Time to reevalute RIMPAC’s impact
The U.S. Navy’s biannual rim of the Pacific celebration of war making capability has arrived. Their theme this time is “capable, adaptive, partners.”
What does that mean? It means there’s nothing good about what is about to happen to Hawaii’s islands and ocean.
It means concentrated bombing and sonar, and beach landings for five weeks by 25,000 navy and ground troop personnel from 25 countries.
Marine life cannot escape this assault by 51 ships and submarines and ground and air attack. An ocean full of victims; corals are small animals that contract defensively from sonar and bomb detonation vibrations. In this condition, they don’t eat. Whales with their acute hearing are deafened.
RIMPAC is a weapons bazaar for guest nation’s weapons manufacturers to demonstrate the lethality of their products to boost international sales. The war for profit industry is a primary driver of war as the favored conflict resolution option.
RIMPAC is a public relations extravaganza purposed to further normalize the militarism that permeates our society. The Pentagon accounts for 60 percent of the federal government public relations budget, selling fake patriotism to the American public. Militarism does not defend the country. It conceals the military’s purpose to defend corporate interests globally.
Most egregiously, RIMPAC softens the image of war, fostering a delusion that it is a sane alternative to addressing the differences between nations. It is outrageous that Hawaii, of all places, the piko of the Pacific basin, hosts this celebration of war preparation when culturally and geographically it is by its nature the place where Pacific nations should gather to aloha one another and mend their differences.
Our representatives in Washington and in Honolulu need to know that RIMPAC, despite the revenue from the shore leave of thousands of foreign troops, is an obstacle to the greater goal of shared prosperity. Reinvent RIMPAC, and invite all neighbor countries that are joined by the Pacific, to a biannual event dedicated to achieving the shared security possible when all parties’ needs are considered and addressed.
Kip Goodwin, Wailua
