Letters 10|06

What our readers have to say

WATADA, YEA OR NAY?

It was very inspiring to see the Nota Bene by Hoyt Zia in your [August 2006] issue, expressing support for Lt. Ehren Watada. I think it takes tremendous courage to take a stand like this in a business publication.

Recent fiascos in American corporate boardrooms and local political campaign offices reveal a disturbing trend of passive acceptance of questionable or illegal practices — motivated by fear of rocking the boat. Lt. Watada’s refusal to deploy for an illegal war in violation of our Constitution and international law is a “boat-rocking” act of the greatest magnitude. 

The tragic internment of my ethnic community during World War II occurred because many good Americans passively accepted it as a wartime necessity, and allowed the Constitution to be ignored. Lt. Watada took a soldier’s oath to defend the Constitution, and he fulfills that oath through his principled resistance, in fighting to ensure that the Constitution is defended, and not ignored, in times of war. 

Karen Nakasone, Esq.
Honolulu, HI
Via email

You have a right to your expressed opinion. But I feel you totally miss the point. Lt. Watada JOINED the Army. He knew what the Army did. He knew where were fighting and what the future might be. My generation only had the choice of being drafted, joining (I enlisted in 1965) or going to Canada. I have no problem with those who went to Canada. I think they made a mistake, but that was their free decision. The Lt. JOINED. You joined. I am not crazy about war. No question we have done some things wrong here. But you do not teach your kids to join the army, then pick which fights they will engage in.

Scotty Andersons
Via email

Thank you to Hoyt Zia for having the courage to raise an important issue that we face each day. His words had a profound impact on me.  He is absolutely correct when he says that we know right from wrong, but many of us find it difficult to do the right thing or support the right cause. If every business leader and politician took ethical and moral values into consideration before making decisions, our world would not be so full of its woes.

Compassion, kindness, honor and integrity have fallen to the wayside for so many people who are caught up in the daily grinds of making a success of themselves and their businesses. We all, as individuals, can touch the lives of people we interact with each day, but leaders of the corporate and political world are the ones who can make a difference for so many people. So thank you, Hoyt, for reminding us to stay on the right track. How meaningful is it to have all the money or recognition in the world, and to know that we have compromised or endangered the wellbeing of another person?

Claire M.T. Higashi
Body Mint- USA LLC
Honolulu, HI
Via email

Heartfelt thanks for your support and stand on Lt. Ehren Watada. Hawaii is clearly dominated by the U.S. military presence and our population is significantly influenced by both the active duty military and retired military personnel. Notwithstanding, thank you for your own courage and words. As has been said, “The truth shall set you free …”

There is justifiable anger with the pro-war, pro-Israel stance taken by U.S. corporate media and until the U.S. government propaganda spewed out daily by American television and national newspapers. Are we truly a democracy? It is folly for the U.S. to “stay the course” with stubborn, stupid arrogance and foolish pride.

The thousands of innocent Iraqi, Afghani, and Lebanese civilians killed by U.S. and Israeli military bombs, and many more thousands of wounded and crippled civilians must be brought front and center to the American people. The U.S. military occupation of Iraq is a question of moral conscience. The killing of thousands of innocent Iraqi and Lebanese civilians by U.S. and Israeli military airstrikes should be raised as an international war crime and these actions by George Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and other leaders both here in the U.S. and Israel need to be questioned and held accountable by international courts of law.

Americans themselves would not tolerate any foreign military occupation on American soil or the killing of American civilians by any foreign military force.  Americans would take up arms in defense of America and this is precisely what is now happening with Iraq and Afghanistan.

The U.S. military expenditure for our adventure into the Middle East is now at some $300 billion. We are nowhere close to achieving any stated military or political objectives with Iraq.The cost and debt burden of Bush’s Iraq War will be paid by our children and grandchildren. And our staggering U.S. debt at $8 plus trillion is an all-time, historic high.

The U.S. military occupation of the Middle East is truly about controlling Middle East Oil — not Democracy.  Bush and his neo-conservatives should for once be honest with the American people about their true intentions and the true total cost in innocent lives lost on all sides and the rapid erosion of America’s international reputation as a world leader.

Branden Ho
Las Vegas, Nevada
Via email

CORRECTION: In our August “Question Authority” a quote from economist Paul Brewbaker on concerns about lengthening Maui’s runway should have read: “You are not doing anything about the existing planes so what does adding planes do? So it is not about planes, it is about interdiction.”

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