Tag: Movements and Resistance

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Suicide of Hawaiʻi Marine raises issues of hazing, racial jokes

The Honolulu Star Advertiser reports that the hearing about the hazing and subsequent suicide of Lance Cpl. Harry Lew may have had racial overtones.  Lew was Chinese American:

Hazing and race in the Marine Corps were focused on Friday as a hearing at Marine Corps Base Hawaii continued to examine the suicide death of Lance Cpl. Harry Lew in Afghanistan and whether three Marines should be punished for their actions leading up to it.

The 21-year-old from Santa Clara, Calif., was on his first combat deployment when he was subjected to a series of physical tasks, had sand dumped on his face, and was kicked and punched in the helmet after falling asleep on guard duty for the fourth time at an austere patrol base, according to an investigation.

[…]

Investigating officer Lt. Col. Douglas Gardner, the judge in the case, repeatedly asked witnesses whether Lew’s Asian-American background was the subject of comments.

Navy corpsman Bruce Lara, who is of Asian descent and served with Lew at PB Gowragi, said racial jokes did bother Lew to a small degree, but that there was equal treatment of all ethnicities in Marines’ jokes.

It turns out that Lew was related to some powerful people:

A House Armed Services hearing Friday on the status of suicide prevention programs in the military gave leaders from the Navy, Army, Air Force and Marine Corps a chance to answer lawmakers’ questions about identifying service members at risk and other steps they are taking to stop suicides. The military witnesses highlighted their efforts and described how services members often “dance with some dragons,” which was how Marine Lt. Gen. Robert Milstead Jr., put it.

Toward the end of the hourlong session, California Rep. Judy Chu talked about the life and death of Lew.

He was her nephew.

On August 18, the Everett Herald reported:

Since the first of July, five soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord have died in apparent suicides, part of an Army-wide upsurge in such deaths despite stepped-up prevention efforts.

Democracy Now! interviewed Ashley Joppa-Hagemann, the widow of 25-year-old Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann, who committed suicide on June 28, 2011, ahead of his eighth redeployment to Iraq & Afghanistan. She confronted former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Friday about his role in inspiring her husband to enlist after 9/11.

Other stories about Ms. Joppa-Hagemann confrontation with Rumsfeld can be read here and here.

Troop suicides are at an all time high, and the military does not know what to do.  Well, they can start by ending the illegal and immoral wars.

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The Iraq War is Not Over

http://www.ips-dc.org/blog/headlines_or_not_the_iraq_war_is_not_over

Headlines or Not, the Iraq War is Not Over

September 7, 2011 · By Phyllis Bennis

One month without U.S. military deaths does little to undo the damage of thousands of Iraqi lives lost in this “dumb” war.

It might seem like there’s a cause for celebration after reading the New York Times headline, “Iraq War Marks First Month with No U.S. Military Deaths.” But the smaller print on the page reminds us why celebrating is not really in order: “Many Iraqis are killed…” The cost of this war is still way too high — in Iraqi lives and in our money.Out of Iraq Now!

With so much attention and so many billions of our tax dollars shifting from Iraq to the devastating and ever more costly war in Afghanistan, it is too easy to forget that there are still almost 50,000 U.S. troops occupying Iraq. We are still paying almost $50 billion just this year for the war in Iraq. And while we don’t hear about it very often, many Iraqis are still being killed.

There’s an awful lot of discussion underway about the massive cuts in the Pentagon’s budget that may be looming as part of the deficit deal. But somehow few are mentioning that those potential cuts from the defense department’s main budget don’t even touch the actual war funding — this year alone it’s $48 billion for Iraq and $122 billion for the war in Afghanistan.

Just imagine what we could do with those funds — we could provide health care for 43 million children for two years, or hire 2.4 million police officers to help keep our communities safe for a year. Or we could create and fund new green middle-class jobs for 3.4 million workers — maybe including those thousands of soldiers we could bring home from those useless wars.

Barack Obama, back when he was a presidential candidate, promised he would end the war in Iraq. In 2002, he called it a “dumb” war. The U.S. role in the war has gotten smaller but it sure isn’t over. And it hasn’t gotten any smarter. A year ago Obama told us that all combat operations in Iraq were about to end, that “our commitment in Iraq is changing from a military effort” to — what exactly? The 50,000 or so troops still in Iraq are there, we are told, to train Iraqi security forces, provide security for civilians, and, oh yes, to conduct counterterrorism operations. Apparently “counterterrorism operations” don’t count as part of a military effort?

Even worse, the Obama administration, following its predecessor’s footsteps, is clearly committed to keeping U.S. troops in Iraq beyond the December 31, 2011 deadline agreed to by the Bush administration and Iraq back in 2008. That agreement was supposed to be absolute — it called for all U.S. troops to be pulled out by the end of this year. (There were loopholes, of course — the agreement said all Pentagon-paid military contractors had to leave too, but didn’t mention those paid by the State Department, so guess which agency is taking over the check-writing to pay the thousands of mercenaries preparing to stay in Iraq for the long haul?)

But now the Obama administration is ratcheting up the pressure on Iraq’s weak and corrupt government, pushing Baghdad’s U.S.-dependent leadership to “invite” U.S. troops to stay just a little bit longer. Iraq’s elected parliament, like the vast majority of the population, wants all the troops out. But democratic accountability to the people doesn’t operate any better in Iraq than it does here in the U.S. So the Iraqi cabinet made its own decision, without any messy consultations with their parliament, to “open negotiations” with Washington over how many and how long U.S. troops would continue occupying their country.

Of course it’s good news that no U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq in August. The bad news is that scores of Iraqi civilians were killed. We don’t know exactly how many — the Pentagon says it doesn’t do body counts. But we know some of them. According to IraqBodyCount.org, 36 Iraqi civilians were killed in the first five days of the month. Just on one day, August 15, the New York Times reported 89 Iraqis killed, another 315 injured in apparently coordinated attacks. And on the last day of the month, August 31st, at least seven Iraqis were killed, another 25 wounded. And those are just the ones we know about.

The Iraq War isn’t over. It still costs too much in the lives of Iraqi civilians and in U.S. taxpayer dollars. We still can’t afford dumb wars. We need to bring those 50,000 troops and those fifty billion dollars home. And the way to do that is to follow the money: keep the pressure up on the links between our economic crisis and the costs of these illegal, useless wars. It’s really dumb if we don’t.

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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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Senator Inouye working against the people of Okinawa

According to the Japan Times, it appears that Senator Inouye is using his power as the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee to pressure the Japanese government to proceed with plans to relocate the US Futenma base to Henoko despite the overwhelming opposition of the people of Okinawa:

Democratic Party of Japan policy chief Seiji Maehara agreed with an influential U.S. senator Thursday to proceed with the current plan for relocating the Futenma base within Okinawa Prefecture, a DPJ source said.

[…]

Inouye told Maehara that the two governments need to work together toward promoting the bilateral accord to transfer Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within Okinawa from the densely populated city of Ginowan to a coastal area in Nago.

Itʻs not enough that Hawaiʻi has been devoured by military interests. The tentacles are squeezing Okinawa, Guam, Korea.

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…Yes, DLNR will let the Army violate Mauna Kea

Marti Townsend of KAHEA reported:

Another disappointing day at the BLNR.

After five hours of testimony (the majority in opposition), the Land Board voted to accept the finding of no significant impact in the final environmental assessment. The vote was:

Pacheco: No
Edlao: yes
Alia: yes
Goode: yes
Agor: yes
Gon: no

Then after that they voted to approve the right of entry permit, along the same vote lines. The logic expressed by Agor and Edlao was that it was a short time period, an EIS will be required next time, and tho there may be an impact if we limited our actions based on what “may” happen then nothing would ever happen.

Pacheco spoke strongly in support of protecting the Palila habitat. Gon spoke strongly in support doing a more comprehensive cultural impact assessment. Aila didn’t say anything.

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Keep Space for Peace Week: International Days of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space, October 1 – 8 2011

The Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space is calling for local groups to organize actions against the militarization of space.   They have organizing tool kits online for organizing your own action.   Check it out!

Keep Space for Peace Week

International Days of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space

 

October 1 – 8 2011

  • Stop the Drones
  • No Missile Defense
  • End the wars & occupations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya
  • Bring Our War $$ Home
  • Convert the Military Industrial Complex

October 1-8
LOCAL ACTIONS (list in formation)

Albuquerque, New Mexico (Oct 5) Showing documentary Pax-Americana & the Weaponization of Space 6:00 pm at the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice.  Contact Stop the War Machine at 505-268-9557 or citizen@comcast.net

Albuquerque, New Mexico (Oct 8) Anti-war and use of space for war protest at the University of New Mexico bookstore plaza, Central Avenue.  Contact Stop the War Machine at 505-268-9557 or citizen@comcast.net

Andover, Massassachusetts (Oct 3)  Vigil at Raytheon (where Patriot PAC-3 missile defense interceptors are made) at 7:00 am  For more info call 978-686-4418

Bath Iron Works, Maine (Oct 1) Vigil across from administration building on Washington Street, 11:30-12:30am Smilin’ Trees Disarmament Farm (207) 763-4062

Brighton, England (Oct 1) Symposium on ‘Power in Outer Space’ – How can human activity in outer space be understood in relation to social power? How can this social power be contested? Keynote speakers will be Dave Webb, Leeds Metropolitan University, and Peter Dickens, University of Cambridge, and Visiting Professor at the University of Brighton. More info available at: www.brighton.ac.uk/sass/powerinouterspace/

Colorado Springs, Colorado (Oct 3) Bannering outside the west gate at Schriever AFB (home of the Space Warfare Center and numerous other Star Wars programs)3:30 – 4:30 bill.sulzman@gmail.com

Colorado Springs, Colorado (Oct 7) Congressional office visits (Bennet, Udall, Lamborn) presenting Stop the War petitions, 4:00 pm  bill.sulzman@gmail.com

Creech AFB, Nevada (Oct 9) Vigil at Drone testing base at Indian Springs,  noon-1:30 pm jim@nevadadesertexperience.org

RAF Croughton, England (Oct 1) Rally at U.S. communication base; March to main gate 1 mile – starts Croughton village 12.00 midday. Returns 3pm, Oxfordshire Peace Campaign, oxonpeace@yahoo.co.uk
Fort Mead, Maryland (Oct 9) The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore will visit the National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade at noon. Contact Max Obuszewski at mobuszewski@verizon.net or 410-366-1637

Menwith Hill, England (Oct 4) “The Alternative Tea Party”  demonstration at U.S. NSA Spy Base from 6-8 pm. Contact  Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases  mail@caabcorner.org.uk

Menwith Hill, England (Oct 16) “A Guided Walk Around Menwith Hill” – 2nd day of the CND Annual Conference in Bradford dominic@yorkshirecnd.org.uk

Nagpur, India (Oct 1)  Demonstration at 5 PM at the All India Radio Square jointly by the All India Peace & Solidarity Organisation, S.E.C. Railway Pensioners Assn,Pragatisheel Raillway Mahila samaj and the Indian Women for Peace & Development   jnrao36@sify.com

Nagpur, India (Oct 2)  A Workshop on different types of space weapons including Drones   jnrao36@sify.com

Nagpur, India (Oct 5)  A joint pogramme by the All India Peace & Solidarity Organisation, Indian Women for Peace & Development and the Matru Seva Sangh Institute of Social Work, 2 pm

Omaha, Nebraska (Oct 2) STRATCOM (Strategic Command), Offut Air Force Base, Kinney Gate, 2:30-3:30 pm, klostermannm@osfdbq.org

Ridhora, India (Oct 3)  A talk and a rally of the Students at the Central India Management & Tehnology Institute, in the state of Madhya Pradesh jnrao36@sify.com

Tucson, Arizona (Oct 3) Vigil at Raytheon (where “missile defense” kill vehicles are made)  nukeresister@igc.org

Valley Forge, Pennsylvania (Oct 8) Nonviolent resistance at Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons corporation and space weapons contractor, 1- 2:30p.m. at  Mall & Goddard Boulevards, (behind the King of Prussia Mall) brandywine@juno.com

Visakhapatnam, India (Oct 8) Workshop  “Everything on Weaponisation of ‘Space” at Visakhapatnam in state of Andhrapradesh.  jnrao36@sify.com

Waddington, England (from Sept 3rd) “Ground the Drones” Peace Camp at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, where a new squadron is being formed to fly killer drones direct from the UK. For details of the camp contact Yorkshire CND on 01274 730 795 or dominic@yorkshirecnd.org.uk

Weld County, Colorado (Oct 8) Vigil at Nuclear Missile site N-8 in Weld County.  Car Pool leaves Colorado Springs at 8:30 AM, vigil at noon bill.sulzman@gmail.com

Keep Space for Peace Week is co-sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (UK), Swedish Peace Council, Drone Campaign Network (UK), and United Against Drones (U.S.)

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Will DLNR approve Army helicopter training on Mauna Kea?

The staff of the State of Hawai’i Department of Land and Natural Resources is recommending approval of an Army request for a permit to conduct high altitude helicopter training on the sacred mountain Mauna Kea.  The Honolulu Star Advertiser reports:

State Department of Land and Natural Resources staff is recommending approval of a month’s worth of high-altitude helicopter training on the slopes of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa for Army pilots and crews deploying to Afghanistan in January.

The Army’s request for a “right-of-way” permit for training in October on state conservation land is scheduled to come before the Board of Land and Natural Resources on Friday.

The 9 a.m. meeting will be held at the Kalanimoku building on Punchbowl Street. Acceptance of an environmental assessment, finding of “no significant impact,” and the permit for the Hawaii Island training are being sought by the Army.

[…]

The permit request is for October training only. Army officials said a decision will have to be made whether to pursue a longer-term permit for high-altitude training on Hawaii Island to include other services, such as the Hawaii National Guard.

The meeting of the DLNR will be Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 9am at the Kalanimoku Building.  KAHEA and the Mauna Kea protectors have been mobilizing opposition to this plan.  Testify in opposition to the helicopter training on the sacred temple Mauna Kea.

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Peace in the Pacific – Stop Missile Testing!

Peace in the Pacific

Stop missile testing!

US plans test missile launch from California to the Marshall Islands on Sept 21, World Peace Day

Route of Sept 21 ICBM test launch

Join a discussion of the militarization of the Pacific with guest speaker MacGregor Eddy of the Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power Space, and Save Jeju Island, Korea.

7 pm      Sept. 21 , 2011

2426 Oahu Avenue, Honolulu

Vandenberg Air Force Base in California routinely tests hydrogen bomb delivery systems, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMS), over the Pacific to Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands in violation of the US commitment to disarmament under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The  US and its allies  use the few, short range  launches by North Korea as a pretext for military buildup on Guam, Okinawa, and Jeju Island South Korea.  Barking Sands on Kauai is key to the tracking of missile launches.

MacGregor is on the International committee to Save Jeju Island (Korea) www.savejejuisland.org for details, and coordinates peace protests and Vandenberg Space Command. www.vandenbergwitness.org

Sponsored by Hawai’I Peace and Justice

For more information call Sandy Yee at  808-988-6266

DOWNLOAD PDF OF LEAFLET HERE

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Peace Prizes for War Presidents, Missile Tests on Day of Peace

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/06-0

Published on Tuesday, September 6, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

Peace Prizes for War Presidents, Missile Tests on Day of Peace

Escalation of US offensive missile strategy — launching an ICBM Missile across the Pacific on World Peace Day

by Ann Wright

The U.S. missile ‘defense” system is simply not defensive. It is offensive in every sense of the word and it is increasing tensions throughout the world.

Even on the day where the world is to think about peace— World Peace Day on September 21—you would not know that the day existed from the actions of the United States.

In addition to the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, on World Peace Day, in violation of its commitment to disarmament under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the United States will fire an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California over Hawaii and the Pacific Missile Range tracking facility (PMRF) to crash into the Pacific Ocean near Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands.

Route of the ICBM to be fired on World Peace Day

The purpose of the flight is for the United States to continue to test delivery missiles that would carry nuclear warheads to incinerate its enemies, whoever they may be at the time.

The Marshall Islands are the same islands that the United States blew up in the 1950s and 1960s in the nuclear and hydrogen bomb tests from which Marshall Islanders are still suffering from radiation.

The test of the ICBM and the further expansion of the US missile “defense” system is causing dangerous repercussions around the world, making hotspots even hotter-from China and the Koreas to Turkey, Israel and Iran.

Pacific Missile Range in Hawaii Expanded for the Aegis Missile Test Complex—Testing to Kill or to Defend?

On Kauai, Hawaii, the Hawaii congressional delegation continues to bring home the bacon, the pork barrel projects that include expansion of the Pacific Missile Range Facility. The latest project is the construction of theAegis Ashore Missile Defense Test Complex that will provide testing and evaluation of the systems.

U.S. Senator from Hawaii Daniel Inouye said at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new missile test complex on August 29, “There are people in the world who would harm and kill us. We are not testing to kill, but to defend. … I pray the product of testing will not be used, but will be a deterrent for those who would harm us.”

Construction of the Aegis Missile Defense Test Complex in Hawaii will be completed in 2013. The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System is used on 81 naval ships throughout the world with more than 25 additional Aegis-equipped ships planned or under contract. There are six naval Aegis-equipped ships home-ported at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii.

Ballistic Missile Defense Systems to be installed in Romania and Poland

The Aegis system is the sea-based component of the Ballistic Missile Defense System under development by the Missile Defense Agency which integrates with submarines, surface ships as well as the U.S. Army and Air Force missiles. The U.S. will install the Ballistic Missile Defense system in Romania in 2015 and in Poland in 2018. The systems that will be sent to Romania and Poland were tested in Hawaii at the Pacific Missile Range Facility.

Jeju Island, South Korea protests against the Aegis Missile System and construction of a naval base to homeport Aegis Destroyers

On Jeju Island, South Korea, citizens have been protesting for four years the construction of a new naval base that will homeport Aegis missile destroyers as a part of the US missile defense system. On September 2, hundreds of mainland South Koreans flew in “peace planes” to join Jeju Island activists in a major confrontation with government forces.

On the same day, more than 1,000 South Korean riot police from the mainland descended upon citizens of all ages who were blockading crews from access to the naval base construction site on Jeju Island. At least 50 protestors were arrested, including villagers, Catholic priests, college students, visiting artists and citizen journalists. Several were wounded and hospitalized.

However, back in Hawaii, not all who live on Kauai agree with the aims of the Aegis program and its effects on other countries. In the Kauai Garden Island newspaper Op-ed on September 4, Koohan Paik, a Hawaii citizen activist of Korean heritage observed,  “There happens to be a very strong connection between Jeju’s current troubles and business-as-usual on the Garden Isle (Kauai). You see, the primary purpose of Jeju’s unwanted base is to port Aegis destroyer warships. And it is right here, at Kauai’s Pacific Missile Range Facility, that all product testing takes place for the Aegis missile manufacturers…‘ So it is no surprise that the tenacious, democracy-loving Koreans have been protesting again — this time for over four years, non-stop, day and night. They are determined to prevent construction of a huge military base on S. Korea’s Jeju Island that will cement over a reef in an area so precious it contains three UNESCO World Heritage Sites.”

Turkey agrees to host missile defense radar installations-data not to be shared with Israel

Halfway around the planet in another hotspot where the U.S is pushing the missile defense system, on September 2, the same day it denounced UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s 4 person committee’s report on the Gaza flotilla and then announced sanctions on Israel for murdering 8 Turkish citizens and one American citizen on the 2010 Gaza flotilla, Turkey also revealed that it had reached agreement to host radar installations as part of the American-sponsored NATO “missile defense” program. Press reports indicate that as part of the deal, the US acceded to a Turkish demand that data from the Turkish-hosted radars not be shared with Israel.

Turkey played the odds that it has increasingly greater value to the United States in the eastern Mediterranean region than does Israel, which is increasingly a strategic and political burden to the United States.

The upcoming United Nations session with its discussion on statehood for Palestine will again put the United States in the miniscule number of nations that will vote against Palestinian initiatives—Israel and those whom the US pays through the Compact of Free Association to vote with it-Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau.

America’s belligerent actions on World Peace Day and the Nobel Peace Prize

As America shoves World Peace Day aside with its launch on September 21 of the ICBM missile, it brings to mind President Obama’s war speech upon accepting, only eight months into office, Nobel Prize for Peace for having done little for peace, except to defeat John McCain for the presidency. Obama spoke at length of the necessity of war to make the world a peaceful place.

In this vein, it makes perfect sense to the Obama administration to launch a missile on World Peace Day, a missile for peace, no doubt!!

But it makes NO sense to me and to, I suspect, hundreds of millions of people around the world. I hope on World Peace Day, the citizens of the world will let the Obama administration know of their disgust for this act of intimidation and disrespect for the planet

Ann Wright is a 29 year US Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. In December, 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the co-author of the book “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.” (www.voicesofconscience.com)

 

 

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Ann Wright

microann@yahoo.com

Facebook: http://www.www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=504291178

Twitter: annwright46

“Dissent: Voices of Conscience” www.voicesofconscience.com

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Connecting the Aegis dots between Jeju, Okinawa, Guam, Hawai’i

Koohan Paik, co-author of the Superferry Chronicles and member of the Kaua’i Alliance for Peace and Social Justice wrote an excellent op ed in the Garden Island newspaper connecting the dots between the military expansion at the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kaua’i, the struggle to stop a naval base in Jeju, South Korea, and protest movements in Okinawa and Guam.

True defenders

When I was a child in South Korea during the 1960s, we lived under the repressive dictatorship of Park Chung-hee. Anyone out after 10 p.m. curfew could be arrested. Anyone who tried to protest the government disappeared. A lot of people died fighting for democracy and human rights.

Today, the South Korean people carry in living memory the supreme struggles that forged the freedom they currently enjoy. And after all they’ve sacrificed, they are not going to give that freedom up.

So it is no surprise that the tenacious, democracy-loving Koreans have been protesting again — this time for over four years, non-stop, day and night. They are determined to prevent construction of a huge military base on S. Korea’s Jeju Island that will cement over a reef in an area so precious it contains three UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

This eco-rich reef has not only fed islanders for millennia, but it has also been the “habitat” for Jeju’s lady divers who are famous for staying beneath the surface for astonishing periods of time, before coming up with all manner of treasures. Even during South Korea’s times of unspeakable poverty, subtropical Jeju Island was always so abundant with natural resources and beauty that no one ever felt “impoverished” there.

There happens to be a very strong connection between Jeju’s current troubles and business-as-usual on the Garden Isle. You see, the primary purpose of Jeju’s unwanted base is to port Aegis destroyer warships. And it is right here, at Kaua‘i’s Pacific Missile Range Facility, that all product testing takes place for the Aegis missile manufacturers.

On Aug. 29, when Sen. Dan Inouye was here to dedicate a new Aegis testing site, he said, “We are not testing to kill, but to defend.” It would have been more accurate if Inouye had said, “We are not testing to kill, but to increase profits for Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, no matter how many people are oppressed or how many reefs are destroyed.”

Four days later, on Sept. 2, I got a panicked call from a Korean friend that there had been a massive crackdown on the peace vigil in Gangjung village to protect Jeju’s reef from the Aegis destroyer project.

More than 1,000 South Korean police in head-to-toe riot gear descended upon men and women of all ages blockading construction crews from access to the site. At least 50 protestors were arrested, including villagers, Catholic priests, college students, visiting artists and citizen journalists. Several were wounded and hospitalized. My friend told me, “We fought so hard for democracy. And now this. It’s just like dictatorship times.”

Another reason the Koreans are so angry is that their government has been telling them that the Aegis technology will protect them from North Korea. But Aegis missiles launching from Jeju are useless against North Korea, because North Korean missiles fly too low. In a 1999 report to the U.S. Congress, the Pentagon verified that the Aegis system “could not defend the northern two-thirds of South Korea against the low flying short range Taepodong ballistic missiles.”

So if Aegis is no good against North Korea, why build the base? Again, this is not about defense, this is about selling missiles (and increasing profits for Samsung and other major contractors on the base construction job).

There is a strong similarity between resistance on Jeju (where a recent poll showed 95 percent of islanders are opposed to the base) and concurrent uprisings on Guam and Okinawa, as well. All three islands are slated for irreversible destruction to make way for Aegis destroyer berthing.

And who wouldn’t protest? Like us, these are island peoples who care passionately for their reefs, ocean ecosystems and fisheries. I have heard certain Jeju Islanders say they will fight to the death to protect their resources.

Today, the mayor of Gangjung himself, along with many others, languish in prison because of their uncompromising stance against the Aegis base. Fortunately, people across the Korean peninsula and beyond, are heading to Jeju to support the resistance movement.

Without peaceful warriors like them, there would be no more reefs, no more coral, no more fish, no more nothing. They are our true defenders, not the missile manufacturers, as Inouye’s sham logic would have us believe.

As the Pentagon conspicuously ramps up militarization in the Asia-Pacific region, individuals of good conscious should pursue de-militarization. In the words of Aletha Kaohi, “Look to within and get rid of the ‘opala, or rubbish.”

Koohan Paik, Kilauea

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Message from the International Women’s Network Against Militarism to the peoples movement for No Naval Base on Jeju!

Message from the  International Women’s Network Against Militarism to the peoples movement for No Naval Base on Jeju! 

September 1, 2011

Dear friends in the struggle against US military expansion at Jeju Island

We women from Okinawa, mainland Japan, the Philippines, Marshall Islands, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Australia and west-coast USA send our greetings in solidarity with the people of Ganjeong who oppose the construction of a new naval base to house Aegis destroyers.

We understand that 94 percent of the residents do not want this base. We admire and respect your strong opposition by occupying land seized by the government and by blocking roads in an attempt to stop construction. We deplore the fact the South Korean government has ordered police to take further measures against you, especially as you have used every possible democratic means to overturn the decision to construct the base in the pristine waters and land that have been your livelihood for many generations.

We agree that this base and the increased militarization of the island of Jeju will create new security threats in an increasingly tense region.

We also live in communities that experience increased militarization and the effects of enormous military investments that distort our local economies and take resources needed for our communities to thrive. The political and military alliances between our governments and the United States jeopardize our genuine security. Indeed, U.S. military expansion in the Asia-Pacific and the Caribbean relies on these alliances to tie our communities together according to their version of security that is not sustainable.

The plan to relocate U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam includes military construction projects that involve labor from Hawai’i, Micronesia and the Philippines. In addition to the destruction and loss of life caused by continued wars in the Middle East, these wars are also destabilizing our economies. For example, Filipinos who have been recruited to work on military construction projects are laid off during times of crisis and return to the Philippines where they have no jobs. On Guam, local companies cannot compete with larger military contractors and are seldom able to get contracts for base construction projects. The establishment of the U.S. military base at Ke Awa Lau o Pu’uloa, or Pearl Harbor, has transformed Oahu’s food basket into a toxic “Superfund” site where many of Hawai’i’s poorest communities live along its contaminated shores. In Puerto Rico, Governor Luis Fortuño has unleashed brutality against citizens, and suppression of their civil liberties because of protests against budget cuts to public services and education. In the continental United States a new campaign is calling for new priorities in federal spending away from war and toward services to support local communities.

We see your struggle as part of a wider pattern of people’s protest against increasing militarization.

Although we are far away, please know that we stand with you. We thank you for your courage to resist the militarization of your home. Your example inspires and strengthens us.

In solidarity,

Signed, on behalf of the IWNAM:

Kozue Akibayashi, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Japan

Ellen-Rae Cachola, Women for Genuine Security/Women’s Voices Women Speak, U.S. & Hawai’i

Lotlot de la Cruz, KAISAKA, Philippines

Cora Valdez Fabros, Scrap VFA Movement & Philippine Women’s Network for Peace and Security, Philippines

Annie Fukushima, Women for Genuine Security, U.S.

Terri Keko’olani, Women’s Voices Women Speak, Hawai’i

Gwyn Kirk, Women for Genuine Security, U.S.

Rev. Deborah Lee, Women for Genuine Security, U.S.

Bernadette “Gigi” Miranda, Women’s Voices Women Speak, Hawai’i

María Reinat Pumarejo, Colectivo Ilé: Organizadoras para la Conciencia-en-Acción

Aida Santos-Maranan, Women’s Education, Development, Productivity and Research Organization (WEDPRO), Philippines

Dr. Hannah Middleton, Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition, Australia

Suzuyo Takazato, Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, Okinawa

Lisa Natividad, Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice, Guahan (Guam)

Ana Maria R. Nemenzo, WomanHealth Philippines.

Darlene Rodrigues, Women’s Voices Women Speak, Hawai’i

Abacca Anjain-Maddison,  Marshall Islands

Brenda Kwon, Women’s Voices Women Speak, Hawai’i

Anjali Puri, Women’s Voices Women Speak, Hawai’i

 

The International Women’s Network Against Militarism was formed in 1997 when forty women activists, policy-makers, teachers, and students from South Korea, Okinawa, mainland Japan, the Philippines and the continental United States gathered in Okinawa to strategize together about the negative effects of the US military in each of our countries.  In 2000, women from Puerto Rico who opposed the US Navy bombing training on the island of Vieques also joined; followed in 2004 by women from Hawai’i and in 2007 women from Guam.  The Network is not a membership organization, but a collaboration among women active in our own communities, who share a common mission to demilitarize their lands and communities. For more information, visit  HYPERLINK “http://www.genuinesecurity.org/”www.genuinesecurity.org.

 

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