<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<div dir="ltr">
<div id="gmail-toolbar" class="gmail-toolbar-container"> </div>
<div class="gmail-container" dir="ltr" lang="en-US">
<div
class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element"> <a
class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain"
href="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/"
moz-do-not-send="true">counterpunch.org</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Cancel RIMPAC 2024: Stop the
U.S. War Machine, From Hawaiʻi to Palestine to the
Philippines!</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Yoko Liriano –
Seiji Yamada</div>
<div class="gmail-meta-data">
<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">February
8, 2024<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div
class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element">
<div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page">
<div>
<div id="gmail-attachment_312822"
class="gmail-wp-caption">
<p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-312822"
src="https://www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Seiji-Yoko-Walk-for-Wai-680x674.jpg"
alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img"
style="margin-right: 0px;" moz-do-not-send="true"
width="444" height="440"></p>
<p id="gmail-caption-attachment-312822"
class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Seiji with the
microphone and Yoko holding the “We don’t want to
pick our poison!” sign.</p>
</div>
<p><strong>February 4 – What’s in a date?</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Why is it that war and genocide continue to plague
humanity? Why does Hawaiʻi get dragged into these
conflicts over and over again?</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the unifying thread turns out to be
U.S. imperialism. <a
href="https://www.nps.gov/perl/learn/historyculture/pearl-harbor.htm"
moz-do-not-send="true">The National Park Service
recounts the history of Pearl Harbor</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p><strong>What is coming?</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><strong>What are we up against?</strong></p>
<p>In July 2022, 38 warships, 4 submarines, 170
aircraft, and some 25,000 personnel converged in
Hawaiʻi for <a
href="https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/Press-Releases/display-pressreleases/Article/3079745/rimpac-2022-officially-begins/"
moz-do-not-send="true">the most recent RIMPAC games</a>.
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 <a
href="https://www.staradvertiser.com/2022/02/23/hawaii-news/navy-expects-27-countries-to-attend-rimpac-this-summer/"
moz-do-not-send="true">disinvited</a> since 2018.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><strong>Another Ukraine?</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><strong>U.S. military funds overfloweth.</strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte relied
heavily on <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/world/asia/pentagon-philippines-isis.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">the U.S. military in
operations against the Moro peoples </a>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.</p>
<p>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 yearly<a
href="https://ph.usembassy.gov/philippine-u-s-troops-to-hold-largest-ever-balikatan-exercise-from-april-11-to-28/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Balikatan
(“shoulder-to-shoulder”) Exercise</a> to simulate
war with China. The U.S. military thus embeds with the
Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine
National Police.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>During the 2023 visits by <a
href="https://www.staradvertiser.com/2023/10/07/hawaii-news/imee-marcos-visit-to-oahu-sparks-mixed-reactions/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Imee Marcos</a> and <a
href="https://www.staradvertiser.com/2023/11/19/hawaii-news/protesters-show-up-for-marcos-visit/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Bongbong Marcos</a> 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.</p>
<p><strong>Calls to Action</strong></p>
<p>HICHRP continues to call on the U.S. Congress to pass
the <a href="https://humanrightsph.org/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Philippines Human Rights Act
(PHRA)</a>, 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><strong>Cancel RIMPAC 2024! Stop the U.S. war
machine, from Hawaiʻi, to Palestine, to the
Philippines!</strong></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>