by Pua Mohala I Ka Po and the International Forum on Globalization (IFG), scholars, activists, policy analysts, lawyers, labor union leaders, practitioners, and artists traveled from Guam, Marshall Islands, Palau, Tonga, Fiji, Micronesia, New Zealand, Australia, Rapa Nui, Samoa, Japan, Siberia, Okinawa, Philippines, South Korea, Vanuatu, and the United States.

[…]

What’s significant is what preceded and then followed Obama’s China bashing. Ahead of the summit, both State Secretary Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta outlined the United States’ expanded role in the Asia-Pacific. In “America’s Pacific Century,” an article in Foreign Affairs, Secretary Clinton writes that the United States will “substantially increase investment—diplomatic, economic, strategic and otherwise—in the Asia-Pacific region.” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also echoed Clinton on his last trip to Asia, where he promised greater U.S. military presence throughout the Asia-Pacific—that is, more than the 300-plus U.S. bases that have already been there for over half a century.

After APEC, President Obama visited Australia to announce the arrival of 250 U.S. marines to northern Australia next year, with the eventual buildup to reach 2,500. “The goal, though administration officials are loath to say it publicly,” writes Mark Landler of the New York Times, “is to assemble a coalition to counterbalance China’s growing power.” Although Washington is posing China as a military threat, the reality is that in 2010, the United States spent $720 billion on its military, compared with China’s $116 billion, and it’s the United States that has over 300 military bases in the Asia-Pacific, whereas China has none.

Moana Nui: The Alternative to APEC

Moana Nui brought together several social movements—the indigenous and native communities fighting for sovereignty with activists working to stop corporate globalization and militarism. It was significant to be gathering in Hawai’i, a once-sovereign nation whose Queen Lili’uokalani was overthrown by American gunboat “diplomacy” in 1893. Moana Nui opened with a daylong conversation among indigenous and native communities from throughout the Pacific. This was an important reminder of the United States’ long history of stealing indigenous peoples’ lands, without treaties, without democratic process. Moana Nui participants also reframed the Pacific in aquatic terms as the “liquid continent” instead of the continental approach used by hegemonic powers.

Their voices were soon joined by those who have been organizing and resisting against the onslaught of trade liberalization and militarization, the new and more subtle face of colonialism. Moana Nui participants shared how transnational corporations, empowered by free trade and structural adjustment policies, have destroyed local economies, cultural properties, natural resources, and ultimately the sovereignty and self-sufficiency of communities. Jane Kelsey, Professor of Law at the University of Auckland, warned that the TPP will further impact domestic policy and regulation and “give more ammunition to corporations to challenge governments,” by granting foreign investors stronger intellectual property rights and further facilitating corporate global supply chains.

The corporate-led free trade agenda, however, needs the military to secure its profits. Kyle Kajihiro of Hawaii Peace and Justice reminded the audience of Thomas Friedman’s classic quote, “The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist—McDonald’s cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley’s technologies is called the United States Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.” The military has gone hand-in-hand with free trade by forcing open new markets for investment and new natural resources for exploitation (let’s not forget Iraq). Although it may allow for the safe and secure transport of vital natural resources such as oil and natural gas, the military is there to project force, a lethal force that could intervene militarily if U.S. interests were compromised.

[…]What was clear during Moana Nui was that the peoples of the Asia-Pacific refuse to fall victim to the growing arms race between the United States and China. Echoing a proverb widely known in the Pacific, Gerson warned, “When the elephants are battling or making love, it’s the ants that get squashed.” Activists from Guam and Okinawa shared how the decades-long presence of U.S. military bases had destroyed their livelihoods, culture, and sovereignty, but also how their organizing has led to victories, such as delaying the transfer of 8,000 U.S. marines from Okinawa to Guam, and mass protests that brought nearly 100,000 Okinawans to the streets to protest the transfer of U.S. bases within Okinawa.

[…]

The final sessions of Moana Nui carried a clear message: the only way to address these challenges to sovereignty is to fundamentally roll back the conditions and laws imposed by FTAs, the WTO, and structural adjustment. As Walden Bello put it, “We need to de-globalize economies instead of being subordinated to free trade and global markets if we want to achieve food security, human livelihoods and ecological sustainability.”

[…]

The final declaration that emerged out of Moana Nui united the struggles of those who traveled across the great Pacific Ocean. “We invoke our rights to free, prior and informed consent. We choose cooperative trans-Pacific dialogue, action, advocacy, and solidarity between and amongst the peoples of the Pacific, rooted in traditional cultural practices and wisdom.”

The declaration also included a Native Hawaiian prophesy which echoes the principles of the Occupy movement: E iho ana o luna, E pi’i ana o lalo, E hui ana na moku, E ku ana ka paia. “That which is above shall be brought down, that which is below shall rise up, the islands shall unite, the walls of our foundation shall stand.” E mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono. “Forever we will uphold the life and sovereignty of the land in righteousness.”

In APEC's Shadow: The Pacific People's Economy

Post Date November 11, 2011
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Category American Empire, Asia, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Global Justice and Peace Movements

http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2011/11/10/13740-in-apecs-shadow-the-pacific-peoples-economy/

In APEC’s Shadow: The Pacific People’s Economy

By Chad Blair11/10/2011

John Hook/Civil Beat

APEC is “armed and dangerous” and “drunk with power,” capable of enacting violence against people and destroying whole economies.

That harsh assessment comes from Victor Menotti, executive director of the International Forum on Globalization.

[…]

Moana Nui — Hawaiian for “big ocean” — was organized by “a loose collective” of academics, activists and community leaders. The speakers talked about a “liquid nation” that struggles to sustain itself in an “American lake,” to use the title of a book by the conference’s keynote speaker, Walden Bello.

[…]

“We envision a better future for all people,” said Osorio. “We never want to lose sight that we as a native people have a stake.”

“We come here to find a way to rise up to support the liquid nation,” said Menotti.

That nation involves labor, faith groups, environmentalists, peace activists and indigenous leaders.

Menotti continued: “All our different movements have come together to challenge APEC and the Trans-Pacific Partnership agenda and assert our own agenda.”

Pentagon Takes Aim at Asia-Pacific, and deploys mercenary social scientists

Post Date March 14, 2011
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Category American Empire, Asia, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Global Justice and Peace Movements, Guam / Northern Marianas, The Military in Hawai'i (All Islands), War and Peace

Recently, versions of the same op ed piece appeared in both Guam and Hawai’i newspapers by James A. Kent and and Eric Casino.  Kent describes himself as “an analyst of geographic-focused social and economic development in Pacific Rim countries; he is president of the JKA Group (www.jkagroup.com).”  Eric Casino is “a social anthropologist and freelance consultant on international business and development in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.”

The authors argue that Guam and Hawai’i should capitalize on the U.S. militarization of the Pacific and remake our island societies into “convergence zones” to counter China’s growing power and influence in the region.   They write:

Because of their critically important geographic positions at the heart of the Pacific, Hawaii and Guam are historically poised to become beneficial centers to the nations of the Western Pacific, the way Singapore serves countries around the South China Sea. In the 19th century, Hawaii was the “gas and go” center for whalers. In the 20th century it was the mobilization center for the war in the Pacific.

The writers even invoke the uprisings in the Arab world to encourage Guam and Hawai’i citizens to step up and take the reins of history:

Citizen action has shown itself as a critical component in the amazing political transformation sweeping the Middle East. It is time to change the old world of dominance and control by the few — to the participation and freedom for the many. The people of Hawaii and Guam will need to navigate these historic shifts with bold and creative rethinking.

“Change the old world dominance and control by the few – to the participation and freedom for the many”?   You would think that they were preaching revolution.  But its quite the opposite.   In the Guam version of the article, they attempt to repackage the subjugation of the peoples of Guam and Hawai’i as liberation, part of the neoliberal agenda of the upcoming APEC summit:

The opportunity to capitalize on these trends is aligned with the choice of Hawaii as the host of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.

Furthermore they encourage the people of Guam and Hawai’i to partake in and feed off of the militarization of our island nations while denigrating grassroots resistance:

The planned move of a part of the Marine Corps base must take place in a manner that builds Guam into a full social and economic participant in the power realignments and not just a military outpost for repositioning of American forces. Citizen unrest in Guam would sap U.S. energy to remain strategic and undermine its forward defense security.

So, while they exhort the people of Hawai’i and Guam “to navigate these historic shifts with bold and creative rethinking,” in the end, they are just selling the same old imperial and neoliberal arrangements imposed by foreign powers that the people of Hawai’i and Guam have had to contend with for centuries.

So what is the point of the op ed?  It makes more sense when you understand the history and context of the authors.  Both Kent and Casino are part of James Kent Associates, a consulting firm that has worked extensively with the Bureau of Land Management to manage the community concerns regarding development of natural resources in a number of western states.  In 1997, the Marine Corps hired JKA Group to help counter resistance from the Wai’anae community to proposed amphibious assault training at Makua Beach, or as they put it to help “sustain its training options at Makua Beach in a cooperative manner with the community, and to be sure that community impacts and environmental justice issues were adequately addressed. JKA engaged in informal community contact and description by entering the routines of the local communities.”

They were essentially ‘hired gun’ social scientists helping the military manipulate the community through anthropological techniques:

Prior to JKA’s involvement, the NEPA process was being “captured” by organized militants from the urban zones of Hawaii. The strategy of the militants was to disrupt NEPA by advocating for the importance of Makua as a sacred beach. As community workers identified elders in the local communities, the elders did not support the notion of a sacred beach-“What, you think we didn’t walk on our beaches?” They pointed to specific sites on the beach that were culturally important and could not be disturbed by any civilian or military activity. As this level of detail was injected into the EA process, the militants were less able to dominate the process and to bring forward their ideological agenda. They had to be more responsible or lose standing in the informal community because the latter understood: “how the training activity, through enhancements to the culture, can directly benefit community members. Therefore, the training becomes a mutual benefit, with the community networks standing between the military and the activists.”

So community members active in the Native Hawaiian, environmental and peace movements are “organized militants from urban zones of Hawaii”?   The military uses similar language to describe the resistance fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan.   In a way, their methods anticipated the use of anthropologists in the battlefield in the “Human Terrain System” program.

What they don’t report on their website is that they failed to win over the community. Opposition to the Marine amphibious exercises was so strong that PACOM hosted an unprecedented meeting between Wai’anae community leaders on the one hand and CINCPAC, the Governor, and other public officials on the other.  As preparations were made for nonviolent civil resistance, CINCPAC canceled the exercise in Makua and moved the amphibious landing to Waimanalo, where the community also protested.

It seems as though JKA Group has been contracted by the Marines once again to help manage the community resistance to the military invasion planned for Guam and Hawai’i.  So the people of Hawai’i and Guam will have to resist this assault “with bold and creative rethinking.”  One such initiative is the Moana Nui conference planned to coincide with APEC in Hawai’i in which the peoples of the Asia Pacific region can chart our own course for development, environmental protection, peace and security in a ways that “change the old world dominance and control by the few – to the participation and freedom for the many.”

On the topic of the militarization of the Asia-Pacific region, I recently spoke with Korean solidarity and human rights activist Hyun Lee and community organizer Irene Tung on their radio program Asia Pacific Forum on WBAI in New York City.

http://www.asiapacificforum.org/show-detail.php?show_id=221#610

Pentagon Takes Aim at Asia-Pacific

Last month, the Pentagon unveiled the first revision of the National Military Strategy since 2004, declaring, “the Nation’s strategic priorities and interests will increasingly emanate from the Asia-Pacific region.” Join APF as we discuss the implications of the new document.

Guests

  • KYLE KAJIHIRO is Director of DMZ Hawaii and Program Director of the American Friends Service Committee in Hawaii.

Clinton: APEC meeting is a chance for Hawai'i to showcase its 'diversity'

Post Date January 13, 2010
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Category Asia, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Global Justice and Peace Movements, The Military in Hawai'i (All Islands)

“Diversity”! I guess that’s our cue to bust out the flower shirts and grass skirts.  Cliches like “aloha spirit” and “diversity” have been so overused and abused by powerful interests in Hawai’i that they have lost their meaning, become empty, irritating and even dangerous ideas, weapons to be used against the rebellious.  When Native Hawaiians express anger at the historical injustices that continue to afflict them, they are scolded: “where’s your aloha spirit?”  But when business or politicians want to window dress their event or program, they wrap themselves in the idea of Hawai’i’s mythic “diversity” without having to deal with the messy inequalities, contradictions and conflicts that always simmer below the surface stoked by Hawai’i’s troubled past.  APEC will highlight Hawai’i’s dual nature as victim and accomplice of Empire.

Oh, yeah. The following article mentions that a “small group” held a solidarity demonstration.  It added to the “diversity” of the event.

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http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20100113_Isles_should_grab_spotlight_Clinton_says.html

SECRETARY OF STATE VISITS HAWAII

Isles should grab spotlight, Clinton says

Next year’s Asia-Pacific forum is a chance to demonstrate the state’s potential, she says

By Susan Essoyan

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jan 13, 2010

Hawaii has a chance to showcase its diversity and act as a model for the region when it hosts the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum next year, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday at the East-West Center in Manoa.

“The opportunity for Hawaii, which is such a meeting place for East and West, is just extraordinary,” Clinton said after giving a speech that stressed the need to strengthen regional institutions such as APEC.

The 50th state, Clinton said, can display not only its “culture and the history, but the diversity, the extraordinary mixture of people from across the Asia-Pacific regions.” “Certainly with the values that our country has and the aloha spirit that Hawaii exhibits, this could be a model for the imagination of what could be in the 21st century for many of the countries who will be visiting,” she said.

Clinton spoke on the lanai of the Hawaii Imin International Conference Center, overlooking its picturesque Japanese garden, to an invitation-only audience of about 150 people. Among the guests were East-West Center students, alumni and staff, as well as Gov. Linda Lingle, Mayor Mufi Hannemann, U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, former Govs. George Ariyoshi and John Waihee, ambassadors and consuls general.

The East-West Center was chosen as the site for her speech in part because it is marking the 50th anniversary of its founding by Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations among nations of Asia, the Pacific and the United States.

“I think it’s wonderful that we have this opportunity at the very beginning of our anniversary year to have a visit by such an important person,” said Gordon Ring, alumni officer at the East-West Center. “The Asian countries are aware of the East-West Center, but people on the U.S. mainland aren’t as aware of it. I think this really is going to help build our profile in the United States.”

Honolulu is the first stop on Clinton’s Pacific tour, her fourth trip to Asia since becoming the chief U.S. diplomat a year ago. She leaves today for Papua New Guinea. “I don’t think there is any doubt that the United States is back in Asia, but I want to underscore that we are back to stay,” she said.

“We are starting from a simple premise: America’s future is linked to the future of the Asia-Pacific region, and the future of this region depends on America,” Clinton said. She said the United States intends to play an active role, adding with a smile, “I don’t know if half of life is showing up, but I think half of diplomacy is showing up.”

Clinton emphasized the need to make organizations such as APEC and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations more efficient and effective. “No country, including our own,” she added, “should seek to dominate these institutions, but an active and engaged United States is critical to the success of these institutions.”

She highlighted dramatic changes in the region, “from soybeans to satellites, from rural outposts to gleaming mega-cities, from traditional calligraphy to instant messaging and, most importantly, from old hatreds to new partnerships.”

“We believe that Asia’s rise over the past two decades has given the region an opportunity for progress that simply didn’t exist before,” she said. “There is now the possibility for greater regional cooperation, and there is also a greater imperative.”

“APEC has been very focused on trade, which is important, but I am also focused on sustainable prosperity, broadly shared prosperity,” she said in response to a question. “We do not want to see the inequalities of the previous century being replicated among the steel and glass skyscrapers of a new age.”

Across the street, a small group held signs calling for the United States to shut its military bases. “Asia Pacific Vision: Peace,” read one. “U.S. bases out of Guam, Okinawa and Hawaii.”

"New Architecture" in the Asia-Pacific or just more hegemony?

Post Date January 13, 2010
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Category Asia, DMZ-Hawai'i / Aloha 'Aina In the News, Global Justice and Peace Movements, Guam / Northern Marianas, The Military in Hawai'i (All Islands)

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Terri Keko’olani, AFSC Hawai’i and DMZ-Hawai’i / Aloha ‘Aina. Photo:  Eri Oura

Below is another story from the KITV newscast about Sec. of State Clinton’s speech yesterday at the East West Center. Footage on the 10:00 pm news included the demonstration by AFSC Hawai’i, DMZ-Hawai’i / Aloha ‘Aina, Gaza Freedom March, World Can’t Wait and others.  The protest targeted the escalating U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and military realignment and expansion in Okinawa, Guam and Hawai’i, as well as the U.S. policies on Israel and Palestine.

Clinton’s speech was hyped as revealing the “new architecture of Asia”, but at its core, it just rehashed a centuries-old theme of America “power projecting” its “manifest destiny” across the Pacific to shape the security and economic environment in Asia.   In this imperial vision of the Asia-Pacific region, what really matters is Asia.  The Pacific is not seen as a real place, just a big protective moat to keep enemies at bay and a place to build strategic military bases within easy striking distance of potential Asian rivals.

Of course, quoting Obama, she made obligatory reference to the Pacific ocean binding us together rather than dividing us.  But this metaphor was ripped off from the peoples movements in the Pacific such as the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) which popularized the concept of the Pacific Ocean as Ka Moana Nui (The Great Ocean) that forms a liquid continent uniting the peoples of the Pacific.   If Obama felt truly bound to the peoples of the Pacific, then he would have supported the more aggressive climate change initiatives put forth in Copenhagen by drowning island states like Tuvalu.

No, at its  heart, the U.S. vision of the Pacific is still the “American Lake”.   The islands and peoples of the Pacific are just beautiful places to vacation or strategic locations to build military bases. How else do you explain the arrogance with which the U.S. violates the sovereignty of the small islands and imposes its military bases?  First Hawai’i, then Guam, American Samoa, the Marshall Islands, Palau, Okinawa, all the way to Puerto Rico and Diego Garcia.

I am reminded of Henry Kissinger’s notorious 1969 quote about U.S. nuclear tests in the Pacific: “There are only 90000 people out there. Who gives a damn?”

The U.S. peace movement should recognize the pivotal role small islands like Hawai’i, Guam and Okinawa play in the American Empire and its global network of military power.   To prevent wars from happening in the future, it is critical that Americans force their government to stop using small islands as military platforms to wage wars.

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Photo: Eri Oura

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http://www.kitv.com/news/22222221/detail.html

Clinton Discusses Asia-Pacific’s Importance

Secretary On 10-Day Trip Through Region

POSTED: 5:05 pm HST January 12, 2010

UPDATED: 9:23 pm HST January 12, 2010

HONOLULU — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a major policy speech in Honolulu on Tuesday at the East-West Center in Manoa about America’s future relationship with Asia.

Clinton celebrated the 50th anniversary of the East-West Center. She talked about how Asia is changing, and how the U.S. should respond.

Local politicians, Hawaii military leaders and people who work at the center attended her address.

Clinton is on a 10-day trip through the Asia-Pacific Region. Clinton said the Asia-Pacific region is important to America. She talked about the major changes in Asia in recent decades.

“It is a region that has gone from soybeans to satellites, from rural outposts to gleaming mega-cities, from traditional calligraphy to instant messaging and most importantly, from old hatreds to new partnerships,” Clinton said.

The U.S. and Asia are now linked economically and America will continue to maintain a presence in the region, Clinton said.

“The United States has a strong interest in continuing its tradition of economic and strategic leadership, and Asia has a strong interest in Asia in the U.S. remaining a dynamic, economic partner and a stabilizing military influence,” the secretary said.

The East-West Center audience was receptive and happy to host the Cabinet member.

“It was a tremendous honor the East-West Center 50th anniversary. So, we were overjoyed to hear her speech, get her illumination of the Asia-Pacific region,” said Floren Elman-Singh, of the East-West Center.

A group of about three-dozen people rallied outside of the East-West Center about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq and the move of a Marine base to another part of Okinawa, Japan.

Clinton also visited Pearl Harbor, where she presented a wreath aboard the USS Arizona Memorial to commemorate the Americans who died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Earlier in the day she met with Japan’s foreign minister. Read more about that here.

Copyright 2010 by KITV.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Defense appropriations subcommittee led by Inouye increases war funding 20%

Post Date September 09, 2009
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Category Afghanistan, Iraq, Military Appropriations, Earmarks, Military-industrial-academic complex, The Military in Hawai'i (All Islands), War and Peace

As reported in the Washington Post, Senator Inouye pushed for more funding for C-17s:

In a separate action Wednesday, the subcommittee joined the House in adding funds to the appropriations bill to purchase an additional 10 C-17 transport airplanes. The Obama administration has said it does not need the planes.

“We expect that in re-examining its airlift fleet the Defense Department will eventually conclude that purchasing additional C-17’s … is the right solution” for meeting the increasing need for airlift, Inouye said.

But according to an article in Politico.com,

Senate appropriators have backed the White House and bucked the House over two major Pentagon programs – a fleet of helicopters for the president and an alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The Senate and the House found common ground in supporting the F-22:
There is nothing to resolve regarding the F-22 Raptor. The Senate subcommittee followed the House’s lead, providing over $560 million for maintenance of the fifth-generation fighter jet.

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Updated at 2:38 p.m., Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Senate subcommittee led by Inouye OKs 20% increase in Afghan funding

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post

WASHINGTON – A key Senate subcommittee on Wednesday trimmed $900 million from the amount requested by the Obama administration to support Afghan security forces next year, but the $6.6 billion approved in the funding measure will still permit a 20 percent increase over this fiscal year to help train and equip the army and police in Afghanistan.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has indicated that improving the Afghan security forces is central to defeating the Taliban insurgency, providing security for the country’s population and permitting broader reconstruction to take place.

In announcing details of the fiscal 2010 defense appropriations bill, Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on defense, said Wednesday: “While we strongly concur with the administration that increased funding is needed to train and equip our Afghan army and police forces, it makes no sense to provide more funding than can be spent when other shortfalls exist.”

Members of the subcommittee said the administration had agreed that the $7.5 billion it originally requested for Afghan security forces could not be spent in the 2010 fiscal year. The committee decided instead to increase by $1.2 billion the amount to be spent on so-called “baby MRAPs,” all-terrain vehicles used to safeguard troops from improvised explosive devices.

In broad terms, the subcommittee’s bill, which provides $636.3 billion for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, is $3.9 billion less than the amount requested by President Obama. Of the amount approved, $128.2 billion is for “overseas contingency operations,” essentially meaning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Under the Bush administration, funds for Iraq and Afghanistan were approved in supplemental appropriations bills, a process that critics said obscured the full cost of the fighting.

In a separate action Wednesday, the subcommittee joined the House in adding funds to the appropriations bill to purchase an additional 10 C-17 transport airplanes. The Obama administration has said it does not need the planes.

“We expect that in re-examining its airlift fleet the Defense Department will eventually conclude that purchasing additional C-17’s … is the right solution” for meeting the increasing need for airlift, Inouye said.

Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., who noted that 4,000 Boeing workers in Long Beach will now keep their jobs, hailed the subcommittee’s decision as “good news for our workers and our military service members.”

Inouye said the subcommittee had cut by $300 million from last year the value of earmarks pushed by members, reducing the number overall by “nearly 200 projects.”

He said, “I hope that that our colleagues can support this package with its streamlined approach to earmarking.”

Because Inouye is chairman of the full Senate Appropriation’s committee, his subcommittee’s decisions are expected to easily pass the full panel on Thursday and be sent to the Senate floor.

Source: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090909/BREAKING01/90909076/Senate+subcommittee+led+by+Inouye+OKs+20++increase+in+Afghan+funding+

Ann Wright to speak about her recent trips to Gaza, Japan and Guam

Post Date August 20, 2009
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Category Action Alerts and Events, American Empire, Guam / Northern Marianas, The Military in Hawai'i (All Islands)

Ann Wright to speak about her recent trips to Gaza, Japan and Guam

Sunday, August 23 at 3pm.

Revolution Books

2626 S King St # 201, Honolulu, HI 96826-3248

(808) 944-3106)

Ann Wright will be speaking at Revolution Books this Sunday afternoon at 3pm. She was also interviewed for a new show on Voices of Resistance (Olelo 56) that will air on Monday evening at 8pm.

Ann will update us on her trip to Gaza/Israel, but focus on her tour of Guam, Okinawa, and Japan, where she continued to speak out against military expansion and empire. At a time when all too many people are sitting home hoping that Obama’s war policies will somehow be better than Bush’s, and while the evidence is proving otherwise, it is tremendously heartening that Ann Wright is continuing to call people to resist the war. Join us on Sunday in welcoming Ann back. As always, there will be light refreshments after her talk and everyone is invited to stay and talk story informally.

Following are some links to articles about Ann’s recent tour:

Guam Resists Military Colonization: Guam/Common Dreams

Ann Wright Goes to Guam-Takes on Empire: Guam/After Downing

In Hiroshima: Huffington Post

China warns against missile defence systems

Post Date August 14, 2009
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Category Uncategorized

China warns against missile defence systems

AFP

Wed Aug 12, 7:34 am ET

GENEVA (AFP) – China’s foreign minister warned on Wednesday that there was a “looming danger” of an arms race in outer space, as he urged countries not to deploy missile defence systems that could undermine global security.

“The practice of seeking absolute strategic advantage should be abandoned,” Yang Jiechi told the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

“Countries should neither develop missile defence systems that undermine global strategic security nor deploy weapons in outer space,” he added.

US President Barack Obama has been reviewing a planned missile defence shield championed by his predecessor, which remains a major source of tension with Russia.

The Obama administration has not backed down from the shield, which would partly be based in Poland and the Czech Republic, but insists that is not directed against Russia.

Russia’s air force commander said on Monday that Moscow was developing new missiles to counter space-based systems that could soon be deployed by the United States.

“Outer space is now facing the looming danger of weaponisation,” said Yang.

“Credible and effective multilateral measures must be taken to forestall the weaponisation and arms race in outer space,” he added, calling such steps of “high strategic significance.”

Both Russia and China have proposed a new treaty banning the use of weapons in space, but the idea has been rejected by the United States.

Nonetheless, the issue is one of those up for international discussion under the Conference on Disarmament’s recent landmark decision to revive talks after more than a decade of deadlock.

In a speech reaffirming China’s commitment to international nuclear weapons safeguards and disarmament, Yang backed attempts to strengthen the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency and to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

“The international security situation is undergoing the most profound change since the end of the Cold War,” Yang acknowledged. “Unprecedented opportunities now exist in international disarmament.”

Yang reiterated China’s insistance on a peaceful resolution of the nuclear standoffs with North Korea and Iran, and called on the IAEA to play a greater role in promoting the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

That should include “the possibility of establishing a multilateral nuclear fuel supply mechanism,” he added. Western countries have been sceptical of the idea proposed by Russia.

The Chinese foreign minister stopped short of signalling Beijing’s swifter ratification of a ban on nuclear tests.

“The Chinese government is dedicated to promoting early ratification of the treaty and will continue to make active efforts toward this end,” Yang said, pledging to work with the international community for “early entry into force.”

Although China was amongst the first to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, it is one of nine nations that are preventing its entry into force because they have either not ratified or signed it.

The only other traditional nuclear power not to have ratified is the United States.

However, Obama announced in April that he wanted to press ahead with US ratification, reversing the stance of George W. Bush’s administration.

The other outstanding ratifications are Egypt, Indonesia, Iran and Israel.

India, Pakistan, and North Korea have not signed the test ban treaty, which is regarded as a cornerstone of efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and promote disarmament.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090812/wl_asia_afp/chinanuclearweaponsdisarmdefence

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