EDITORIAL
Marine use of Waikane raises key questions

It's a good thing the Marine Corps plans to prepare an environmental assessment before it resumes — after a quarter-century lapse — training in Waikane Valley.

That's because, while the state has done its best to "keep the country country," that stretch of the Windward side is far more crowded today, both in terms of residential population and vehicle traffic. Certainly there's no question, as the Marines acknowledge, of ever again allowing live fire in the area.

Use of blanks or paint-balls, as proposed for small units in jungle training, sounds a lot more practical, and as a general concept, we must support the military in its attempts to provide the most realistic training possible for its troops.

Nevertheless, the plan to resume training in Waikane raises some important questions:

• What, precisely, is the Marines' immediate need for jungle training? The reason cited has to do with Marines deployed to support Navy Seabees in the southern Philippines. That mission, however, has been completed and, we presume, the deployment ended. Army personnel remain in a training capacity.

Do the Marines anticipate further jungle missions, in the Philippines or, perhaps, in Indonesia? That's a national strategic question, with a variety of implications, that needs discussion.

• What does this proposal say about fairness to the community and to the Kamaka family, which leased the land to the military for live-fire training from 1944 to 1976? All they ever wanted was to have the land back. But the government said it was unable to clean up the unexploded munitions remaining on the property, and instead condemned the land, fenced it off and declared it forever off-limits to all.

Now, apparently, the Marines have few qualms about exposing their personnel to these very same dangers. That could suggest that either they're pretty cavalier about the safety of their troops or that the dangers were overstated.

It's not enough for the Marines to announce they're resuming training at Waikane simply because they own the land. The circumstances of their acquisition of the land demand complete explanation.