Malu 'Aina

Testimony in support of Council Resolution #449-24 draft 2

counciltestimony@hawaiicounty.gov

March 19, 2024

Aloha Council members,

This is follow-up testimony to my written testimony submitted on March 3, 2024, and verbal testimony on March 6th in support of Council resolution 449-24, now draft #2.

I stand in support of the amended resolution that now includes an important call for a Ceasefire in Gaza, along with “demonstrating the aloha spirit and fostering peace, diplomacy, and unity…” But like the positive step of calling for a Ceasefire in Gaza in the face of Genocide being carried out in Gaza by Israel with US military weapons, the Council at some point needs to address the elephant in the middle of Hawaii Island and Hawaii in general. That elephant is the US military.

The military 133,000-acre Pohakuloa Training Area, better known at the Pohakuloa TOXIC Area (PTA) in the center of Hawaii Island is a training ground for nuclear war.  Strategic nuclear bombers fly non-stop bombing missions to Pohakuloa from Missouri, Louisiana, and Guam to practice waging nuclear war.  Spotting rounds for US nuclear weapons have been fired at Pohakuloa contaminating our aina with Depleted Uranium radiation. DU oxide particles blow in the wind from PTA traveling long distances around our island.  The areas at PTA contaminated with DU radiation continue to be bombed and shelled with millions of live rounds fired annually, re-suspending and spreading DU particles and a host of other military toxins. Small DU oxide particles when inhaled can move through the lymph system causing a wide range of cancers, birth defects, and worst of all genetic damage passed to future generations.

Overall, the Hawaiian Islands are some of the most militarized places on the planet with more than 100 military installations, including Camp H. M. Smith above Aloha Stadium on Oahu.  Camp Smith is the Headquarters of the US Indo-Pacific command, the US nuclear war command center for more than half the Earth.  How do Camp Smith, Pohakuloa, and the more than 100 US military installations in Hawaii square with “demonstrating the aloha spirit, fostering peace, diplomacy, and unity?”  It reminds me of the Nuremberg war crime trials following WWII where a former German SS guard was asked about attempted escapes at the Auschwitz extermination camp.  The guard responded –why would someone want to escape.  Auschwitz, he said, was after all, “a family camp.”

Let’s be clear.  Military places like Camp Smith, Pohakuloa, etc. are not family camps.  They are not “demonstrating the aloha spirit, fostering peace, diplomacy, and unity.” They are the command center and training ground for global nuclear extermination.  This is an important part of education around disarmament and non-proliferation,  At some point this county council needs to say that besides a CEASEFIRE in Gaza, we need a CEASEFIRE in Hawaii and our entire world. These places of training for global genocide need to be shut down, cleaned up, and the land returned to the Hawaiian people, “demonstrating the aloha spirit and fostering peace, diplomacy, and unity.”  Hopefully, this council and other government officials will speak and act soon, before it is too late.  Resolution 449-24 is a start.

Mahalo.

Jim Albertini

President of Malu ‘Aina

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