Protesters strike back against Stryker

At a series of environmental impact hearings, the U.S. Army’s plans to establish and train a new Stryker Brigade Combat Team at the Pohakuloa Military Training area on Hawai’i Island have met with growing opposition. In fact, on Feb. 2, opponents of the plans took over a military “open-house” hearing.

Previous environmental impact statements on a proposed new testing site for the six-wheeled Stryker combat vehicles were discredited when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Army had failed to consider other possible sites. The Army was forced to hold a new series of public hearings, including an earlier one in Hilo that was packed with opponents.

In an obvious attempt to stifle and isolate further opposition, the Army held an “open house” where those interested in testifying were “invited” to either submit written comments, sit in private before a video camera, or dictate their comments to a legal stenographer. With testimony being taken at several places at once, behind closed doors, it would be difficult for the public and the media to gauge the level of opposition.

So protesters took matters into their own hands. They brought their own sound system into the hearing at the Waiakea High School cafeteria. When police attempted to remove Hawaiian activist Sam Kaleleiki as he opened the gathering with a traditional Hawaiian pule (prayer), the cops were forced to back off.

The Army brought an unstaffed court reporter’s machine to the cafeteria, but took it away when protesters ignored it and videotaped the testimony themselves. “We are not military pawns,” said one resident. “We are going to transform this meeting, instead of the Stryker Brigade.” (Hawai’i Island Journal, Feb. 10-23).

Speakers addressed the harm that the army’s expansion at the Pohakuloa testing area would do to the island, especially given the military’s dismal track record for cleanup. Environmental activist Cory Harden read a story from that morning’s Hawai’i Tribune-Herald reporting that remains of depleted uranium had been discovered in the Wahiawa area near Pohakuloa, despite Army claims that DU had never been used in Hawai’i.

Hilo resident Lynn Nakkim asked why the Army wasn’t considering other locations to expand their testing. “Right around Crawford’s good,” she said. Crawford, Texas, is the site of President George W. Bush’s ranch.

Other speakers challenged the U.S. military’s role as a servant of corporate interests. Three veterans spoke in opposition. They included Kaleleiki, who served in Vietnam, where he was exposed to Agent Orange. He is now fighting cancer.

Protesters followed up their “peoples’ hearing” with demonstrations in Hilo and at the main gate of the Pohakuloa testing ground near Mauna Kea State Park on Feb. 14, 21 and 24. They demanded: “Stop the war! Stop Stryker!” and “Bring the troops home now!”

The Stryker program started before the first Gulf War, to replace heavier Abrams tanks that couldn’t be rapidly deployed. The Stryker, a 20-ton armored attack vehicle, uses wheels instead of treads and can travel at 60 mph. In the current U.S. war in Iraq, the Stryker has been used in place of foot patrols to suppress insurgent activity, but has proven to have limited value in urban combat.

Only one Stryker can fit in a C-130 transport plane, commonly used on short airfields in combat zones. When fully loaded the Stryker is so heavy that the transport planes can’t land at high-altitude airfields. The Army is looking to the creation of a Stryker Brigade Combat Team to address these problems.

The island of Hawai’i, roughly the size of Connecticut, is the biggest of the chain of islands that make up the area the United States claims as the “state” of Hawai’i. Much of the island’s interior is composed of dormant volcanic mountains and the 175,000-acre Parker ranch. Since 1893, when the USS Boston landed troops to support the cabal of sugar planters and business owners who overthrew and imprisoned Hawai’i’s Queen Liliuokalani, the U.S. has increased its military holdings, using an occupied Hawai’i as a launching point for imperialist ambitions in the Pacific and beyond.

The U.S. military already controls 240,000 acres of land in Hawai’i, and 22.4 percent of the land on O’ahu. Fifty-four percent of the military’s land holdings consist of stolen Hawaiian national lands. With over 36 fishponds, Ke Awalau o Pu’uloa (Pearl Harbor) was once a rich source of food for O’ahu. Today, under military control, it is extremely contaminated, comprising a giant Superfund site.

After years of testing bombs on the Hawaiian island of Kaho’olawe, the Navy was forced to withdraw. It spent $400 million for a failed cleanup of unexploded bombs. The Army plans to station the Stryker Brigade, with 291 vehicles, on 25,000 acres of land in Hawai’i and O’ahu in what would be the largest military expansion since World War II.

In its environmental impact statement, the Army admitted that the Stryker would cause significant damage to cultural and historic sites, increase threats of fire and erosion, threaten endangered native species, and release 25 percent more munitions and toxins. Hazardous chemicals from military munitions such as RDX and HMX, which attack nervous systems, the carcinogen TNT, and increased levels of lead have already been detected in and around the Pohakuloa testing range.

Fifty-seven known sites on Hawai’i have been used for bombing, artillery and live-fire ranges, with 7.1 million live rounds of various weapons fired annually. Unexploded military ordnance has been found in the waters off popular Hapuna Beach, off the Hilo Bay breakwater, and at least twice on elementary-school grounds.

The increasing militarization of the Hawaiian islands can also been seen in the Navy’s plans to establish a University Affiliated Research Center at the University of Hawai’i, and in increased targeting of Hawaiian youths by military recruiters. In 2005 the Stop UARC Coalition occupied the University of Hawai’i president’s office for a week, forcing the board of regents to delay agreement on the research center. Military opponents have joined in a call for a moratorium on military expansion in Hawai’i, and support the call for Congress to cut off war funds against Iraq.