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Merry Christmas, Hawaii – and Bombs Away! Cathy Garger It’s the end of the world as we know it. The US Military has officially run out of foreign lands to bomb. Apparently out of desperation to find a place to publicly ejaculate their huge, heavy loads, the US Air Force has chosen the Big Island of Hawaii as its bulls-eye target. Unfortunately for Hawaiian paradise, however, this time it’s going to take far more than a super size box of Kleenex to tidy up this particular wad containing Uncle Sam’s latest hot, dirty, and unquestionably most slimy mess. According to a recent Associated Press article, “B-2 Stealth Bombers Hit US Targets”, the United States government is using both Hawaii and Alaska to expand its war games and better train pilots to unload mega-size Uranium bombs on – shhhh – unsuspecting North Koreans. Meanwhile, Uncle Sam, convincingly playing the part of one mighty sick, twisted Santa, is apparently reneging on his promise to make nice and remove North Korea from his Naughty [State Sponsors of Terrorism] List. How considerate of Uncle Sam to give such a generous warning, months in advance, of his impending blitzkrieg on one more unsuspecting Asian nation! But, for some strange reason, the citizens of Hawaii received no such courtesy prior to being “cursed” with monthly bloody bombings, not even the benefit of predictability enjoyed by women visited every month by their “Auntie Flo.” What harm would it do, if you really think about it, for the US government to run a small ad in Hawaii’s federal mouthpiece, The Honolulu Advertiser, in which they could announce for Hawaiians the dates during which they should attempt to locate suitable bomb shelters on “that” day of the month? Well, at least it would be a mighty thoughtful touch! One seriously wonders what horrible things Hawaiians have done to become such bad little boys and girls that their very own authoritarian Uncle Sammy – who they have, after all, permitted for over one hundred years to play soldier upon their land and in their sea - would sadistically “repay” them for their warm Aloha-spirit hospitality by dropping bombs from stealth Air Force B-2 bombers on them… ‘round Christmastime, no less! No matter what the offense, no matter how bad Hawaiians have been to merit domestic air raids by their own, one certainly suspects that dumping many thousands of pounds of coal atop the Hawaiian Isle would be a far more suitable punishment (not to mention an infinitely better eco-friendly gesture) than being forced into being sitting ducks for bombing practice from the heavens above! But times they certainly are a ‘changing! Why, once upon a time in an era many US War Presidents ago, it used to be that attacks on Hawaii were staged by other nations – Japan, for example. Now, in this modern post-9/11 age, any nation is fair game for attack … even when the people on the island you’re bombing happen to wave the very same red, white, and blue flag as the other forty nine states! No, this is no parody you’re reading. This news is so priceless I could not make this stuff up! The United States Air Force has actually started bombing its own country, in order to conduct what they claim is necessary bombing practice for North Korea – or whoever’s up for the next US “hit!” Courtesy of the AP article, released as a gift to America on Thanksgiving Day (when we were too busy wolfing down turkey and stuffing to notice or even care), we now learn, quite after the fact, that US B-2 “Spirit” Stealth Bombers have started routinely bombing the US state of Hawaii. According to the US Air Force website, the domestic bombing began this year on October 23. Reportedly, the first Bombs Away event, being called Hawaii’s “October Surprise,” was part of an exercise called “Koa Lightning,” in which B-2s flew from Guam to Hawaii, dropping the bombs on the Big Island’s Pohakuloa Training Area. At least one dozen of these mega-bombs were dropped the first month, at $1.2 million US Dollars a pop. Called “inert” and “dummy” because they reportedly do not explode, the Air Force tells us, as if from an ad for homemade jam, bombings are conducted, “the old fashioned way too. No laser designating the target and no joint direct attack munitions with global positioning system guidance. It was just the aviators, their instruments, a deadly airframe and some Airmen on the mock battlefield calling in the coordinates.” As these are not your Air Force standard, computer-guided, “built in, state of the art targeting system” drops, the aviators and their uh, instruments, work on a “deadly timeframe,” relying on nothing but gravity … and the capricious whim of Mother Nature’s tropical winds. So don those hard hats and heads up, Hawaii, ‘cause where those “old-fashioned ‘dumb bombs’ without precision guidance” land next is anybody’s guess! And a 2,000 lb. bomb – make that a 2,000 lb. anything… released from a point higher than the mountaintops that goes even a wee bit off course is definitely going to cause some poor Hawaiian one mighty colossal headache! According to the AP article, the Air Force has “only started dropping inert bombs on the Big Island's Pohakuloa Training Area [PTA] last month.” One can not help wondering if this bombing that “only” started last month is not possibly payback for the work of outspoken activists who recently opposed the permanent stationing of the 2/25th Stryker Brigade Combat Team at PTA? Coincidentally [or maybe not?] Pohakuloa is the same live-fire test training area where mega-bombs are now getting dropped out of B-2 jets onto grounds where Depleted Uranium was discovered in August. With regard to the “Koa Lightning” bombing of Hawaii exercises, one of the B-2 pilots, Major Tim Hale, stated, “This particular mission covers the full spectrum of what we can do.” With a nation so desperate to practice dropping bombs that it chooses as its Ground Zero the sacred, culturally rich, pristine paradise of Hawaii, there is no question that the full spectrum of what we can do has indeed been achieved … at the very lowest, bottom-of-the-barrel end of the spectrum, that is. With the bombing of Hawaii a jolly old ho (ho, ho) hum affair, not just the United States but the international community, too, now gets to witness the utter depths of just how low the United States will go in order to wage its aggressive wars. For to depraved Uncle Sam in the role of Santa-Gone-Bad this holiday season, not even Hawaii – considered by many to be the world’s favorite tropical vacation spot – is sacred. On its own website, the US Air Force reminds us that the capability of the B-2 bombers (apparently considered the pinnacle of Air Force prowess) must not be underestimated. "Strategic bombers in and of themselves are huge force multipliers," according to Tech. Sgt. Richard Setlock, a JTAC from the 25th Air Support Operations Squadron. Furthermore, according to Sgt. Setlock, "Fighter attack aircraft can stay on station for 45-minutes and provide six to eight bombs. We can have a bomber overhead for two to four hours and provide four times the firepower that a fighter attack aircraft could." The military’s orgiastic thrills and chills of “force multiplier” capabilities aside, one wonders how the local Hawaiian school children are coping? What must it be like for these precious young ones, learning their A, B, C’s, numbers, and colors, too, with not merely jets overhead, but stealth bombers that provide four times the firepower of fighter attack aircraft? Distant memories of 1960s bomb drills hiding underneath kindergarten desks suddenly come to mind. One wonders how Hawaiian teachers go about explaining to tiny tots that the bombs, each weighing about as much as four classroom pianos... are being dropped by their own country, that is [gulp] by the “good guys”. In correspondence with Bob Nichols, Project Censored Award winner and weapons expert of The San Francisco Bay View, Nichols wrote of the B-2 bombs,, "It is just a matter of time till the 376,000 lb heavy bombers hit a school playground or someone's house with the equivalent of a small car at 160 mph and kill no telling how many people. Just chalk it up to the annual required human sacrifice to keep the big Military payroll in Hawaii. The city fathers made a bad deal with the devil for a few dollars more." The devil may have made them do it, but do the local officials even know? According to Mayor of the County of Hawaii, Harry Kim, this is apparently not the case. "I was not aware that they were dropping bombs up there." Mayor Kim also added that the public has a right to know about what’s going on – and when Hawaiians can expect the 2,000 pound drops gracing them from up above. "They really need to be proactive about informing us so we can inform the public," he said. "The public needs to know when these types of exercises are going on, especially those who drive Saddle Road." Yes, there’s no doubt about it. These bombs are a threat to Hawaii, and when even the local government’s top official is not made aware of the mortal danger his citizens face on a regular basis, one suspects that Uncle Sam does a mighty lousy job as Federal Duck-and-Cover Communicator for the oblivious residing in Pacific paradise. As explained by the Air Force on its website, “The global reach and long loiter time over a target is a unique capability of America's bomber force. This makes the B-2 especially lethal to America's enemies.” Furthermore, as Col. Damian McCarthy, 36th Operations Group commander, elaborates, "Having the ability to stay over a target for extended periods, especially in a stealth airframe, gives the combatant commander the option to strike the bad guys at a time and place of their choosing." What none of these military load-dropping, macho-types explain, however, is just whose bright idea it was to use the Big Island of Hawaii for their bombing target practice fun. The island of Hawaii is, after all, a place where 160,000 citizens live and work, and 1.5 million tourists from around the globe come each year to sun, fun, and play. Can someone please tell me exactly when did the gentle, peace-loving people from the Aloha state get placed on the list as America’s declared “enemies” and “bad guys” in order to merit humongous, lethal bomb drops by B2 stealth bombers? One can understand why Hawaiians are a tad more than concerned about the very real possibility of stray, off-course bombs being dropped on their heads. What is even more disturbing, however, is the fact that these bombs – weighing roughly the same as a Honda CRX model car - are being dropped from altitudes 18,000 feet above the mountains … onto grounds contaminated with deadly toxic and radioactive Depleted Uranium from years of live-fire training. Can you just imagine how 2,000 pounds of concentrated dead weight, dropped from the skies, will rustle up and render airborne the Depleted Uranium in the soils on the Pohakuloa Training Area? And just how safe can this be, in terms of air quality, with lethal Depleted Uranium being re-suspended in the air by these bomb drops … particularly for those living in nearby towns? According to the Army’s 2000 health fact sheet on Depleted Uranium, “DU can also be inhaled when DU particles in the environment are resuspended into the atmosphere by wind or other disturbances.” Is there any question in anyone’s mind that such a heavy bomb, dropped from the heavens and landing in radioactive soils, creates one hell of a “disturbance?” Jim Albertini, of the Malu ‘Aina Center for Non-Violent Education & Action says of the bombings, “This, along with other training at PTA, is an outrage given the presence of Depleted Uranium (DU) confirmed at PTA. The full extent of the contamination is not yet known but the military is taking action that risks spreading the stuff around. It shows the complete disregard for the health and safety of Hawaii residents and the military people who train on the ground there.” Wouldn’t it make sense to remediate the contaminated soils at Pohakuloa, as is required by Army Regulation 700-48 before even thinking about dropping mega-bombs there? Is the Army in such a hurry to “practice” bombing the hell out of North Korea that it simply cannot wait another few months till it cleans up the mess it created in Hawaii by playing around there with its nuke weapons (and God-only-knows-what-other Uranium munitions)? Has this grand US imperial Empire, in its zealous myopic dream of waging wars at any cost, decided to totally waste the once pristine, lush, exotic Hawaiian island - and its very own citizens to boot? Does anyone know precisely when our nation made the decision to condemn Hawaii for billions of years as a radioactive “national sacrifice zone,” the “payoff” being the ability to wage continuous wars against innocent civilians … in both Hawaii as well as in far-off lands? Perhaps in lieu of being greeted in the future with flowered leis, future visitors to Hawaii’s airport should, by all rights, be appropriately welcomed with Army-issued gas masks and radioactive MOPP gear suits instead. While the Hawaiian tourist industry admittedly may tank once photos get out depicting the rather, um, encumbered manner in which Hawaiian tourists will now be outfitted, on the plus side, US troops would then be able to invade, occupy, and take as their own private playground vacant Hawaiian hotels and resorts where tourists and vacationers, fearing radioactive contamination, will no longer venture. So say goodbye, all ye citizens of the world, to the former tropical paradise of the Aloha state! Please know you have been forewarned and travel to Hawaii now at your own risk. Vacation now on the Big Island and prepare to be greeted with the US military’s own uniquely gracious brand of hospitality … the invisible “gift” of inhaled Uranium aerosol blowing in the warm tropical winds, bestowed upon unsuspecting residents and tourists alike, for all eternity. To learn more and find out what you can do to help keep Hawaii safe from domestic bombing and further radioactive contamination, visit the folks at Protect Hawaii and say Aloha to them for me. http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_25559.shtml 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. Cathy may be contacted at savorsuccesslady3@yahoo.com .
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