Anti-War Up - Honolulu Star-Bulletin Editorial on Stryker

Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Editorials

http://starbulletin.com/2003/12/20/e...ditorials.html



Saturday, December 20, 2003





[ OUR OPINION ]



Changes should alter Stryker appraisals



THE ISSUE

The Stryker brigade approved for Hawaii may be

equipped with helicopters and cannons not

included in the Army's environmental report.



ADDITIONS could alter the effects the Stryker

brigade that's to be based here will have on the

state and should be included in environmental

appraisals. If not, the Army stands vulnerable to

protracted battles over the brigade that has

already attracted opposition.



The announcement this week that a Stryker Brigade

Combat Team will be stationed in Hawaii indicates

the "enhanced" force will contain Comanche

helicopters and 155 mm howitzers in addition to

the 300 19-ton, eight-wheeled armored vehicles

around which the unit is designed. The heightened

aviation squadron and heavier fire support forces

may not have significant effects, but could bring

into question the validity of the Army's draft

environmental impact statement.



Congressman Neil Abercrombie jubilantly

proclaimed the Pentagon's approval of the

brigade, touting the hundreds of millions of

dollars the Army plans to spend on Oahu and the

Big Island to accommodate the unit that will

require acquisition of 1,400 acres to augment the

27,000 acres Schofield Barracks now occupies in

Wahiawa and another 23,000 acres at the

108,890-acre Pohakuloa Training Area.



A spokeswoman told the Star-Bulletin's Gregg

Kakesako that officials were still trying to sort

out details the Pentagon did not provide, but

that the Army would ensure environmental

compliance.



The Army's newest Comanche attack helicopters

apparently will replace Kiowas assigned to other

Stryker brigades, so significant changes in

effects aren't expected. The larger howitzers

likely will be restricted to certain firing zones

as would have the 105 mm cannons with which

brigades generally are equipped.



Nonetheless, the draft assessment does not

include the new equipment and with conflict

already heightened after hearings on the

environmental statement resulted in the arrests

of seven people earlier in the year, the

alterations could become a sticking point.

Coupled with the continuing discord over the

Army's training exercises in Makua Valley and the

history of confrontation over Kahoolawe with the

Navy, community dissent could expand.



The Army should do what it can to mitigate

further contention, even if it means further

hearings and an extension of its public comment

period.



© 2003 Honolulu Star-Bulletin -- http://starbulletin.com

In article ,
"redvet" wrote:

> Honolulu Star-Bulletin
> Editorials
> http://starbulletin.com/2003/12/20/e...ditorials.html

- - - - - [snip] - - - - -
>
> A spokeswoman told the Star-Bulletin's Gregg
> Kakesako that officials were still trying to sort
> out details the Pentagon did not provide, but
> that the Army would ensure environmental
> compliance.
>
> The Army's newest Comanche attack helicopters
> apparently will replace Kiowas assigned to other
> Stryker brigades, so significant changes in
> effects aren't expected. The larger howitzers
> likely will be restricted to certain firing zones
> as would have the 105 mm cannons with which
> brigades generally are equipped.

- - - - - [snip] - - - - -

Aloha Scotty,

Your suggested editorial raises a few questions.

If, as you indicate, there will be "NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGES" and
"THE ARMY WOULD ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE," why should it be
necessary to hold additional hearings?

Explain how one can compare the small band of aging
Revolutionary Communist Party radical crackpots protesting Makua
training and the Stryker brigade to the Protect Kahoolawe movement of
the seventies, which was supported by the overwhelming majority of
the state's population.

--