Friday, August 7, 2009

Musings: Killing

The bright moon got Koko and me up and out early, walking in the cool, white light beneath a sky of ghostly, flying clouds that darted past Venus, Jupiter, Orion and numerous stars and constellations whose names are not known to me. The wheezing honk of first one Newell’s shearwater, and later, another, broke through the background chorus of crowing roosters, making me glad to know that they’re still nesting at Makaleha.

The wind clattered palm fronds, made the ironwoods sigh and whistled past my ears, carrying with it the smells of newly mown grass, mock orange and, from the car-kitten casualty that is quickly becoming a moldering patch of fur, death.

The death score, or at least, the reported one, was five to five in Afghanistan yesterday. They got five Marines and we got five of them, although it isn’t quite clear whether they were militants loading weapons, as the U.S. military claims, or farmers loading produce, as witnesses contend. What is clear is that most people don’t really give a rip, save for those to whom the dead are linked, and it’s that detachment that allows this senseless killing for unclear reasons to continue.

Actually, I can see why they’re killing us. They want us out of their country. But it still isn’t quite clear to me why we’re all the way over there, killing them. Especially since the Obama Administration just announced it’s scaling back Bush’s “war on terror” to a mere ”campaign against terrorism.” But wait:

[John] Brennan [Assistant for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism] has made it clear that the new doctrine will not mean the slowing down of the operations against Al Qaeda and other terrorists operating from the Af-Pak area. What he means is that while continued military operations are necessary, military operations alone cannot eradicate terrorism.

Which means, of course, you kill people and then throw billions at them. That way, it isn’t just the guys who make the killing machines who make a killing, but also the guys who come in to “rebuild” after the killing machines have wrought terror and destruction.

Imperialism, by any other name, is still imperialism, as is killing.

President Obama, meanwhile, has given his support to a plan — aka the Akaka Bill — aimed at killing the dream of an independent Hawaii and cementing America’s imperialistic coup in the Pacific.

Let’s see. Obama hasn’t delivered on his campaign promises to close Gitmo and ensure all Americans have health care. Nor has he delivered on his inaugural address promises to “harness the sun and the winds and the soil…work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet… [and] reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals….”

But as the Advertiser reports, the Obama Administration:

...came through on its promise to support Native Hawaiian self-governance yesterday with a powerful statement to a Senate panel, backing a bill that would give Native Hawaiians the same rights as Native Americans and Alaskans.

In testifying before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Sam Hirsch, deputy associate attorney general, to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, went on to acknowledge, rather startlingly:

"The United States has recognized the Kingdom of Hawai'i as a sovereign power and dealt with it as such through much of the 19th century."

So how come, given that history and the 1993 presidential apology for America’s illegal overthrow of the monarchy a century before, the best we can do is (emphasis added):

Passage of the Akaka bill would provide for negotiations on the disposition of Native Hawaiian land, natural resources and other assets.

How long do you suppose such “negotiations” could be dragged out, as folks continue to make a killing on those Native Hawaiian assets, which have been kept quite conveniently “in limbo,” even as they steadily diminish?

Meanwhile, if you’re interested in reviewing primary documents — as opposed to opinion — that challenge the traditional statehood story, check out this thoughtful website. It’s doing a 21-day countdown to statehood that aims to sound the death knell on the fantasy that Hawaii became a state all fair and square.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for another thoughtful analysis.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the website. Very in depth.

Anonymous said...

Many folks are missing the point, but not the one you make.

The fact, that I am willing to concede, of statehood not being done "fair and square" is irrelevant.

The reality that Hawaii is currently a state in all important ways, functioning as such, is all that matters now.

No one cares about any "back room deals" of 50 years ago, nor of those of over a century ago.

No one (of any significance or multitude) cares.

Things will go on as usual.

The Akaka bill will pass, thus closing the door legally on any further efforts.

Anonymous said...

Yes...it's kinda like the robber barons of the 19th century. Nobody asks the current holders of that wealth to give it back because it was built on shady practices a long time ago.

Anonymous said...

the last two comments have little regard for justice and the processes that entail acknowledge wrong doing, making restitution and moving on.
to say that a crime occurred and the victim should just get over it is insensitive, short sited and WRONG!
many people, irregardless of their significance or multitude, would stand with those who were wronged and ask that justice be served.

Anonymous said...

"Justice" is an illusion. "Being wronged" is a fact of life for many.

In this case, Hawaiians may ask for justice to be served and a total reversal of the current state (pun intended) to happen, but we all know what the answer will be: NO...here's an apology bill which is only a resolution, not a law, and here's the Akaka Bill, a law that will give you as much as you are EVER going to get from the USA.

The world is not fair, even or just. You'll have to get in a long, long line of petitioners asking for redress, the most of whom will find that the "statute of limitations" (so to speak) has long since passed.

That doesn't seem like a particularly good, productive way to spend one's energies.

Anonymous said...

the last two comments have little regard for justice and the processes that entail acknowledge wrong doing, making restitution and moving on. to say that a crime occurred and the victim should just get over it is insensitive, short sited and WRONG!

Not true. Statutes of limitations exist to prevent prosecution of cases after too much time has passed and it becomes impracticable to rectify the situation; for instance, after several generations have lived under a particular political regime and the vast majority of them would prefer to keep it that way although a tiny minority would prefer the "reinstatement" of some other regime. (Reinstatement is in quotation marks because what most are agitating for is not a reinstatement of any actual previous regime, but the institution of a brand new regime with them as the major beneficiaries.

It is simply too late to "return" the Hawaiian Kingdom to anyone. All the citizens of Hawaii have a vested right in determining their government that is greater than any claim any living person now has for the return of some ancient rule.

Anonymous said...

it is too bad fox news has killed the meaning of "fair and balanced," because it is pretty sound approach to things. once well informed, i bet most people in HI would be able and willing to acknowledge the ~ "good" and ~ "bad" that has occurred here over the past few hundred years on the part of various groups

one could point to the current station of black americans as such an example, where the discussion slowly but surely seems to be more and more accurate, positive, and constructive (which makes me proud, for one)


dwps

Dawson said...

No one cares about any "back room deals" of 50 years ago, nor of those of over a century ago.

No one (of any significance or multitude) cares.

Things will go on as usual.



This issue is not going away. It is driven by a much deeper human need than the greed that created it.

It can only grow.

Anonymous said...

"one could point to the current station of black americans as such an example, where the discussion slowly but surely seems to be more and more accurate, positive, and constructive (which makes me proud, for one)"

Slavery has been replaced with prison labor and the color of that labor is black. check the stats.

Anonymous said...

"The Akaka bill will pass, thus closing the door legally on any further efforts."

Revolution does not need go through any legal door. If it did it would not be revolution.

Anonymous said...

"Slavery has been replaced with prison labor and the color of that labor is black. check the stats."

I checked and the color brown is growing quite well.

Anonymous said...

"The Great Hawaiian Separatist Revolution"...now that's a laugh.

irk said...

"green" terrorists

http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/08/05/former-gitmo-detainees-work-on-bermuda-golf-course-2/

Dawson said...

"The Great Hawaiian Separatist Revolution"...now that's a laugh.

You're confusing revolution with evolution. Revolution is just very fast evolution.

And "fast" is relative.

Anonymous said...

"Revolution does not need go through any legal door. If it did it would not be revolution."........but if it did it would be called evolution.

Anonymous said...

"'Revolution does not need go through any legal door. If it did it would not be revolution.'........but if it did it would be called evolution."

Evolution is a luxury for those who can afford two wait.

Dawson said...

Evolution is a luxury for those who can afford two wait.

No, it's a necessity of nature and man. Of course, a little revolution can sometimes help move evolution along.