By Shannon Rudolph on 30 June 2011 via email - (shannonkona@gmail.com)
Image above: From (http://thehui.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/your-comments-needed-expanded-army-training-facilities-at-pohakuloa).
Dear Governor Abercrombie,
It was so nice of you to consult with the West Hawaii community before you started pimping us for a Marine base. I know you've got a few business owners licking their chops, but what of the larger community? I think you will find many, many residents opposed to this proposal. There are many very good reasons why the Okinawans want this base out of Okinawa, for the very same reasons most in Guam do not want the base either; high crime rates among young recruits, domestic abuse, prostitution, drugs, violence, traffic, the toxic contamination of the land, and other serious problems.
The future of West Hawaii and all of Hawaii for that matter, depend on clean air, land, and water, plus a low crime rate. Don't blow our future with this very stupid idea, especially without asking the average resident, who will pay dearly.
There is no way the community of West Hawaii can handle, or wants, "tens of thousands of Marines" moving here, (according to hawaiibusiness.com) it would completely ruin our town. Please get this stupid idea out of your head, pronto. And by the way, please get us some reliable data on the depleted uranium radiation at Pohakuloa. I hear from several professionals that the Army monitoring for DU used filters that were ten times too big. Take charge and get us some real answers that we can believe in and make the military clean up the horrendous mess they've already left us.
Remember, the easiest and cheapest way to clean up toxic contamination, including radiation, is to not make the mess in the first place. No military base in West Hawaii or huge expansion of Pohakuloa!
Abercrombie: Pohakuloa vs. Guam
By Dennis Hollier on 2 June 2011 for Hawaii Business Blogs -
(http://blogs.hawaiibusiness.com/2011/06/02/abercrombie-pohakuloa-vs-guam)
There’s been quite a bit of press regarding the latest Rand report, which was officially released yesterday at a HIPA breakfast presentation at Hilton Hawaiian Village. The report attempts to quantify the effects of military spending on the Hawaii economy, and the numbers are astonishing:
- More than $6.5 billion in annual spending
- $12.2 billion in cumulative effect
- 101,533 jobs
According to the Governor, Guam’s all wrong. “They don’t have the infrastructure; they don’t have the capacity; they don’t have the space to train; and they don’t have the EIS. It’s not going to work.” And, of course, he has an alternative in mind: Pohakuloa on the Big Island.
After all, he points out, Pohakuloa is already a major training facility; it’s near the Pacific Command and the resources of Pearl Harbor and Schofield Barracks; and, most importantly, it’s in Hawaii. That’s particularly important in today’s all volunteer military, where retention is as important as recruitment.
The Governor wryly considered the preferences of young soldiers: “You ask them where they want to end up, on Guam, or on the Kona Coast?” Of course, Abercrombie’s remarks – especially before this audience – were strategic.
First, he pointed out that the current arrangement of U.S. military resources – in a crescent that runs up the West Coast, through Alaska and the Aleutians, and down through Japan and Korea – is an artifact of the Cold War, when our focus was on the Soviet Union. “Today, we need to think of it as bowl,” he said, gesturing with his fingers to indicate an arc running from California, through Hawaii, and reaching all the way to the Indian Ocean.
Not coincidentally, that’s pretty much the jurisdiction of the Pacific Command. But the Governor’s gambit to try to pick Guam’s pocket is really about securing Hawaii’s economic future. As he pointed out, one of the findings in the Rand report was that nearly a third of all DOD procurement spending in Hawaii was in construction, mostly in housing development. But that spending is gradually coming to an end.
Abercrombie clearly sees developing Pohakuloa for the Marines as a way to sustain the growth of military spending in the state. It’s a bold vision. But it may be impossible to change the military’s plans at this late date. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been poured into Guam to set the move in motion. And nothing has as much momentum as the U.S. military on a mission. Still, the Governor gave the impression this was a bone he’s going to chew on. “We cannot sit by passively and wait for decisions to be made for us,” he said. “We have to be thinking proactively.”
So, to borrow a military metaphor, maybe this is just the first salvo in what will be a long fusillade. We’ll see. .
No comments :
Post a Comment