Source: Maui Time, Maui News, Best of Maui, Maui Activities

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This Week in Review
WEDNESDAY, May 4

May 12, 2005

Amidst all this talk of our local reservists in the U.S. Army’s 411th Engineer Battalion (Combat Heavy) returning safely from Iraq, the website www.thememoryhole.org today showed pretty much once and for all that our war in Iraq began under false pretenses. It linked to a Times of London scoop based on a secret July 23, 2002 British secret service memo on a then-recent Iraqi invasion planning meeting. Stating flat out that “Military action was now seen as inevitable”—remember, this was written months before our fearless leader George W. Bush went on TV and said “I hope the use of force [against Iraq] will not become necessary”—the memo repeated time and again that Bush wanted war. “It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action,” the memo’s author wrote. Then the author explained Bush’s problem with invading Iraq. “But the case was thin,” he wrote. “Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.” The story’s gotten a lot of play in Britain, but over here, no one much beyond the websites Memory Hole and Salon has written about it. I guess this is old news to everyone but me.







THURSDAY, May 5



Speaking of the war, our beloved U.S. Congressman Ed Case (D, Hawai’i) is for it. And sure, why not? I mean, being a Democrat in Congress these days sucks—no power, no ability to get amendments passed, only one measly cup of Senate Bean Soup per day. So is it really surprising that he voted today to approve Bush’s $82 billion spending bill for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? I mean, sure—Bush and his minions told us years ago that Iraqi oil revenues would finance the war, but they said a lot of things that turned out to be bullshit. Besides, who wants to be part of the low side of a 368-58 vote, especially with all the talk show hosts calling for us to “support the troops” and all that? Neil Abercrombie (D, Honolulu), that’s who! According to the Associated Press, Abercrombie said he voted against the bill because it was just a “slush fund for Halliburton.” You remember Halliburton, right? It’s that mega-construction firm once run by Vice-Fearless Leader Dick Cheney which got many millions of dollars in Iraqi reconstruction contracts, making it pretty much the only beneficiary of our wonderful war.







FRIDAY, May 6



The proposed one-mile long Lahaina Bypass will cost $57 million, The Maui News reported today. One mile long. That’s it. Just one mile—a distance a healthy adult can walk in about 15 minutes. So $57 million sounds reasonable, right? I mean, it’s only $10,795.45 per foot or $899.62 per inch. I hope they’re paving it with gold, because that’s some pretty expensive roadbed. And that’s just the first leg of the road! The whole thing’s something like nine miles long. But West Maui representative Kameo Tanaka (D, 10th     District) isn’t worried. “The bypass is coming,” he told the News. Really? And when would that be? The year 2045? You know, Paia’s having similar problems with their Paia Bypass—a tiny road expected to take years to pave. Does the State of Hawai’i have something against the word “bypass”? If we started calling this things “connectors” or “mini-roads” or even “sissy streets,” would the state then act a bit faster?







SATURDAY, May 7



Today was the big Welcome Home party at War Memorial Park for the 40 Maui reservists of the 411th who just got back from their year’s tour in Iraq. The good news is that lots of people showed up to express their thanks and joy that all 40 men and women were able to make it back unscathed. The bad news is that one of them was Governor Linda Lingle, who just couldn’t resist saying that the smattering of anti-war protesters she’d seen along the day’s parade route showed that some people still didn’t appreciate that soldiers like those who make up the 411th made our freedom to protest possible. Notwithstanding the fact that anyone who voluntarily goes to Iraq is a hero in my book, Lingle is talking nonsense. With the exceptions of the American Revolution, the Civil War and quite probably World War II, our troops have never fought in defense of America’s freedom. They’ve fought for other nation’s freedoms, certainly, but not our own. And brave as they are, U.S. troops aren’t fighting for our freedom in Iraq, except possibly our freedom to drive SUVs, though rising gas prices seem to be saying that that fight isn’t going so hot.







SUNDAY, May 8



Mmmm… pizza.







MONDAY, May 9



The University of Hawai’i is still trying to decide whether it wants to suck on the U.S. Navy’s $50 million classified research teat, according to today’s Honolulu Advertiser. What, oh what, is the school to do? The Navy’s saying they’ll wait, but not forever, but student activists are promising civil disobedience if UH opts to join the military-industrial complex. But by far the most depressing bit of info in the story is a quote from John Butler, who directs the University of Texas-Austin’s research institute. “You cannot become a big-time research university without doing classified research, but you can still be a great state university.” he said. Great state university? Who wants to be that? Anyway, Butler wasn’t through. “We do lots of classified research here at UT,” he added. “It’s just what major research universities, like Michigan and Wisconsin, do.” And as everyone knows, all great institutions of higher learning aspire to be like Michigan and Wisconsin.







TUESDAY, May 10



Been checking out those full-page, full-color ads for The Carlyle Group in The Maui News? Carlyle’s showing off their subsidiary’s new name, Hawaiian Telcom, which now owns Verizon Hawai’i. This is modern marketing at its finest: Carlyle is a $25 billion global equity fund, yet the ads proclaim that it’s just a “local company.”







Anthony Pignataro is a celebrated author whose most recent book was the 2003 biography Last American Stud: The Wilford Brimley Story. MTW