Saturday, May 11, 2013

Musings: Still Clueless

So what do you do with a beautiful tropical island in the Northern Marianas chain, an island that has native forests, rare tree snails, endangered birds and fruit bats, an island that is the ancestral home of many Chamorro people?

Well, if you're the U.S. Navy, you bomb the hell out of it.
Or at least try: "The U.S. is rebalancing military forces in the Asia-Pacific region. In support of this, the U.S. military is proposing to increase joint military training capabilities by developing live-fire ranges and training areas on the islands of Tinian and Pagan."

The plans for Pagan — check out these photos of the place — are especially devastating: “The U.S. military intends to use the entire island with a full spectrum of weapons and joint training activities."

As Dr. Mike Hadfield, a UH biologist, observes in a Star-Advertiser commentary:

There are many reasons why Pagan Island should be preserved, but most of all we should ask: Why should more lands, especially unique islands, be bombed into oblivion? Is it not enough that much of Kahoolawe was turned into bare rock by military bombardment, and that great stretches of that island remain inaccessible because of the unexploded bombs and shells buried in the soil?

The military continues to devastate vast stretches of Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island and Schofield Ranges on Oahu by bombing, strafing and shelling. Why more?

Why indeed?

If you care enough to say "WTF are you thinking?" or "no way," the Navy is currently preparing a draft EIS. You can send comments through May 12 at this website, which has additional documents. Or click on the comment form. 

6 comments:

  1. Imperialism at its finest.

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  2. The EIS should be a "no-brainer".

    Duh?!
    Bombs will improve the island's fauna, flora, and local inhabitants?
    Why not test them in the already bombed out deserts of California, New Mexico and Nevada?

    How can an EIS be positive?

    Dr Shibai

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  3. Practice makes perfect, but which island govts have weapons of mass destruction that we need to annihilate?

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  4. “The U.S. military intends to use the entire island with a full spectrum of weapons and joint training activities."

    Why does this backward policy continue in a world that needs every resource possible at this point and governments that claim the resources are depleting. I donʻt get it. There is some really stupid fukkers in official capacities or weʻre being had again.

    Or the U.S. military boys donʻt have enough to keep them busy.

    Nothing should be destroyed in this world as we know it now. Nothing. Except some concrete structures.

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  5. Joan, thanks for simplifying the daunting task of submitting comments for something like this.
    I will share your post and links as this is very important and people just cringe when they hear these kinds of EISs, at least I do..

    ReplyDelete
  6. Joan, the island of Kahoolawe was finally saved by dedicated Hawaiians that swam to it from Maui on surf boards (some died). To save these islands, shouldn't we try to organize some manner of putting bodies on them?

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