Tag: Movements and Resistance

http://www.truth-out.org/war-and-tragedy-commons/1312405464

War and the Tragedy of the Commons

Chinese scholar Lü Chao, with the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences wrote an op ed article critical of a naval base in Jeju island:

The South Korean Defence Ministry recently decided to build a naval base on the island. US troops in South Korea will certainly use the naval base as a strategic outpost to contain China and ensure the regional ocean hegemony of the US.

[…]

South Korea is destroying the tourist resources on Jeju Island and changing the natural and human environment of the island, just in order to build a military base and turn the original “peaceful window” into a weapon aimed at its neighbor. I suggest that Chinese tourists boycott the tours to the island and let the “military island” disappear on the map of China’s huge tourism market.

It would be interesting to hear what Chinese tourists, whom the state of Hawai’i tourism authority is so desperately courting, think about the “military islands” of Hawai’i as a weapon aimed at China.

The article urges strong action by the Chinese government and people to oppose the Jeju base:

In order to maintain the long-term peace of the region, China should take actions, including economic sanctions, to react to provocative moves like this without hesitation.

Will China will also oppose the military expansion underway in Okinawa, Guam and Hawai’i?  “In order to maintain the long-term peace of the region,” we hope China says something.

Nick Turse has written another revealing article about the contours and scope of the U.S. empire:

Obama’s Arc of Instability

Destabilizing the World One Region at a Time

By Nick Turse

It’s a story that should take your breath away: the destabilization of what, in the Bush years, used to be called “the arc of instability.”  It involves at least 97 countries, across the bulk of the global south, much of it coinciding with the oil heartlands of the planet.  A startling number of these nations are now in turmoil, and in every single one of them — from Afghanistan and Algeria to Yemen and Zambia — Washington is militarily involved, overtly or covertly, in outright war or what passes for peace.

Garrisoning the planet is just part of it.  The Pentagon and U.S. intelligence services are also running covert special forces and spy operations, launching drone attacks, building bases and secret prisons, training, arming, and funding local security forces, and engaging in a host of other militarized activities right up to full-scale war.  But while you consider this, keep one fact in mind: the odds are that there is no longer a single nation in the arc of instability in which the United States is in no way militarily involved.

Covenant of the Arc

“Freedom is on the march in the broader Middle East,” the president said in his speech.  “The hope of liberty now reaches from Kabul to Baghdad to Beirut and beyond. Slowly but surely, we’re helping to transform the broader Middle East from an arc of instability into an arc of freedom.”

An arc of freedom.  You could be forgiven if you thought that this was an excerpt from President Barack Obama’s Arab Spring speech, where he said “[I]t will be the policy of the United States to… support transitions to democracy.”  Those were, however, the words of his predecessor George W. Bush.  The giveaway is that phrase “arc of instability,” a core rhetorical concept of the former president’s global vision and that of his neoconservative supporters.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Thomas Barnett, a military analyst at the U.S. Naval War College had been discussing a similar theory with military leaders.  He wrote an article and later a book entitled “The Pentagon’s New Map”, in which he argued that the new challenge for peace and security was integrating the underdeveloped and unstable countries of the world  – “the gap” – into the “functioning core”.   It is essentially a map of global empire.   Looks like U.S. policies are widening the “gap” so much that it might swallow up everything else, including the so-called “core”.

Activists and U.S. troops have been saying this for years: U.S. forces in Mindanao are involved in military operations, not merely training and advising.  But recent cables released by Wikileaks confirm the extent that the State Department had knowledge of and was involved in the conspiracy to cover up this fact.  And the cables advise lying about the military operations.  They also reveal the role of Philippines officials in encouraging the expanded role for the U.S. military despite constitutional limitations against foreign bases and troops in the Philippines.  Here is a very fnformative article by Jojo Malig on abs-cbnNEWS.com.

WikiLeaks cables: US forces directly involved in Mindanao terror hunt

MANILA, Philippines – US Special Forces troops have been directly involved in hunting down suspected terrorists in Mindanao, several diplomatic cables released by anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks revealed.

Cable 06MANILA3401, classified secret and sent August 14, 2006 in the name of US embassy deputy chief of mission Paul Jones, said US Special Forces troops and ships gave “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support to the 87-plus maritime interdictions” in Jolo, Sulu during an Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) campaign in the said year against Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) leaders on the island.

It added that this was made possible because the US Navy’s Joint Venture and Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines’ (JSOTF-P) Mark V special operations crafts and rigid-hull inflatable boats are already fully integrated into the Philippine Navy.

The US embassy, however, wanted to hide this from the public.

In the cable’s “if asked – press guidance” section, US officials are told to say that “US forces are not directly involved in this operation, but are providing support. Our forces, in a support role, advise, train, and share information with AFP forces.”

Another cable, 06MANILA4439, said US troops also helped their Philippine counterparts intercept terrorists fleeing from Jolo in 2006.

“US and Philippine forces worked seamlessly to intercept two vessels (one of them high-speed) attempting to flee Jolo for Basilan,” said the confidential cable.

JSOTF-P in action

“Following reports that Umar Patek may have been trying to escape, U.S. P-3 aircraft; Joint Task Force 515 helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles; and Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) MK-V vessels shadowed the two boats and vectored an intercept by Philippine Navy and Philippine National Police Maritime Group units,” it said.

US troops under the 600-strong JSOTF-P were also involved in fighting in Jolo November 12 and 13 that involved an AFP operation to either capture or kill key ASG sub-commander Dr. Abu, according to secret cable 05MANILA5316.

“[JSOTF-P] liaison elements provided intelligence support and advice at the battalion-level and above during the operation. JSOTF-P was not involved in the planning phase of the operation until it was well underway, and was, therefore, unable to assist in developing its more detailed aspects,” said the cable, which has a “NOFORN,” or “Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals” caveat.

The JSOTF-P, which is composed of Special Forces personnel from the US Army, Navy, Air, Air Force, and Marines, is also mentioned in other cables published by WikiLeaks.

The headquarters of US Special Forces troops deployed in the Philippines  is based in Zamboanga City. The JSOTF-P has 3 subordinate regional task forces, as well as personnel in Manila who work with the US embassy and the AFP General Headquarters.

Forward deployment

Secret cable 06MANILA4378 also revealed that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents also joined the JSOTF-P in testing the “forward deployment” of US federal agents.

“The concept works,” it said.

The cable said 2 FBI agents “examined and exploited for US law enforcement purposes” pieces of evidence seized during a raid by Philippine security forces on an Abu Sayyaf safe house in Jolo City and backpacks recovered after an encounter between Abu Sayyaf terrorists and AFP units in 2006.

The evidence was then sent to the FBI Crime Laboratory in Washington “for analysis and additional exploitation,” it added.

The FBI agents also helped the Philippine military gather and analyze other pieces of evidence. “They are helping to develop new procedures for securing sites and evidence handling,” the cable said.

“FBI deployment with JSOTF-P is an innovative concept that puts US law enforcement officers where they need to be to collect vital evidence on terrorists who target US interests.  We urge that this program be continued,” said the cable, purportedly sent by then US Ambassador Kristie Kenney

‘Push the envelope’

According to cable 05MANILA286, former Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz sought ways to expand joint Philippine-US counterterrorism operations “within the perceived limits of the Philippine constitution.”

“Attorney Norman Daanoy, Chief of the DND’s Office of Legal Affairs, in a January 13 legal brief to Secretary Cruz, argued that, while prohibited from engaging in combat except in self-defense, U.S. forces in the Philippines could engage in a range of ‘combat-related activities,’ to include providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support to the AFP,” it added.

“Attorney Jose Pascual, Secretary Cruz’s Legal Counsel, seconded this view in talks with US counterparts, noting the Philippine Supreme Court (Lim vs. Executive Secretary, 380 SCRA 742) explicitly ‘authorized’ U.S. forces to assist, advise, and train GRP counterparts,” the cable said.

It quoted Pascqual to have told US officials that the DND, under Cruz, was trying to “push the envelope in respect to combat-related activities.”

“Pascual, who previously worked for Cruz as a member of the Malacañang legal staff, noted, however, any proposed activity should fall under “the rubric of exercise” because of the difficulty the word ‘operation’ posed for the Filipino side,” it added.

Back when Jonathan Gilbert was still in middle school, he attended his cousin’s graduation ceremony from the U.S. Army’s basic training, watching men in neatly pressed uniforms marching, saluting one another, and smiling.

“That was it for him,” Gilbert’s mother, Karrie Champion, tells The Daily Beast. “He knew what he wanted to do. He enlisted before he was out of high school.”

The boy had no idea what he was getting into—that he’d wind up in Iraq, driving a Stryker, watching the unit in the caravan ahead of him roll off a bridge and land upside down. Two soldiers were killed, one of them decapitated. Nineteen-year-old Jonathan helped clean up the body parts.

This event and his upcoming redeployment, Gilbert’s mom believes, is what led her son to kill himself on July 28 at the age of 21, forcing a pistol to his head and pulling the trigger after a violent struggle with a fellow soldier who apparently tried to stop him. It was the 11th “suspicious death” (the Army has yet to officially declare any of them suicides) of a soldier stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord this year. Assuming they’re all ruled suicides, that tops the previous record set the year before, of nine. The year before that, there were nine suicides, too.

Champion, along with a growing legion of modern-day war veterans and their families, says it’s long past time the Army took notice of a tragic, preventable epidemic—one that seems especially acute at Lewis-McChord.

A statement by Ashley Joppa-Hagemann about how the war drove her husband to committed suicide, provides a clue to how to understand epidemic of PTSD and suicides:  “He said the things he had seen and done, no God would have forgiven him.”

In a recent conversation with a friend who is a brilliant scholar, activist and theologian, we discussed how the PTSD afflicting many GIs is actually a sign of their humanity, and hope.  When good people do evil things as part of a group, the spiritual and moral contradiction can become too great a burden to bear, especially when there is no room in their organization to question or criticize the morality of what they have done.  Unfortunately, it seems that most PTSD ‘treatment’ is oriented to helping troops adjust and cope, but does not challenge the morality and legality of their mission.  It is precisely in the moral conflict experienced by many of the troops with PTSD that we might help them to redeem their humanity. Prevent suicides by ending the wars and the military cult of violence.

The Ryukyu Shimpo reports that the U.S. returned Gimbaru Training Area to the local community:

The United States military returned the Gimbaru Training Area to Kin Town and other owners, on July 31, 54 years after the land was appropriated for military use. Twenty-three hectares of a total area of 60 hectares were handed over to the owners. Thirty-three hectares will be returned to the landowners after the completion of works including the removal of buildings and researching and analyzing the environment for residual pollution using the likes of a magnetic survey. Four hectares of state-owned land and ridou, or old public road without lot-numbers, will be transferred to the Town. A total of 43 individuals and organizations, including Kin Town, own land inside the Ginbaru Training Area. Because the government will not pay a rental fee for the land, special financial compensation will be paid to the landowners for up to three years from August 1, the day that the land is returned.

The return of the Ginbaru Training Area was agreed upon by the governments of the United States and Japan in the final report of the Special Action Committee (SACO) in 1996. However, there was a delay in the return process because it was decided that the helipad in Ginbaru should be moved to the Blue Beach Training Area in the same town, and so the return of the Training Area was significantly delayed beyond the scheduled date of the end of 1997. The Training Area is the fifth facility that the final report of SACO agreement decided should be returned.

The local community plans to convert the base into medical rehabilitation and lodging facilities. One local leader expressed their vision:

Tsuyoshi Gibu, head of Kin Town who went into the training area on July 31, said, “I feel quite emotional about this. We want to develop it as a model for the consolidation and reduction of U.S. bases. We will ask the government to help us to succeed in converting the military facilities to civil use.”

It is a shame that Hawaiʻi leaders lacked the vision and the will to create a model base conversion when the Barbers Point Naval Air Station closed several years ago.

The U.S. military is still an irritant to the local community:

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has often carried out helicopter landing drills outside the helipad in the Blue Beach Training Area, despite the government having promised that the helicopter landing drills will fundamentally be held at the helipad. Town officials have protested to the U.S. military, and requested that they hold the drills at the helipad within the Blue Beach Training Area.

Meanwhile, more than 4000 Okinawan landowners whose land is occupied by U.S. military bases will not renew their contracts for U.S. military use of their land.  The Ryukyu Shimpo reports:

Lease contracts between the Government and local landowners providing their land for military use will expire on May 14, 2012. One hundred and seventy four landowners with land on 17 facilities who agreed to enter into a contract with the government the previous time round, in 1992, have refused to sign this time. The combined total land area of their property amounts to 426998 square meters (308 hitsu numbers).

The refusal by landowners to enter into a contract will be a first for six facilities of the Okuma Rest Center, Camp Schwab, Kin Blue Beach Training Area, Camp Courtney, Camp McTureous and White Beach. There were no rejections of contract offers the previous time in 1992.

But it seems that the Japanese military will impose the lease arrangement on these landowners despite their refusal to lease the land:

On August 29, the Okinawa Defense Bureau announced that the Defense Minister approved the procedures for the use of this land for 17 facilities based on the Special Land Lease. A total of 3832 landowners have not responded to requests to lease their lands for military use and the Defense Minister has moved to carry out the procedure in these cases. With 174 new landowners rejecting the contracts, the number of landowners who do not confirm their approval will reach about 4000 with their land area totaling 72 hectares.

(If anyone can explain the “Special Land Lease” laws, please write a comment or send an email. ) So much for democracy and liberty in occupied Okinawa.  In Hawaiʻi the military has seized tens of thousands of acres of land through condemnation proceedings.