Archive for November, 2019

Ongoing Military Desecration of Aina at Pohakuloa and increasing war tensions with China & Russia

Saturday, November 30th, 2019

Ongoing Military Desecration of Aina at Pohakuloa and increasing war tensions with China & Russia. Very dangerous times.  And RIMPAC 2020 is coming, where dozens of countries besides the US  use Hawaii for target practice. Enough already!  Stop the madness.  Stop the bombing!

Jim Albertini

Military conducts live-fire coordination, interoperability training on Hawaii island

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2019/11/30/hawaii-news/military-conducts-live-fire-coordination-and-interoperability-training-on-the-big-island/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=local

  • COURTESY U.S.
                  ARMY A mortarman with the 25th Infantry Division loads
                  a round during a fire support coordination exercise on
                  Nov. 19 at Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii island.

    COURTESY U.S. ARMY

    A mortarman with the 25th Infantry Division loads a round during a fire support coordination exercise on Nov. 19 at Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii island.

  • COURTESY U.S.
                  ARMY Helicopters from the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade
                  at Wheeler Army Airfield created a convoy in the sky
                  for a “fire support coordination exercise” held Nov.
                  12-21 at Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii island.

    COURTESY U.S. ARMY

    Helicopters from the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade at Wheeler Army Airfield created a convoy in the sky for a “fire support coordination exercise” held Nov. 12-21 at Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii island.

  • COURTESY U.S.
                  AIR FORCE A B-52 Stratofortress that participated in
                  the Hawaii exercise on Nov. 19 is parked at Andersen
                  Air Force Base on Guam.

    COURTESY U.S. AIR FORCE

    A B-52 Stratofortress that participated in the Hawaii exercise on Nov. 19 is parked at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam.

1 / 3
 

Interoperability training among the nation’s armed forces is occurring in Hawaii on an unprecedented scale — and China is the reason, defense experts say.

In the most recent example, two Air Force B-52 bombers, more than 1,500 Schofield Barracks soldiers, at least 30 Army helicopters and Arkansas-based C-130 cargo carriers deployed to Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii island for a 10-day “fire support coordination exercise.”

“Being able to practice close-air support with B-52 bombers dropping over 15,000 pounds of high explosives while running alongside our Army brethren in a company movement with (helicopter) attack aviation to the left and active artillery to the right, provided numerous lessons,” Capt. Austin Hairfield, with the 25th Air Support Operations Squadron, said in an Air Force news release.

The growing training complexity is needed to deter or win a war against a rapidly advancing China, military officials say.

In February nine Air Force A-10 attack jets and two B-52 bombers trained with Army, Navy and Marine Corps forces — including Marine MV-22 tilt-rotor Ospreys and AH-1Z Viper helicopters — at Pohakuloa and Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay.

The 19-1/2-hour flight by the B-52s from Andersen Air Force Base on Guam to Hawaii and back to Guam for the more recent mid- November live-fire training at Pohakuloa required air-refueling from KC-135 Stratotankers for the 8,000-mile round trip, the Air Force said.

B-52s have flown from Guam to Hawaii in the past — sending a capability message to China in the process — but now it’s with the understanding that a highly coordinated U.S. effort would be needed to counter the rising Asian nation’s formidable military .

“It’s all about China,” said Dan Goure, a defense expert with the Lexington Institute, a nonprofit public-policy research group in Arlington, Va. “It’s about concepts for future conflict with China — which is going to require all-in from the United States military.”

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy noted at an Association of the U.S. Army conference in October that the war in Afghanistan began 18 years ago. As the United States focused on low-tech counterinsurgency, “all the while, Russia and China are investing billions to rapidly modernize their armies,” eroding U.S. overmatch, McCarthy said.

 

Chinese long-range missiles now pose significant threats to U.S. bases, aircraft and ships and have “changed the equation out here in the Pacific,” Gen. Robert Brown, head of U.S. Army Pacific, said in September shortly before stepping down from the post.

Ten or 15 years ago the Air Force and the Navy probably could have handled a South China Sea or East China Sea conflict without needing too much help from the Army and Marines, Brown said previously.

“And now they can’t. They just can’t. And they know that, and it’s forcing us to work together,” Brown said.

That process is occurring — slowly — with traditional service rivalries prevailing. But greater cooperation is happening.

New Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger, who was in charge of Marine Corps Forces Pacific in Hawaii from 2016 to 2018, laid out a vision in July of greater cooperation with the Navy in his “Commandant’s Planning Guidance.”

One form of naval support could come from Marine Corps High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, truck-mounted batteries moved to islands in the Western Pacific and armed with long-range anti-ship missiles. F-35B short-takeoff stealth jets will be able to operate from ships and shore.

The III Marine Expeditionary Force headquartered in Okinawa, Japan, “will become our main focus of effort,” Berger said in the report.

The Corps “cannot afford” to build multiple forces for the Arctic, urban operations or desert warfare, he said. “We will build one force — optimized for naval expeditionary warfare in contested spaces,” Berger wrote.

Berger also described what’s not possible anymore with Chinese missile advances.

“Visions of a massed naval armada nine nautical miles off-shore in the South China Sea preparing to launch the landing force” in swarms of landing craft “are impractical and unreasonable,” he said.

U.S. forces will have to move rapidly from point to point to point — to avoid being targeted.

For the Nov. 12-21 fire coordination exercise, Schofield soldiers with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team were transported to Pohakuloa via four CH-47 Chinook and 16 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. Ten AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and five Black Hawks participated in the training and gunnery portions.

“No other brigade in the Army in recent history has planned and executed an exercise where tactical-level commanders control and coordinate assets that range from Air Force B-52s (to) Black Hawks and Apaches, artillery and mortars,” said Maj. Leah Ganoni, a spokeswoman for the 2nd Brigade.

During the exercise, Pacific Air Forces conducted its first laser “spot track” between an Army RQ-7B Shadow drone and a B-52 targeting pod.

“This training definitely demonstrates our long-range strike capability, but the more important part is the fact that it’s joint training,” Air Force Capt. Mike Brogan, Pacific Air Force’s bomber liaison officer, said in the Air Force release. “It’s unlikely that any confrontation in the future will be single service, so training with our sister services is always crucial and imperative.”

Goure said Hawaii “absolutely” will see more large-scale interoperability exercises.

“You are going to see a lot more of Air Force with anti- shipping missiles, Marines and the Army firing stuff from the shore into the sea, all kinds of new amphibious operations that may even be involving the Army and not just the Marine Corps,” Goure said. “All that is coming.”

In 2018, during Rim of the Pacific exercises, the Army fired a Naval Strike Missile from a truck at the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai and hit a decommissioned Navy ship at sea.

RIMPAC 2020, returning this summer, is likely to build on the increasing serv­ice interoperability being tested in Hawaii.

Reflecting on colonization this Thanks-taking Day

Thursday, November 28th, 2019

Relatives,

Today is always a complicated day for me and I hope you will join me for a moment of reflection. As you may know, I am Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne from the Pine Ridge and Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservations. As a Native American woman, today is not a day of giving thanks. Most of us who were educated in Western schools were taught that today acknowledges the “Native Americans” saving the lives of the “Pilgrims,” by teaching them how to garden and hunt. They then supposedly shared a meal together, which was the predecessor of the Thanksgiving meal most Americans share today.

That is not what happened and that is not what today represents for me. Today is instead a painful reminder that the colonization, militarization, attempted genocide of my people is ongoing. It marks the beginning of a season of remembering the numerous massacres that Native Peoples have faced since contact. Today I remember the Wampanoag People who shared their Indigenous Ecological Knowledge with desperate Pilgrims only to be massacred by them. The U.S. military has always attacked my Peoples in the winter because those are the months when we are at our most vulnerable.

The Sand Creek Massacre, the Dakota 38 +2 Hangings, the Wounded Knee Massacre and the Fort Robinson Outbreak are just a few atrocities that impact me directly. I descend from survivors of the Wounded Knee Massacre, where 20 Medals of Honor were awarded to the US Soldiers responsible for murdering hundreds of women, children and elderly.

The colonization and militarization of this land established the roots of oppression that have rippled out since in the forms of U.S. imperialism and interventionism. From kidnapping children from their parents at the border to the removal of Palestinians from their lands- the violence that the United States military is presently unleashing around the world continues to be patterned from the colonization of Turtle Island and her original stewards.

And yet all over the world the People are rising up and taking the streets to counter the spread of fascism. So, we must continue to uphold the voices of those most impacted by war and US intervention. We must continue to deepen our understanding of organizing and direct action. We must continue to strengthen our relationships with our allies and coalition partners. We must continue to leverage our privilege and experiences as veterans.

And we must do this while staying grounded in our understanding of the impacts of militarism on Turtle Island and journeying down the road to decolonization. About Face: Veterans Against the War has been a community of healing and support for me, that has been transformational. It has been a safe space to have the tough conversations about war, colonization, tokenization, appropriation, imperialism and the impacts of all of these on us as human beings.

I invite you to join us in our commitment to not just use the word decolonization in our work, but to embody it with our daily actions and organizational practices. If you need a place to start, kick off your 2020 right and sign up for the FREE online course we are hosting in January! This inaugural (*cough* pilot) DecolonizeU class titled “Militarism on Turtle Island” is open to anyone who registers. For three weeks will study the historic and ongoing relationship between indigenous resistance and the militarization of North America through selected readings and live webinars featuring indigenous guests speakers.
Learn more and register HERE!

Lastly, we hope you will support our ability to keep doing this work by donating here this #GivingTuesday and asking a handful of friends and family to do the same.

 

Blessings,

Krystal Two Bulls
Director of Special Projects
About Face: Veterans Against the War

 

Lā Kuʻokoʻa – Official Video    Nov. 28th  Hawaii Independence Day — when in 1843 Hawaii was welcomed as an independent nation into the family of nations.

Nov. 29, 2019 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet on Grim moment

Tuesday, November 26th, 2019

The Current Moment!

The Most Grim Moment in Human History”

sad

Will organized human society survive?

Two enormous threats –environmental catastrophe and nuclear war

      While many are looking forward to Thanksgiving feasts, Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sale specials and shopping till they drop to the tune “Dreaming of a White Christmas,” it’s time to get a sober grip on reality – our planet is being destroyed.

      Native people in Hawaii and around the world have been sounding the alarm to Malama Honua (Take care of the Earth) for a long time.  Our air, land, oceans, rivers, drinking water, etc. have been under attack  The movement to Protect Mauna Kea has been telling us to respect and protect the Sacred.  If we don’t learn this lesson fast, humans will destroy themselves and the planet beyond the point of no return. The movement to Protect Mauna Kea is a microcosm of the movement to Protect the Planet.

      Scholar, writer, and activist, Noam Chomsky, has recently said we are in “the most grim moment in human history.” There is a serious question “will organized human society survive?” Chomsky cited “two enormous threats –environmental catastrophe and nuclear war,” and said this generation faces “unprecedented challenges of cosmic significance.”

      Chomsky labeled Trump a “wrecking ball in the White House” and said the threat of nuclear war under Trump is increasing. For a long time nuclear weapon construction and testing have disproportionately affected indigenous peoples – Navajo and other Native tribes, Marshall Islanders, etc. It is long past time to rid the world of nuclear weapons and begin a healing process for planet earth. This past weekend, even Pope Francis spoke out in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan for the abolition of nuclear weapons and condemned the continued possession and use of such weapons as immoral and crimes against humanity.

      In Hawaii we say live “Kapu Aloha,” a commitment to nonviolence, where the means we use for justice, peace, and protecting the earth, are in line with the ends that we seek. The means and ends must cohere. Nov. 28 in Hawaii is La Ku’o ko’a Day – Hawaii Independence Day when in 1843 Hawaii was welcomed as an independent nation into the family of nations.

      The choice is ours: go with the flow of empire and greed over the cliff of planetary destruction or commit to Kapu Aloha and being part of the solution for a more just, peaceful, livable planet. Never grow weary. The time is urgent!

Never give up!

PS  Remember that Hawaii is the US Indo-Pacific Nuclear Command Center and training ground for Nuclear War.  B-2 strategic nuclear bombers routinely train at Pohakuloa in the center of Hawaii island.

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties.
4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, etc.
5. Seek peace through peaceful means and work for justice in Hawai`i and around the world.

Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action

P.O. Box 489 Ola’a (Kurtistown), Hawaii 96760 Phone (808) 966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org

For more information and to receive our posts go to www.malu-aina.org

Nov. 29, 2019 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet – week 948 – Fridays 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

Stop Following Orders Nov. 22, 2019 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet

Tuesday, November 19th, 2019

Stop Following Orders!

World War II Criminal trials justifications for acts of genocide, often was based on “obedience” – that they were just following orders from their superiors.

How could this happen?  Read more about The Milgram Yale University Shock Experiment here

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52576.htm

Make a connection between Militarism, Climate Chaos, and the wisdom of Native People

     Today the U.S. War Machine on behalf of corporate interests is committing Ecocide – the destruction of the natural environment, and Omnicide – the total extinction of the human species as a result of destructive human action. Most commonly it refers to human extinction through nuclear warfare, but it can also refer to such extinction through ecological catastrophe.

Question More! Stand Up and Protect the Sacred!

Silence is Consent!

The world needs Kapu Aloha to survive!

  1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties.
    4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, anti-Hawaiian, etc.
    5. Seek peace through peaceful means and work for justice in Hawaii and around the world.

Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action

P.O. Box 489 Ola’a (Kurtistown), Hawaii 96760 Phone (808) 966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org

For more information and to receive our posts go to www.malu-aina.org

Nov. 22, 2019 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet – week 947 – Fridays 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

Sat. Nov 23rd Hilo Film on Mauna Kea at Palace Theater 12:30PM

Tuesday, November 19th, 2019

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