World Can't Wait Statement Against RIMPAC

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.

RIMPAC begins on June 27^th and a variety of events opposing it are being planned.  Actions at Pearl Harbor are being called.  Forums, poetry readings, and film showings are being held and a petition is circulating (https://www.change.org/p/for-people-land-air-sea-stop-rimpac-military-exercises).   Military personnel will be leafleted when they come ashore.

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