Stop
RIMPAC
Stop U.S. Wars of Aggression
Last week
Defense Secretary Mattis announced that the U.S. Pacific Command, the military’s
largest geographical area command based in Honolulu, has a new name: “U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.”
According to Mattis, this formalizes the U.S.’s commitment to “stretch beyond East Asia and into the
subcontinent, in part to better compete with China and Iran.” This change in
name also overtly expresses the U.S.’s determination to exercise military
control of the region just prior to Mattis’s series of meetings with leaders of
Indo-Pacific countries at the 2018
International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-La Dialogue in
Singapore. Under Trump’s administration, the Pentagon has
prioritized a stronger relationship with India, in particular, which is seen as
an essential supporter in maintaining shipping lanes which are currently being
challenged by China, as well as support for U.S. wars in Afghanistan, the
Middle East and Africa.
This change
takes place just before the Rim of the Pacific Military Exercise (RIMPAC), the largest maritime military exercise in the
world. This year 26 nations, more than 25,000
personnel, 45 ships, 5 submarines, and 250 planes are expected to participate
in the month-long “war games” in Hawai`i in order to better prepare the U.S.
for wars of aggression in the Indo-Pacific – an area that now stretches from
the coasts of the Americas to the coasts of Africa, India, and Middle eastern
countries.
RIMPAC
exercises have been conducted biennially since 1971, but this year’s June
exercises are the largest ever and a reflection of both the U.S.’s military
expansion and contention. China, which
was previously a participant, has been suddenly “disinvited.” Israel, with its close proximity to Iran,
has been invited to participate. As the
Trump administration continues Obama’s “Pivot to the Pacific” (now renamed the
“Pacific Rebalance” by the Trump Regime), it is anticipated that these “war games”
will grow, sending an ominous message to the people of the world, as well as to
people in Hawai`i.
RIMPAC
simulates a hypothetical sea-battle between countries. It pollutes land,
ocean and air, causes irreparable damage to vulnerable sea life, reefs and
shorelines, and increases Hawai`i’s economic dependence on U.S. militarism. Cruise missiles are fired from ships and
submarines. Land-based missiles fire on ships. Planes drop bombs on
ocean targets. The latest in weaponry is tested and operations
include amphibious operations, gunnery, counter-piracy, mine clearance,
explosive ordnance disposal, mass casualty exercises, and diving and salvage
operations. RIMPAC 2018 will host its first “Innovation Fair”
at Pearl Harbor Naval Base which will showcase the latest surveillance,
robotics, and weaponry.
In the face of this, a number of
community organizations are beginning to mobilize against RIMPAC, mainly
calling attention to the tremendous environmental harm caused by these
exercises . Ships are towed out to sea
and then targeted with missiles and torpedoes until they sink to a watery
graveyard on the ocean floor where they leach toxic chemicals which accumulate
in the bodies of fish, dolphins and whales.
Amphibious landing exercises,
damage reefs, erode shoreline, and endanger wildlife. Military
sonar and underwater bomb detonations drive dolphins and whales from
feeding areas, causing them to beach in panic, interfering with communication
and mating, causing hemorrhages and embolisms in their bodies. Military personnel from 26 countries leave
their ships to “practice with the entire gamut of weapons systems, everything
from the pistol all the way up to 84mm rockets and missiles” at Pohakuloa
Training Area, the largest life-fire training area in the U.S. and located on
the island of Hawai`i.
The U.S.
military has done, and continues to do, irreparable damage to Hawai`i’s people,
land, air and sea. Areas that have been used
for live fire training and bombing practice are uninhabitable. Indigenous Hawaiian cultural sites have been
destroyed. Military fuel storage tanks are leaking poisons into the
drinking water in Hawai`i's most populous city. Vast areas of land
and water are so toxic as to be unusable. In a state where land is
extremely limited the U.S. military occupies a larger percentage of land
than in any other state, paying only $1/year for each base or tract.
This has contributed to making Hawai`i #1 in cost of living, as well as in
homelessness.
The damage the U.S. military has done,
and continues to do in Hawai`i is criminal and cannot be accepted. At the same time, while carrying out
struggles against RIMPAC and further military expansion, people in Hawai`i have
to at the same time recognize that an even greater crime against the world is
being committed. These “war games,” are not only harmful
Hawai`i but are preparation for carrying out wars against other countries and
peoples. Anti-war activists in Hawai’i
often refer to Hawai`i as the head of the “he’e” (octopus). This head has arms – arms that spread across
the entire Pacific. An anti-war activist
in Cambodia told us, “When I hear the
word “Hawai`i”, I don’t think about Paradise.
I think about the B-52’s that flew from Hawai`i to kill us.” This is what the RIMPAC “games” are
about.
World
Can’t Wait-Hawai`i
