Posted on: Thursday, July 1, 2004

EDITORIAL
RIMPAC a boon for Hawai'i, the Pacific

For those of us ashore, the biggest impact of the massive multinational maritime training exercise called Rim of the Pacific now in Island waters will be what happens on shore.

The biannual exercise is bringing 35 ships, 90 aircraft and more than 11,000 sailors, airmen, Marines, soldiers and Coast Guard personnel to Hawai'i. Participation involves seven nations besides the United States.

Participating nations include Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, Peru, South Korea, Britain and the United States. Observer nations include Ecuador, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore and Thailand.

That adds up to a lot of shore leave and a lot of money pumped into the local economy. The military estimates that as much as $25 million will be spent here by visiting sailors and others during the nearly month-long exercise.

Restaurants, bars and visitor attractions will be hopping during RIMPAC, and everyone should be sure to give the visiting military a warm aloha.

But even if the RIMPAC exercise did not leave a dime behind, it would still be vitally important not just to Hawai'i but to the security interests of the entire Pacific.

What you get from exercises such as these is increased cooperation, understanding and "transparency" among militaries.

It might be assumed that the militaries of "friendly" nations such as those participating in this month's exercises would have no need for training on cooperation and communication.

But nothing could be further from the truth. Each military has its own customs, its own procedures and traditions.

The trick is to meld these various organizations into a coherent whole. That cannot be done on paper. It takes real-time work and real-time training to make it happen.

We live in an increasingly globalized environment, not just in matters of economics and the environment, but also in the security arena.

Global, multinational problems require global, multinational solutions.

RIMPAC is an ideal opportunity to build those solutions and those relationships in a way that will serve us well.