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Open letter on military to Congressman Kahele

I’m sad you voted for FY2022 military budget of nearly $1 trillion and to increase it by $24 billion.

Don’t let the good work you’re doing for Hawaii be overshadowed by indebtedness to weapons manufacturers. You can win without them.

Please learn from Afghanistan, Iraq, etc., what we should have learned from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia: no amount of money spent on instruments of death can translate into victory beyond Wall Street.

There are simply no military solutions for problems facing the world today (many of which we created).

Represent your constituents, not those tossing you breadcrumbs. Weapon makers don’t care about the people of Hawaii, or veterans like you and me, any more than they cared about Kahoolawe. They care only about constantly increasing shareholder profits.

After $2 trillion, countless lives lost, and 20 years of occupation, the Taliban are back in power. Moving the Pacific Fleet from San Diego didn’t make Hawaii safer and pouring more money into the bottomless pit of modern warfare won’t make Hawaii, America or the world safer.

Only understanding history and cultures beyond our own, and good-faith diplomacy, will make the world safer. Not bigger weapons, stronger missile defense, or longer leases of sacred Hawaiian land.

Please don’t help war profiteers paint a bigger target on Hawaii’s back. Aim instead to demilitarize the Pacific Rim, if even just slightly. Please find the courage to do the right thing, even if it means a rockier road to higher office.

Jayson Mizula

Kaunakakai

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