[News] Cancel RIMPAC 2024: Stop the U.S. War Machine, From Hawaiʻi to Palestine to the Philippines!

[Anti-Imperialist News]

counterpunch.org 
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/08/cancel-rimpac-2024-stop-the-u-s-war-machine-from-hawai%ca%bbi-to-palestine-to-the-philippines/> 



  Cancel RIMPAC 2024: Stop the U.S. War Machine, From Hawaiʻi to
  Palestine to the Philippines!

Yoko Liriano – Seiji Yamada
February 8, 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seiji with the microphone and Yoko holding the “We don’t want to pick 
our poison!” sign.

*February 4 – What’s in a date?*

On February 4, we commemorated 125 years since the start of the 
Philippine-American War (1899-1902) and found ourselves reflecting on 
the historical context that brought us here.

Today the genocide of the Palestinian people is being livestreamed in 
real time. Back in 1899, however, newspaper accounts, photos, and 
drawings of the massacre of Filipinos at the hands of U.S. soldiers took 
time to reach the U.S. public. In that genocidal war, however, an 
estimated 10% of the population died in combat and civilian massacres.

Why is it that war and genocide continue to plague humanity? Why does 
Hawaiʻi get dragged into these conflicts over and over again?

Unsurprisingly, the unifying thread turns out to be U.S. imperialism. 
The National Park Service recounts the history of Pearl Harbor 
<https://www.nps.gov/perl/learn/historyculture/pearl-harbor.htm>:

    Despite gaining exclusive rights to Pearl Harbor in 1887, the United
    States did not make any attempt to take advantage of their claim on
    this strategic estuary until well after the turn of the century. It
    wasn’t until the capture of Manila during the Spanish-American War,
    when the United States needed to establish a permanent way station
    in the Pacific to maintain control of the Philippines. Then, for the
    first time, the American government began to understand the
    strategic importance of Oahu.

Thus, the start of the Philippine-American War also marked the beginning 
of the transformation of Hawaiʻi into the U.S. military garrison that it 
is today.

*What is coming?*

We pass by Pearl Harbor on our way to work every day. Seeing warships 
there and military aircraft in the skies is part of the daily routine 
for the people of ʻOahu. Yet, we are collectively bracing ourselves for 
tens of thousands of military personnel of more than 26 countries 
(including ‘israel’) to descend upon the land, the waters, and the air 
of the Pacific Ocean around Hawaiʻi this summer for the biannual Rim of 
the Pacific (RIMPAC) war games.

 From June 29 through August 4, we are expecting yet another onslaught 
of destruction to our land, our reefs, our water and wildlife, 
accompanied by an increase in violence against women and children 
perpetrated by military personnel. RIMPAC serves no other purpose than 
to playact war, death, and devastation. The U.S. prepares for all-out 
war with China, Russia, Iran, or whomever is the enemy of the week – 
raising the threat of nuclear war and the potential extinction of the 
human species.

We are not idly standing by. We, the Hawaiʻi Committee for Human Rights 
in the Philippines (HICHRP) comprise just a small part of the coalition 
to Cancel RIMPAC. We are lying in wait, gearing up for significant 
resistance.

*What are we up against?*

In July 2022, 38 warships, 4 submarines, 170 aircraft, and some 25,000 
personnel converged in Hawaiʻi for the most recent RIMPAC games 
<https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/Press-Releases/display-pressreleases/Article/3079745/rimpac-2022-officially-begins/>. 
RIMPAC, called the “world’s biggest naval exercises,” takes place every 
two years. Pointedly, China, which had been invited to participate in 
previous RIMPACs in 2014 and 2016, has been disinvited 
<https://www.staradvertiser.com/2022/02/23/hawaii-news/navy-expects-27-countries-to-attend-rimpac-this-summer/> 
since 2018.

While the U.S. had been the world’s sole superpower after the collapse 
of the Soviet Union in 1991, the economic rise of China has U.S. 
military strategists planning for the coming war against it. With its 
location across the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea from China, the 
Philippines plays a crucial role in the U.S.’s plans for the coming war.

The U.S. took over from Spain as the colonizer of the Philippines in 
1898 and waged the  Philippine-American war, a colonial war of conquest. 
After the Philippines were occupied by Imperial Japan (1942-1945), it 
gained nominal independence in 1946 – while the U.S. continued to 
maintain a substantial military presence.

Meanwhile in Hawaiʻi, after the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl 
Harbor, the U.S. placed Hawaiʻi under martial law and began using 
Kaho‘olawe as a bombing target.  Even after the war, the U.S. continued 
to test weapons (including Agent Orange) and train for jungle warfare 
and island invasions in Hawaiʻi.

In the 1960s, while the first Ferdinand Marcos was President, U.S. Naval 
Base Subic Bay and Clark Air Base served as launching pads (as well as 
“rest and recuperation” sites) for the Vietnam War. Marcos Sr. placed 
the Philippines under martial law from 1972 until he was deposed in 
1986. During this time, the U.S. supported his kleptocratic rule until 
Marcos was airlifted out by the U.S. along with crates of cash, gold 
bullion, and jewels. He lived out his remaining years in Hawai‘i – yet 
another tie to between Hawaiʻi and the Philippines.

But U.S. imperialism is not the only connection between Hawaiʻi and the 
Philippines (and with Palestine, and all oppressed peoples around the 
world). They also share a revolutionary tradition of resistance and 
struggle.

The Filipino people evicted the U.S. from its bases on Philippine soil 
in 1991. In 1993, the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) people forced an 
end to the bombing of Kaho‘olawe.

In contemporary U.S. war planning, Hawaiʻi and the Philippines, together 
with Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Okinawa, and Guam serve as staging 
areas for the coming war with China. In 2011, in the midst of the 
debacles of invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, then-Secretary of State 
Hillary Clinton announced a “pivot” (later termed a “rebalancing”) from 
the Middle East toward Asia – in order to counter the rise of China.

As China fortifies the outcroppings in the South China Sea/West 
Philippine Sea into military bases – the U.S. conducts provocative 
“freedom of navigation” incursions by military aircraft and warships. As 
the U.S. ramps up preparation for war against China, it has been seeking 
to consolidate its military presence in the Philippines. Thus, 
humanitarian aid and disaster response in 2013 in the aftermath of 
Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan facilitated the Enhanced Defense Cooperation 
Agreement (EDCA) in 2014. The EDCA has allowed the U.S. military access 
to facilities in the Philippines, including the stationing of troops, 
and prepositioning of weaponry.

*Another Ukraine?*

China’s vow to bring Taiwan under its control has been met with repeated 
vows by Joe Biden that the U.S. would engage militarily if China were to 
invade Taiwan. Similarly to how the U.S. continually prodded Russia by 
expanding NATO and encouraging Ukraine to join, the U.S. continually 
prods China by arming Taiwan and sending warships through the South 
China Sea/West Philippine Sea. As stated explicitly by Raytheon’s 
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the U.S. sought to “weaken” Russia by 
arming Ukraine to resist invasion. It is clear now that Russia has won.

Ukraine has been devastated and has lost a generation while U.S. arms 
manufacturers laughed all the way to the bank. In the coming war over 
Taiwan, or the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea, or the Korean 
peninsula, the U.S. plans to confront China directly – from bases in the 
Philippines, South Korea, and Japan, all of which may undergo the same 
fate as Ukraine.

*U.S. military funds overfloweth.*

In the way that “israel” and Ukraine have no limits to U.S. military 
spending to uphold U.S. interests, no matter how brutal and 
unconscionable, the Philippines occupies a similar client status.

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte relied heavily on the U.S. 
military in operations against the Moro peoples 
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/world/asia/pentagon-philippines-isis.html>against 
the Lumads, the largest group of indigenous peoples in the southern 
Philippines. The U.S. government has sent more than $550 million of aid 
to the Philippine military and police since 2016, not including arms sales.

In January 2023, in an extension of EDCA, the Philippine and U.S. 
governments announced plans to allow U.S. military access to four 
additional bases in the Philippines. During April 2023 12,200 U.S.troops 
joined 5,400 Armed Forces of the Philippines personnel for the largest 
ever of the yearlyBalikatan (“shoulder-to-shoulder”) Exercise 
<https://ph.usembassy.gov/philippine-u-s-troops-to-hold-largest-ever-balikatan-exercise-from-april-11-to-28/> 
to simulate war with China. The U.S. military thus embeds with the Armed 
Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

The fascist and neocolonial government of the Philippines actively 
suppresses the people’s resistance, including the anti-colonial 
liberation struggles of the Lumads and the Moro, who have been subject 
to aerial assault. Human rights activists – such as environmentalists, 
journalists, human rights lawyers, and health workers – are “red-tagged” 
and subjected to extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, 
torture, illegal arrests and detentions, harassment and the rest of the 
range of human rights atrocities.

Despite a presidential election marred by disinformation, intimidation, 
violence, and fraud – the U.S. welcomed the installation of Ferdinand R. 
“Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. into power in the Philippines in June 2022. Vying 
to be the first to congratulate Bongbong, Biden angled for a stronger 
alliance with the Philippines. Bongbong Marcos denies the history as 
well as accountability of his family to the martyrs and all victims of 
his father’s Martial Law regime.

During the 2023 visits by Imee Marcos 
<https://www.staradvertiser.com/2023/10/07/hawaii-news/imee-marcos-visit-to-oahu-sparks-mixed-reactions/> 
and Bongbong Marcos 
<https://www.staradvertiser.com/2023/11/19/hawaii-news/protesters-show-up-for-marcos-visit/> 
to Hawaiʻi, the Hawaii Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, in 
solidarity with the people’s resistance in the Philippines, let them 
know that dictators, plunderers, and violators of human rights are not 
welcome in Hawaiʻi.

*Calls to Action*

HICHRP continues to call on the U.S. Congress to pass the Philippines 
Human Rights Act (PHRA) <https://humanrightsph.org/>, which would cut 
off U.S. government funding to the Philippine military and police. The 
goal is to prevent the use of our tax money to fund human rights 
violations of the Philippine government against its people. The U.S. 
Department of Defense and the U.S. State Department would be required to 
submit a report to the Congressional Appropriations Committee regarding 
such funding and any misappropriation of any other funding to the 
Philippine military and police.

The Filipino people’s struggle against the U.S. war machine is obviously 
allied with the struggle of the Palestinian people against occupation, 
ethnic cleansing, and genocide – with U.S. taxpayer funding, arms, and 
political cover, making the U.S. complicit in war crimes. The U.S. war 
machine has global reach. It must be stopped globally. Instead of 
preparing for conflict with war games such as RIMPAC and Balikatan, we 
must instead come together to build peace, life, and coexistence.

In our salute to heroes of the Philippine American War, we also 
celebrate the mighty revolutionary, David Fagan.  A black American 
soldier sent to fight for U.S. interests in the Philippines, he found 
that could no longer stomach the hypocrisy of being in a segregated unit 
while perpetrating the same racism against the Filipinos. So he defected 
to the Filipino guerilla army and was warmly regarded as “General Fagan” 
for his fierce loyalty to justice, and hostility to imperialist 
occupation.  We commend all of those wake up from their roles in the 
subjugation of others and risk poverty, detention, and death: the 
U.S.American veterans who oppose war, the Israeli youth who are arrested 
for defying their IOF conscription. Of course, our utmost respect and 
honor goes to all those who give up their comforts to fight for liberation.

No more unlimited spending for imperialist aggression.  No more using 
poor, brown peoples as cannon fodder. No more devastation of land, water 
and life in the name of oil and profits.

We need to focus instead on directing our resources to uplifting the 
living standards of poor and working people in Hawaiʻi, the Philippines, 
Palestine, and everywhere around the world. We should focus instead on 
preventing more pandemics and aggressively combatting imminent climate 
catastrophe.

*Cancel RIMPAC 2024! Stop the U.S. war machine, from Hawaiʻi, to 
Palestine, to the Philippines!*
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