Aloha! I just found out that the Navy is planning on expanding its war games and numerous new weapon "toys" in an area of 235,000 square nautical miles around Hawaii! Incredibly, the Navy is proposing a major upgrading and expansion - in order to do more research, development, testing, and evaluation of military weapons and systems, to the tune of 140 (that is One Hundred Forty) projects, including even the use of Directed Energy Laser Weapons.
Why are they doing this? According to Section of the Environmental Impact Statement, "The purpose for the proposed action is to: achieve and maintain fleet readiness using the HRC to support and conduct current, emerging, and future training events and RDT&E training and testing events; (2) expand warfare missions [Note: anti-war activists beware!] supported by the HRC, consistent with the requirements of the FRTP and other transformation initiatives; and (3) upgrade/modernize existing range capabilities to enhance and ensure the sustainability of Navy training and testing. The Proposed Action is needed to provide combat capable forces ready to deploy worldwide"...
For those wondering about radioactivity? I found mention of the words "radioactive materials" four times within Volume 3. One gets the feeling that, as usual, in its military "test" sites, Uncle Sam's not planning on just shooting blanks!
The adverse impact on whales, other marine wildlife, the air, and ocean is unfathomable. I will allow you to imagine what effects these weapons will have upon the environment and wildlife, and also, sadly, upon the health of the Hawaiian people.
Can we possibly get enough international outrage going within four (4) days to stop the Navy from getting away with this expansion that appears in only 2 (!) articles from Hawaii newspapers in a Google news search? The link to one of the article links is below. The other is filled with falsehoods (i.e, how great weapons testing is for whales) and is thus omitted. As you will soon discover for yourself, the Environmental Impact Statement for the Hawaii Range Complex is already filled with enough deception for one night's reading.
Can we do this? Or better put, how can we NOT do this? Can we stop the US military from further ruining the waters and marine wildlife around America's Hawaiian Paradise? Admittedly, it's a long shot. But isn't saving Hawaii and the Pacific Ocean worth a try?
Thank you for taking just 5 minutes to write a short note stating that you do not support any military expansion in the Hawaii Range Complex, that you reject both Alternatives 1 and 2, and that you insist instead that our government protects and defends Hawaii (its land, its ocean, its wildlife, and its people) from further harm and degradation.
After you write, please pass this article around to everyone you know. After all, isn't saving our Hawaiian Paradise, our oceans, and our marine wildlife worth just a few minutes of our time?
Mahalo, as the Hawaiian Islanders say! Thanks!
www.mytown.ca/garger
Cathy Garger is a freelance writer, public speaker, activist, and a certified personal coach who specializes in Uranium weapons. Living in the shadow of the national District of Crime, Cathy is constantly nauseated by the stench emanating from the nation's capital during the Washington, DC, federal work week.
My belief is that this "exercise" is an end run around the Neveda testing.
The Western Shoshone and the Utah Downwinders managed to halt the nuclear testing which was called Divine Strake, and then this suddenly showed up. It appears to me that the Hawaiians simply could not get a big enough coalition to stop this new insane plan.
I really hope the anti nuclear forces can convince those who would be affected that this is really a doom and gloom scenario for THEM.
All these military planners see is some land, they don't take into account the devasting effects of LIVING things.
Not a happy post to read, but I am glad you are garnerning attention on this, so thank you.
by
ladybroadoak (37 articles, 20 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 390 comments)
on Thursday, September 13, 2007 at 3:54:46 PM
This moving poem was sent to me anonymously - Someone read my piece, sent it to a friend, who then sent it to me from a friend... but they cut off the heading so I have no clue who this person was who wrote it...
So many people have been up in arms about this! This truly is nothing less than wrecking Paradise on earth - ON PURPOSE!
The heading said, The Rogue Army of the Republic
Boy does that ever "fit".
Cathy Garger
================================================== September 13th, 2007 ==================================================
Death is upon us. A rogue army is maneuvering to destroy our planet. Its name is Navy.
U.S. Navy.
Step by step by step over the past decade, the military has asked for -- and received --enormous exemptions from caring for humanity. Environmental laws everyone else must obey -- laws which save lives -- mean nothing to them. No longer are they required to obey their civilian leaders. No longer are they required to atone for sins they commit. No longer are they culpable for YOUR death.
You, who they WERE charged to protect.
You, who WERE to be their masters.
You, who FUNDS them.
Citizens of the United States: Rise up! Rise up against your oppressors! Rise up against the randomization of death! Rise up against the destruction of YOUR HOMELAND!
Rise up against the U.S. Navy!
A decade ago, the United States military was granted an exemption from environmental laws. The U.S. Navy is the most egregious -- and dirty -- of all militaries in history. They kill their own sailors, with radiation, with chemicals used in warfare, with chemicals used to keep their ships "ship-shape."
My friends are dying. Your friends are dying. You and I are dying because we cannot -- no, because we WILL NOT -- rein in these cutthroats.
The Navy's most recent crime involves directly poisoning nearly a quarter of a million square miles of "open ocean" -- where our fish grow, where our whales and dolphins frolic, where earth's balancing life develops. No fence will keep the poisons in the designated area.
They will use radiation weapons, Directed Energy Laser Weapons, pressure (concussive and / or vacuum (over- / under-pressure) killing devices, and nearly 150 other kinds of "toys."
These are the same guys who brought you Bikini, Eniwetok, and Rongelap. All radiation-poisoned islands.
The same guys who pollute Vieques, Puerto Rico with Depleted Uranium -- as well as Okinawa and various sites on the U.S. mainland. And Iraq. And Kosovo. And Afghanistan. And tomorrow? Iran.
The same guys who lie about how many of their own -- their submarine sailors -- are dying of brain tumors as their payment for service aboard nuclear submarines.
Hail the U.S. Navy! Professional killers! Professional planet-destroyers! Professional liars! Professionals in every way.
Damn the torpedos. Damn the missiles. Damn the truth. Damn the citizens they claim to protect. Damn us all.
Damn the U.S. Navy: Killers of U. S. citizens. Killers of the planet. Killers of us all.
Lindafaye Kroll RN BSN, nurse-educator, author, actor, writer and researcher travels around Hawai'i educating the general public on the radiation (possibly depleted uranium contamination) problem in Hawai'i. She is spokesperson on the depleted uranium issue for Kahu O Kahiko (a Hawai'i Non-Profit).
She sent me these 2 websites for people to visit to learn more about what is going on in Hawaii!
In Hawai'i, the military finally had to acknowledge, after years of denial and under a tremendous amount of grassroot monitoring and overall pressure, that they were using DU ordnance on Oahu and on the Big Island. Pohakuloa [the 108,863-acre military training area between the Hawaiian sacred mountains of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea] is probably now waste land. What of the rest of the island? The community is pushing for the soil and the water table to be tested.
Wherever in the US and in the world the US military have a live fire training range [where they use DU munitions and equipment], the air, soil and water should be tested for DU contamination. And remember, the half-life of Depleted Uranium [DU], still 60% radioactive, is 4.5 billion years].
For all of us who care about life, about our planet, about the next generations, this is an unspeakable tragedy, ecocide and genocide on a monstrous scale.
Watch the movie "Poison DUst" [on the Internet]. If you happen to live near a live-fire training range, you'd better start monitoring the level of radioactivity in your community.
We have to fight this diabolical weapon. This is a fight for our very life. The use of Uranium WMD must be discontinued IMMEDIATELY everywhere!
by (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments)
on Friday, September 14, 2007 at 2:47:59 PM
Quite frankly our government, and most especially the military, really are quite capable of destroying anything they touch so long as it doesn't affect the people actually making these diabolical decisions. Do a little research why don't you before you make it sound as though you know what you are talking about?!
by
paz love (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 67 comments)
on Sunday, September 16, 2007 at 8:45:18 PM
