 Hello, everyone. Welcome to beyond the Cold War, a feminist policy for the Asia Pacific. We'll get started in a few moments. Just give me one moment. Yeah, there we go. Yeah, I am so excited to hold this discussion today because, you know, right now we're watching. Essentially, I think a very important moment in in current times. You know, at least 8,000 people have been murdered in Gaza. Is the US militarizing on multiple fronts around the world. The Biden administration is still pressing Congress for his $100 billion military budget for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and the border with Mexico. When he first kind of announced this Biden talked about American power and American alliances in his little office address. And the truth, of course, is as we see in Palestine, you know, it's not really good case at all that American alliances and American power protect. In fact, it hurts people around the world. The American alliance have, for example, split Korea into for more than 70 years under developed countries like the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, facilitated atrocities throughout the region of the Asia Pacific and the world. The American military has colonized islands all over the Pacific, including Guam or Guahan and the North Marianas Islands, where indigenous peoples human rights are violated in their land desecrated to advance the new Cold War against China. Now, in that dress that Biden made, you know, a big part of it was militarizing the Asia Pacific region, where he wants $7.4 billion to go to what he calls the Indo Pacific Alliance. And also including places like Taiwan. That doesn't even include the $10 billion that have been allocated for weaponized in Taiwan authorized by the US Senate last year, and about $3.4 billion of that request is to build a naval base with the tax of Marines targeting China. And that's all on top of $9.1 billion for what Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced, the Pacific deterrence initiative. And on top of everything, you know, we've also had AUKUS and the attacks of Marines that haven't shared with Australia and Britain in the Asia Pacific. And we've seen the remilitarization of old colonial empires such as Japan and the militarization in the region that's been kind of happening under the new alliance between Japan and Korea and the United States. This means, of course, more harm caused to places like Guam, the Marshall Islands and Okinawa, where legacies of colonialism, patriarchy and pollution will continue. Meanwhile, in the US marginalized communities are being torn apart. Members of, you know, our own community are afraid to walk outside hate crimes against the Asian American Pacific Islander community have risen due to this Cold War. And of course, other communities in the context of the US importing atrocities in Gaza and expanding the war on terror in Africa, locking up asylum seekers and the border. And this is all the cost of so many other solutions that we could employ to really build a peaceful future for all, for all. So I'm really, really, really excited that we have a panel that is analyzing international politics, not from the point of view of the privileged and the powerful. But analyzing politics from the point of view of people from a pro-peace feminist decolonize pro environmental perspective. And I'm pleased to be joined by Anlin Wong, who is the Democratic Socialist of America's international committee steering the steering committee co-chair. I'm also pleased to be joined by Nick Flores, a Chamorro activist from Guam, who is on the front lines of fighting the US military and its abuses in the age of Pacific region. It is specifically in Guam and later joined by Shin Kim, a regional coordinator with Korea Peace now. So thanks everyone for joining this panel. Nick, Anlin, can you all hear me? Hi. So I'd love to start first by welcoming our third panelist, Shin Kim, who's joining now. And just say I'm very, very honored to talk with all of you about, you know, what are what's the way out of this current situation where we have new conflicts. This new Cold War on top of old conflicts as well. And I guess I just like to open the floor by talking to you, Nick. I mean, you've been, you know, essentially doing a lot with regards to the aftermath of the hurricane and the effects of climate change, which is also linked to US militarism in Guam. And you've also been talking about the ways in which, you know, the US military is just poisoning and making dangerous the local environment with Guam as well and the effect that that has on residents, there are people there. So from your point of view, like, you know, what is what's happening in Guam and, you know, how is the United States acting? How's the United States military acting? In Guam. Wow. Hafa Day. First of all, it's an honor to be here with all of you. Thanks so much. Kale, Code Pink and all the organizers for putting this together and to the other panelists. It's really an honor to be here with you both today. That's a very big question. And it's kind of hard to pinpoint exactly where to start because there is so much happening here in Guam, but also in the Northern Medianas Islands, as well as Palau. And just throughout the Micronesian region, really, there's a very rapid militarization and military expansion happening in the region. You know, just real quickly, like in Palau, there are several projects right now that are desecrating land, definitely acting without free prior and informed consent of the indigenous people of Palau. And it's the same here in Guam and it's the same in the Northern Medianas. In the Northern Medianas, for instance, there's a divert airfield that's being constructed. Land is being cleared. And what a divert airfield is for in Tinian is when Guam is devastated by attacks in conflict, when we are devastated and more, this will be the backup sort of runway for military planes to use. And so all of these are of course connected to things that are happening in Hawaii, in the Philippines, in Okinawa, in Korea, and of course, all the way to Palestine with the increased militarization that's happening here, looking at all of the, for instance, all the war industry, all the, you know, all the, all the weapons manufacturers making a lot of money here for doing things like establishing the missile defense system. They are also profiting from all of the atrocities taking place in Palestine, Palestine right now. And for us, we have to remember or we are, it's not, you know, easy. It's not hard for us to make these connections for us. This is not a distant conflict. It's very much connected to the ongoing occupation of our islands. You know, it's linked to the taking of land, the violent displacement that's also occurred here and throughout the Pacific, the violent displacement of indigenous peoples in Turtle Island. So there's a lot happening. It's hard to, it's hard to really start. I organize with a few grassroots organizations, but primarily with Pratay, Lisak, and Save Ritsidian. And we're engaged in a few different strategies. We have a few lawsuits to stop, you know, the Air Force and the Navy, you know, from some of this destructive behavior. You know, violations of federal law, including National Burmese Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act for both the firing range complex as well as their permit application to do open burning and open detonation. Both of these activities, you know, pose tremendous risks to our sole source aquifer that provides our island 80 to 90% of our drinking water. And, you know, we're also looking at, you know, this compounding of all these issues because as you mentioned earlier, we had a super typhoon here just in May, and it was a super typhoon Moir, and we still haven't fully recovered from that super storm. And so to sit here in our island, to watch this massive clearing and grading for the construction of a new marine base, and also to anticipate more desecration and destruction, for instance, for the building of the missile defense system to watch all of this, all of this contamination, all of this, all of these horrible things happening really, the guarantee destruction of endangered species, the desecration of ancestral burials. And then to also stand, you know, at ground zero for the climate crisis to have this super storm happen, and to know that the military is the first polluter and contributor of the climate crisis. And so like it's all compounded, it's all compounded right here. And, you know, after the typhoon we saw how the clearing in the north, for instance, for the base made our aquifer very vulnerable. We went immediately into a water crisis. We also saw how it made the coastline extremely vulnerable. The jungles up in the north are, you know, we're really damaged because of the massive clearing there wasn't enough, there wasn't enough of the forest structure to help keep keep protect itself. And then of course with the missile defense system, we have to really, we have to really talk about how it's making us a bigger target in conflict. It doesn't, a further militarization of course does not keep us safe. It has never kept us safe militarization in Palestine isn't keeping Palestinians and Israeli safe militarization in the United States isn't keeping American citizens safe and it's not in Hawaii, it's not in Okinawa, it's not in the Philippines, and everywhere else that the US has bases in the world. And so it's hard to pinpoint where to start so lately we've been really engaged in protesting the activation of the live fire training complex right now it's being tested. We've had several protests there just in the last few weeks. We've also been hosting several protests from Guahanan throughout the archipelago and in Saipan, really for connecting, you know, bringing the issues of Palestine to the home I mean we have tomorrow Palestinian families who are very affected and we need to right now we're really centering them and also like, leading the leading the movement here leading the work here for protests, a letter writing talking to our leaders about having a resolution we actually shot down a very problematic resolution in the guan legislature, which was very was racist and only and condemned Hamas and and did not solidarity with Israel and so we prevented that from moving forward as an official statement of the territory of the island of Guam. You know, it's just really hard to understate the you just can't you just overstate you can't overstate really the impacts and and and just the volume of everything happening here in Guam and I mean even as something as small as like vandalism, there was an incident of vandalism over this past weekend, and we were able to catch some security footage of somebody writing on a wall and it's obvious that they may be well to us to many of us it's obvious that they may be stationed here with the military possibly in the Air Force. And they had a military issued backpack for instance, they signed that the graffiti with a I see which is like Air Force, somebody somebody told me what it meant it's an Air Force acronym. It meant it means Air Airman first class a one C, but the message was was really interesting. It said, stop racism against white Americans, our tax dollars pay for your entire government, your paychecks, without us you're nothing. And this is just one small incident he wrote on two buildings stop racism against white Americans. And this is just this is just one tiny incident like for some of us we can laugh about it you know, this is obviously someone's feeling very fragile and you know, this is really just a sign of things to come with the relocation of Marines from Okinawa to one. We already have a had a history of violence of you know of conflict between civilian and military communities here of racism, you know, and it's actually included in the, for instance, in the environmental impact statement for one with the, with the relocation of Marines from Okinawa to one that we will have increased racial tensions here and increased fighting even among community members when the Marines come here and so this is really just not only a glimpse into what's to come but, you know, a reminder of the things that we've already experienced. You know, this person was had a shaved head and wore boots and he looked quite scary, you know, he kind of he reminded me of like a skinhead, a KK, a member of KKS, you know, and anyway, yeah, I guess I, we have to, it reminded me to like, you know, graffiti, graffiti when settlers go into the homes in Israel. I mean, there's just so, I'm sorry, in Palestine and occupied Palestine. I'm all over the place. I've had quite an emotional morning so I apologize but we've just been engaged in so many things. We've been engaged around issues around the missile defense system. We've been engaged around issues around the firing range. We just did a huge campaign for our fishing community because in addition to the land they're already occupying and desecrating, they're taking three miles of ocean, taking away some of our richest fishing ground and so we had a huge protest of a boat ride out of the surface danger zone. When the firing range is in activation, the surface danger zone will be activated and so the richest fishing area is over, is right outside of La Texan. And in fact, one year, Guam was in the Guinness Book of World Records for this, this Marlin that was caught by a Chamorro fisherman, Gregorio Paris, who are our boat basin, our marina is named after and it's in those waters that he caught that fish. And so that area of fishing, our people have been fishing there for thousands of years from land and in the open ocean. And it's, they want to take it away for 273 days out of the year while the firing range is in operation. And so we've also been really working to activate our local fishing community to bring about all of these connections for environmental sovereignty, food sovereignty, cultural sovereignty, spiritual sovereignty, political sovereignty, economic sovereignty, to make all these connections for our folks and of course to connect them to the, to the, to the bigger, you know, monster that the military industrial complex truly is. Yeah. And so that's, that's everything kind of in a nutshell, cool. That's very, I really appreciate it. No worries. No worries at all. I really, that's a very, you know, I think, prescient analysis also like rooted in what's happening in your community. And I also really resonate what you said about the importance that, that, you know, Guam has become a target. And how people are, of course, in the front lines of like this new Cold War and like, obviously, have are affected more than anyone. And it kind of makes you remember, you know, we've seen this before too. I mean, this new Cold War isn't out of nowhere. Of course, there was the last Cold War and one of the first conflicts there in that period was, you know, the U.S. War in Korea, which is, of course, ongoing. And, you know, I'm, you know, so glad, Shin, you could make it to, you know, share, you know, what you see as an activist, you know, focused on bringing peace to Korea after more than seven decades. You know, from your vantage point, you know, how does this new Cold War amplify, you know, what the U.S. military has been doing and how it's behaved and the Korean Peninsula and vice versa, what that means for American, you know, politics, the U.S. political landscape here. Yeah, for sure. Thanks for having me. It's also really just a treat to be here with everyone and Coopink and my fellow comrades. Yeah, so exactly, as kind of you mentioned, right, like the Korean War, it is still ongoing. And what is kind of hidden about this fact and what has kind of really, I think poorly given it the name of like the forgotten war in the U.S. psyche, right, is that it kind of underlies the fact that all this militarization, all this violence and obviously we see kind of the most like brutal kind of prescient examples of it in say Palestine, but then there's kind of what comes after that when it has happened and what happens to that land when capitalist colonial brutalization takes place on it. And for just just a bit of history, I guess, right when you when you have the Korean War, you have what was essentially a series of U.S. led very anti communist massacres of civilian populations, and the collapsing of one of the first unified Korean governments after Japanese colonization and freedom from the colonization that has led into kind of the splits that we see today in between the Koreas and how and the Korean War, especially is linked with like the Cold War around the globe right and one Cold War that we kind of see happening again with our threats with with the U.S. kind of threats with China and the kind of allocation of all non white colonized people to the sphere of meant to be kind of subdued right. We, and as Nick mentioned, we see it, you know, in Guam, we see it in Okinawa and we see it in kind of everywhere where they have become these laboratories for the U.S. to really exert its colonial power, its continued colonial brutality. And even, you know, South Korea, for instance, right, which has kind of which serves as, you know, a nation kind of claw U.S. military factory. You know, it is one of the largest biggest base presences, I believe, outside the country, I think it's third next to Germany and Japan, but don't quote me on that. You have, for example, South Korean chebos such as Hyundai actually actively funding the genocide and Palestine creating the machinery for that genocide. And for example, it's places, and these are all linked, and I believe, as Nick really said, eloquently, like, into this one global system of oppression that our struggles fundamentally are the same. And it is against not just the U.S. conceptually, not just the U.S., but against kind of capitalism, the capitalism, the imperialism and all that which stands for against humanity itself. And the Cold War is kind of a really active, rapid, one, an attempt by the U.S. to kind of, you know, assert its continued power on the main stage. One that we kind of see cracks of and we see its declining and we see constant resistance to it from within the core. And two, a really violent inhumane effort to subjugate all of those who do not agree with its tactics. And you see this militarized and kind of like these narratives that link all these places that have been victimized and brutalized by the U.S. together. So for example, if you look at the Jerusalem Post, I believe there is one prominent article by a U.S. statesman on how, oh, like Palestine is linked to North Korea. Look how evil they are together, right? It is that kind of standard repetition of the evil, the evil axis constantly being reborn again and again and again, at one point to, you know, largely to, right, Arab, brown and yellow bodies as we see, you know, with China or even back kind of during the pandemic when that first version of the rhetoric sprouted. And now, you know, we've gone to things like, oh, for example, in Tifa that being criminalized, right, this, this constant logic of dehumanization and the Korean War just was just really but an example of that and also kind of one of the core of where the U.S. tactics in this end was organized. And the biggest legacy we see of the Korean War is one the lack of a really militant left resistance in Korea and I don't mean lack of as in there is not one right now there absolutely is, but the fact of the so much of that movement was brutalized and destroyed in the war and is continuing to be criminalized today by Yoon. As we see with the Korean security law which outlaws any quote unquote sympathy to North Korea, which can be construed as any form of leftism. I believe even recently just as last year there was a prominent professor arrested because he had been to North Korea because he had worked on North Korea. And of course when I say North Korea I only use it as a geographical denoter they're both one Korea and I think many. And I think that we have to assert that continuously as Koreans who know that fundamentally this is a land that was separated by a Western capitalist coup that we had arena five government that there is this actually this nation that we fight for in the same grounds. As you know our indigenous brothers everywhere. Our indigenous brothers and sisters everywhere, who are seeking to go beyond just the nation state as we know it. Which is all to say, kind of that, for example with Palestine right you you have these labs of where military weapons are tested in the Korean War you had, you know the first versions of mass bombings of airstrikes. 70% of North Korea was destroyed in back then what was really an innovation in brutality and just in like the pure technical machinery kind of that warfare. That was where it started and also this psycho warfare right where if one there's there's a couple things you can do about war is the US has taught us to either shunt it out of the American American imaginary entirely. To make people forget about it to make people forget about that the US has consequences outside of it. Or, and all the while demonizing and continue to to to brutalize the people that it is attempting to wipe out might have lost track of the question but I do think that is all to say like history to some extent is constantly repeating itself right in the Korean war. Sorry. If what is different was, you know the tech the year, the circumstances in which it took place. All that is really different now is that same target and we can also we can't also forget that you know, at the time of the Korean War. It was fundamentally not just Korea but also a global struggle right we have to Vietnam War soon after it was within within the periphery of the entire Cold War. And now we have, you know, struggled in Iran in Palestine. For example credit to like the Jin Jin Azadi the woman life freedom movement, legacies of colonialism. All taking place over and over and over again and the Korean War I think is a really kind of, I don't want to say succinct but perhaps this, what happens and that you have that microcosm kind of collapse into this huge conflict that continues to haunt us. Absolutely. I feel like, you know, when you mentioned also about like, you know, the consequence of US aggression being so like being a big reason why like they're, it's hard to have peace on the Korean Peninsula in Korea. And it reminds me a lot of how, you know, the this this policy is kind of like those exported, you know, in the context of the United States to, you know, to the United States of US aggression in Seoul, because we have the similar dynamic in the United States of the new Cold War essentially used to crack down on dissent. You know, it's like we have, you know, just recently the FBI are rather the, there's a committee in Congress that was set up against like the CCP, the, you know, the, the CPC, the Chinese, the Communist Party of China, and was saying that, you know, the FBI should investigate, you know, TikTok and you have you also have the targeting of Chinese and non Chinese peace activists. You have, you know, even government officials who say something that's in favor of detente, you know, in the mainstream media, which are often backed by a lot of these capitalists as well, they get criticized as, you know, being, you know, soft on whatever perceived threat the United States is targeting. And, you know, there's also real world effects of this with the targeting and hate crime, hate crimes against the API community and marginalized communities across the United States. You know, it goes all the way up from like diplomats to, you know, people working to pedestrians. I mean, I guess I'd like you to speak to, you know, what, you know, how is this war in many ways against ourselves in the, and I guess what is, you know, I don't want to say the continental United States, you know, this is a land of, you know, multiple indigenous nations that were all ravaged by, you know, the initial American conquest, but for, you know, within like the, you know, contiguous 48 states, plus, you know, Alaska and Hawaii were supposedly we have, you know, a set of laws and safety debts and human rights. You know, that's what they say at least, you know, what really is happening when it comes to this new Cold War and how it affects people. Yeah, for sure. Hey, hey, Kale. And thanks for the question. And, you know, I think what I'd say here I think builds off of what a lot of what a naked shim spoke to just now as well. You know, I think what you were speaking to just just there was was was about it was a little bit about the way that the US war machine turns itself inward on its own on our own domestic population on us own on us here's US citizens within within the US. But it also ends up serving as a way of indirectly oppressing our communities more generally as well. I think maybe the most obvious thing I would point to is just how the society is funded, how the government is funded. I've heard folks say I've heard folks say this a number of times when I work in the municipal government and so so this is a phrase I hear at least around a tax season at least budget season. You show me a budget. You show me your moral priorities. And here in the United States. This is a country with military budget we can't even calculate like, you know, the numbers of the government puts out and up underestimating that the total figure and obscuring other kinds of spending, but the very first what's publicly available is well north of $1 trillion, $1,000 billion for some comparison, I think the total food program for women inferences and children wake for short that's what a lot of people know that name as WIC. That program gets around what was cut this year from $6 billion to $5 billion on what grounds well there needed to be more money to combat Russia and China. So, in other words, the United States is the United States program is taking food out of the mouths of babies out of the mouths of starving people to give to some of the wealthiest industries in this country in order to do what well to carry out military occupation of places like places in Korea as Shin and Nick were talking about. It's taking money from our poor to give to our rich to suppress people outside here who have no say in our policy. So that is, to my mind, directly above on us on the population of the US. I'm calling right now from the city of Philadelphia. A lot of people know it as the poorest big city in the United States. In the US as incomes have gradually been rising in large swaths of Philadelphia incomes have fallen. In this city, as as white poverty rates can either decrease black and brown poverty rates stay the same. Apparently there's no money to pay for these programs and when when advocates asked for the local government to fund anti poverty programs, they routinely told you after year. Sorry, there's no money. And this comes from the top down where not just federal Republicans but Democrats to say, we have to take on social spending, because we have to instead spend this money to counter China and Russia. So there's a lot more examples I could give. Well, I'll say I'll say another one which which which I like to tell people in Philly who, you know, maybe might ask what why we should care about this stuff. And Philly, everyone knows our libraries and our rec centers are run down. Oftentimes, not even open after four or 5pm, which what's the point of, you know, trying to keep kids off the street with rec centers that aren't open when they're after school. Those get around 50, maybe 70 million dollars a year. Total US library spending is around 15 billion. And you contrast that with well over $1 trillion. Does that make any kind of sense for a society wants a society that wants people to do well. No, and so my that's my mind is a direct war on the people in the United States, in order for us are ruling class to wage war against the people of China and Russia and also and people like one as well. I really appreciate that again site, especially since, you know, there's the added, you know, money for war can't feed the poor and it's real. And I feel like this new cold war this. Political culture of antagonism is, you know, directly linked to, you know, the, the situation of economic insecurity that like so many people find themselves in like around the world. Like just, you know, half like the US military annual budget. Overting your period could get rid of world hunger as well. And, you know, I kind of now want to open it up to, I guess, everyone to chime in and because we're in this period where, you know, the United States and China have this rivalry. It's affecting so many communities. It's affecting communities in the US and China and so many communities around the Asia Pacific. Even during like what, you know, was kind of reported as like a brief moment of daytime in San Francisco and the two presidents met each other. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was traveling the region. You know, to Indonesia to South Korea, etc. making all kinds of military deals and alliances and surveillance. You know, we just had a US spy plane over the Taiwan Strait a few days ago where we, I think people who want peace all know there's a problem. We don't have peace now and we're every day, you know, one potential mistake away from all that war, which would be devastating. There's a pro peace, like, you know, socially just foreign policy vision for the Asia Pacific look like, you know, what, what's like the world, you know, we often, you know, say in the streets when we march, another world is possible. What does that work look like and I want to open it up to all of you. Yeah, I'm happy to start us off. I think one thing that we as like folks working for peace must fundamentally recognizes that peace in itself is a relation to the US. I do think that the US would believe pieces the the entire erasure of Palestinians dropping bombs as peace because it leads to peace. The phrasing that they always use this as, and we see it everywhere where the US kind of continues endless war right it's all for the sake of some piece in the future and so our work is to actually like take that to see to say like oh you know you call a duck what it is. And to assert a piece that one at the very minimum right is the halting of this sort of very inflamed war. And all that entails from like economic sanctions to people being unable to visit their ancestral homelands to curtailing movement. And the families seeing each other communicating with each other. So that's like, that is kind of like the basis level right so for example, at Korea piece now one of the big works. One of the big work that we do is to work with legislative offices to officially get a resolution through through the Senate to end the Korean War officially right. And it's not done just because it's symbolic gesture it's done because that curtailed massively US military funding to Korea. It creates the path for separated Koreans to see each other. And from Koreans have never seen the other side to to see each other. And so that is the minimum. And then what we I think assert as one like this feminist version of peace this this kind of critical very version of peace is one that I think dovetails with what socialists are saying with what indigenous movements are saying with what all these movements that have been opposing this constant cycle of war as a means of exploitation. And kind of I think one of the ways is knowing that one as I think Ellen pointed this out very well right like that there's that funding aspect of it that you know we all know I think if you just look it up I don't know off the top of my head but we all know how huge the US military budget is and that's like the classic argument right like what if this budget were redistributed so that people could live and so and also so that the state could function as theoretically it is meant to function. And I think what our peace aims to do is to challenge that and be like, it won't happen because the piece that the US depends on is actually that much funding in the military. The US depends on this huge investment, this offshore investment in in funding genocide in funding destruction, because it profits off of all of it it's built on it. And to be like what does a place what does a nation what does the people look like completely divorced from that and I think we see all around the world efforts to do that and how deeply those efforts are shut down which only emphasizes the point of international solidarity. Even more. I'll open it up to my other panelists. Yeah, I guess Nick, you know what I will share that really resonated with like what I'm understanding is like the contradiction between like how peace is framed, you know, because like you know peace is often like just a way to like in the war on, you know the oppressors terms. And, you know, Nick, you're coming from a place that has been under, you know, occupation for, you know, multiple empires, Spain, Japan, the United States. You know, so I guess, you know, for for one what does, you know, feminist decolonized future look like. Okay, thank you. Well, you know, just to also reflect on what Shin was describing it really resonated with me it's very much what we hear here this kind of idea like to save the village we have to burn it, you know, to save Guam to save this island. We need to desecrate your ancestors we need to condemn and occupy 30% of your island and condemn more land we need to clear all your forest we need to put your aquifer. You know, it may make your aquifer very vulnerable and contaminate your soil and contaminate your air to keep you safe. It's just none of it makes sense. And, you know, even thinking about, you know, what on lean was talking about with wick being cut, you know, millions of people dealing with, with hunger in the United States and, and then now just thinking, you know, of how that money was taken to find, you know, these weapons going to Israel, and to ensure, you know, basically that starvation is impacting the Palestinian people. It's, it's as a feminist, you know, in a for a feminist framework for us here, it means a lot of things but I also want to just tap into, you know, the international women's network against militarization. So, you know, the international women's network for for genuine security, which is of course very different from these concepts of national security or military security right or not just concepts of a realities like our lived colonial experiences every day, genuine security, which is really what we strive for what we want, you know, and, and that, of course is that our physical, our physical natural environment is protected that it's that it's able to sustain human life and natural life that our basic needs are met through shelter, you know, health care education, that our human dignity is honored, our culture is respected and also that, you know, our environment, our natural and cultural resources, the world we live in, live in is protected from avoidable harm and of course we're seeing, you know, so many violations of that violations of our indigenous rights, our civil rights now, or any human rights with the, with the enduring occupation the enduring colonization of, of the Medellinus archipelago, as well as Hawaii, as well as, you know, and of course occupations military occupations where they exist like in the Philippines and in Korea. But anyway, for us, I mean, it would be, it would be, you know, something like just this idea of crystal source aquifer giving our island 80 to 90% of its drinking water, how that is so vulnerable right now with this with this heavy expansion, this massive expansion that's taking place. That is such a critical basic right that is, you know, that's a, it's at stake and then also, you know, thinking about land back, like I said, 30% of our island is occupied by the military I come from a family that lost land that was taken by eminent domain after World War two and there are several families, many trauma families who have that had that experience and some who still who have to depend on on, you know, public programs, because they have literally lost their land and and it's it's also impacted our connection to the land the way we grow food, our relationships to each other are our genealogies. And so for me, I would be land back, you know, ensuring the protection of our aquifer but also, you know, these these real this real solid framework that prioritizes genuine security over, you know, over everything else. And I think I'll leave it there, and I can pass it on to, yeah, pass it on to on but I, yeah, for us, it's, it's, it's so many of it's all of those things and so much more because, you know, even just to mention like I just feel the need to mention that, again, but it, you know, here, here in in the Pacific, we really see these these weapons manufacturers this war industry, just also profiting, you know, and we have to it's just really concentrating the resources the wealth and small group of people at the exploitation, you know, and destruction for people around the world I mean, RIMPAC is coming up next year. The, the, the, you know, the room of the Pacific exercises we have exercises here all the time every time there's one of these exercises they're tremendous environmental, you know, there's all kinds of environmental harms in Korea there, there, there are constant US military drills and exercises. And when these happen there's also an increase of gendered violence, you know, gendered and sexual violence to women, children and two spirit and trans, you know, relatives and community members and, and as well. You know, when I just think about RIMPAC, you know, every time RIMPAC happens, anytime there's an exercise here in Guam, you see all these ads for these bars, you know, come here it's for the military to come, have fun, play in our paradise and our tropical paradise, it's horrible. And then after RIMPAC, there's always this big expo for military industries to say hey look at all our fancy toys coming by them, you know, and, and what's happening next year in Hawaii when RIMPAC happens is also the festival of Pacific arts. This is when Pacific nations from Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, all of these colonial constructs, right, indigenous folks come together to honor each other's art and history and culture but also to stand in solidarity for each other's sovereignty and so these things are back to back happening in Hawaii next year. And then like even to think, I just feel like I just we're all connected this I'm just saying this all because it's all connected to what's happening all over the Asia Pacific region and also what's happening in Palestine and then just one more thing I just feel the need to mention like the fuel from Red Hill, the fuel from Red Hill that's been contaminating the aquifer there that's being you know, millions of gallons of rain drained every day, it's going to be transferred to the Philippines it's going to be stored in the Philippines and in Australia. And so these this is another example of where this risk this harm that you know is being transported these burdens this is just being moved around it's nothing is is secure nothing is secure with the increased militarization with the increased militarization of the world, as these companies get richer and more powerful, the our environment, our cultures, our indigenous peoples are people of color being imprisoned being runfully imprisoned, being locked up for life, it's all connected, we have to see all of make all these intersections we have to, we have to, you know, call out all the intersections because, you know, truly the more the more people see it, it where we where we live, you know, we're we're dealing with colonization in real time with hyper militarization of our island in real time. We also have to insert these conversations. It's very difficult. And poverty is a serious issue here. So there's also these issues of high military enlistment military recruitment is a real issue. It's, we have ROTC programs and school and all the high schools and in college I mean gosh some kids from Guam even won national titles for the drill team competitions, it's so heavily ingrained and pervasive, and we really need to root it out, we need to root out, you know, the propaganda, the conditioning that this is the only way to be that war is inevitable that capitalism is there is our only option that being a colony the United States is the only option supporting a, you know, a country that just is really a hypocrisy of, you know, democracy and freedom. You know, we really it's really hard to, to bring these conversations, even at the grassroots level here but that we're doing it all at the same time we have to go grassroots we have to go big. We have to do international solidarity national solidarity. We have to do legal strategy we have to do local policies, you know advocacy, and it's, it's, it's, it's constant, it's relentless just like the militarization and the buildup is relentless just like the destruction and creation contamination are relentless just like, you know, all of these horrible atrocities in the world have just been incessant and so we have to. So for me, the vision is, you know, we, we, I wish we could really just bottle it up I mean we know that this was all new this this and these the empires are younger than some of the oldest force in the world. So we need we can undo it, we can undo empire, and we have to really come together to see to figure out ways, you know, we can undo empire together within our within our lifetime because our struggles are so connected and intertwined and and we're just stronger together. I hope that I hope that. Thank you. That was a great answer. I guess, you know, it just makes me I appreciate you bringing up how it's like an ongoing kind of daily affirmation to do this kind of work to root out this propaganda and this conditioning. And before I give it to you, I mean, you know, I guess I want to. You know, kind of touch on this question that was just asked in the chat as well about, you know, but you were speaking to as well make about how we do support and we build communities and what that looks like. And, you know, what, what's like the advice also, as well as answering the question, what's the advice you would give to people who are who want to see to let people live their own lives who want to see that world where, you know, clean water is recognized where other social rights are affirmed. What advice would you give. I mean, can you, can you hear me? Gotcha. I guess. So sorry, could you repeat just the tail end of that question? Oh yeah, what advice would you give to people who want to make, you know, this world possible. Gotcha. Gotcha. Sorry that though that was directed at everyone. So for me, I think the top thing that folks got to do is get informed and get organized. But being on this call, I suspect that you already are taking a degree of, you know, you're clearly taking self initiative to get informed. If you're wondering about what to do though, my top advice is to get organized. Well, with what? Well, if you're in a place like Wahan, I definitely recommend checking out groups like groups like the ones that Nick has mentioned. Get involved with grassroots communities that are directly organizing to stop US militarism. If you're not living in one of those communities, you should support those communities. So to that extent, Nick, I hope you can share some resources about potato Texan here. But what if you're in the United States? What what if you're in the within the borders of the mainland of the United States? Is there anything you can do to my mind? Yes, I think you can support the organizations that are also directly organizing against US militarism right now. I'm a little biased myself. I belong to one. It's the Democratic Socialists of America. And there within the Democratic Socialist America, we're a national organization, the biggest socialist organization in the United States. And we have an international committee, which focuses on opposing US militarism. And we work with chapters around the country in supporting them and their local efforts as well. And of course, you should definitely join Code Pink. Code Pink has a variety of campaigns related to US militarism. I won't speak on all of them, but I'll let Kale do that. But every single one of Code Pink's efforts speaks to an important subject matter of US militarism. And the reason why it's important for us to get involved with these collectives is because of the loan. Can we make the change against the $1 trillion military? I don't think so. With all due respect to all your individual capabilities, I strongly suspect that we're going to be much more effective in an organization working together. So please get organized, join an organization today. Oh, and I'll put you in the chat as well. Yeah. I feel like this has been a very rich conversation. And I mean, there's just really so much to talk about because the legacies of colonialism, I like how you phrase it, Nick. They're much, much younger than the forests and the environment, the peoples that have been building civilization for so long. I feel like, you know, I often think of the quote, I think it's from Gramsci, of, you know, having the pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will when it comes to, you know, change and activism and, you know, being hopeful. And I think the fact that these legacies, even though they're harmful and still causing harm, they haven't been here forever. You know, just because it has been doesn't mean we'll always be so so I guess I just want to end and hear from all of you on, you know, what's your hope for the next couple of years if you if you see any and yeah, just briefly, I'd like to start with you. Yeah, I don't know. I think we're in a moment of quite a good amount of clarity, like a mid kind of the really tragic destruction. What we see is, I think around the world and if you've been paying attention on social media, you can see how the entire world is kind of rising up for Palestine, and for the vision of I think security that it's asserting, right, the right to, you know, simply live and to be on the land without the existential threat. I think you have a lot of people getting radicalized and kind of forming and connecting, you know, their own analysis of the world to what Palestinians have been asserting for years and years and years now of of a sovereignty that is beyond sovereignty in the state sense, and in the human sense more like. And recently, you know, I was, I'm currently on a university campus in grad school and a peck was in San Francisco recently which is the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. And there you have some of the most powerful leaders in the world and some of the most kind of reprehensible war criminals over time so Biden was in town you was in town cashita from Japan was in town, and I can name a lot more. And what we saw when we wrote kind of protested against them was this vast coalition of orgs coming together we had Filipino migrant workers we had buy on, you know, DSA was there noted the way different left Korean organization was there. Indigenous groups are all there the. And so we have this kind of intense culmination of grassroots movements coming together to assert that whatever, you know, whatever, even if we don't have that future like drawn out is completely clearly as we'd like it to we never will. But we know that right now is not correct and so I think my hope is to see this movement not just for Palestine but against kind of war against colonialism and against this way of being all around the world is to come together into another movement which I think there's far so but we still have a lot of a lot of work to do. I mean, what was your hope for the future going forward. For sure. I think make and shin covered a lot of the this this sort of immediate stuff I want to say. I think I would go maybe just a little bit further in that I think you know it's I think the US does have to do more than just just just leave behind its current military footprint. I think it's also got to play an active role in the restorative justice process in correcting for the past 100 sometimes more years of US colonization US militarism. To the extent that there's reversible environmental damage, well we have to we have an obligation to put in the resources to reverse that if there's your reversible environmental damage for example that there were, you know, more more severe environmental damage, then we have to go beyond and provide reparations some other measure of restorative justice. I know this is maybe applying, you know, I think maybe some folks see as like liberal US criminal criminal justice reform, you know, met measures for an affairs but but I think it is only with the restorative justice framework, do we actually can we actually get to a future where the US isn't just doesn't just like clap its hands, walk away and just leave the mess for everyone else to clean up but but actually takes part in cleaning up its own. I like that, because, you know, especially in the context of what does piece look like when you know we think about, you know, the US potentially negotiating security assurances, or what it should do is the security assurances with China, and the DPRK, North Korea, what what that looks like ways to solve like disputes in the South China Sea, could also fit under that. I think that's an interesting point. And Nick, I want to finish with your prospects for the future and what gives you hope to build a new world. Thanks for that question you know when you first asked that I did, I did get those at some days you do feel hopeless you know but it's really in the young folks I have to say here on the youth, all my hope is in the youth. It's, we have a patron saint of Guam called our Lady of Camelan and December 8 is her is her feast day and it's also the day that one was attacked in World War Two. And so it represents, you know the beginning of the Japanese occupation in Guam, and American recapture. And so we remember we remember this every single year. We remember when we were attacked and occupied we remember when we were quote unquote, liberated, a lot of us say re occupied by the United States which is in the summertime but this patron saint this patron saint feast day we usually have a procession we haven't had a procession since the start of coven and I wanted to go to the procession with signs, talking about, you know, Palestine and the military expansion here in Guam I wanted to bring a sign that said enough peace, no war no buildup and peace for Palestine. And I was asked by many elders not to go, they thought it was going to be really harmful to a cultural space and hurtful to some of our elders. And I was really upset about it and I conceded and then a younger person who was going to go with me just couldn't help himself and decided on his own to go. And he brought a sign that said the Pope called for a ceasefire our government should to, and he was met with a lot of love and a lot of support there's maybe one angry person there. But the youth he said when the young students came up in front when young people came up they would they were cheering, which is, you don't have that and this is a very prayerful sort of walk procession, you know, he followed the statue and you say the rosary. And the next day I was so upset I was like how could why, you know, screw being respectful at this point, we should be out in the streets, we should be, we should be upsetting people, we should be disrespecting the status quo, we should be challenging the status quo, and I was so upset that we did not go through that action and then I saw that my friend had gone, my friend Noah had gone, and it's just so overwhelmed and it was it reminded me it might, it might not be my crew. I'm anti status now, it might not be the elders who we love and follow and want to protect and honor. It may it's the young folks who are going to be the, the, you know, who are really going to see our hopes and dreams for a free land and a freer world come come true and so, and I just wanted to, you know what on the same about repair I was thinking about decontamination, and how it's it's essentially impossible and so many places here, we have several super 19 super fun sites. And I also think of like Vieques in Puerto Rico and Koala Bay in Hawaii, and how the bombing and Koala Bay broke that water table. This is America, they were testing these and these American bombs in these indigent occupied indigenous lands in Puerto Rico in Hawaii. And these are the things that are being used against Palestinian people right now by Israel. These are weapons being used and in occupied Palestine. You know, I just, these are sites that may never, we will call a lot of me guess may never seek repair and decontamination, you know, and so it is hard to imagine, you know, but we still have to ask for it demanded decontamination, disarmament, and depart, you know, please, please go my hope is really that one day, we will see the bases leave. And you will have a truly independent Guam and Mediana Saka Pelago. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you so much, Nick, and thank you on lean and chin. This has been such a, you know, like, I feel very spiriting and, you know, empowering talk, because, yeah, everything you all said just is so crucial and you know, everything also gives me hope as well from what's happening with young people and how you have so many people out calling for for a ceasefire calling for free Palestine from from the river to the sea. And, you know, this is it's a great. The challenges are real as you as your sanction and it's, you know, the road ahead. It's not going to be smooth, but, you know, the, the first way to get better is admitting there's a problem and then, you know, continued action. Every day that that. That actually works to that we are all liberated, no matter where we are, whether that's. Washington, DC, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Bay Area. Anywhere everywhere on earth. And, you know, I think that. You know, all of this, as you were saying also, Nick, before all of our struggles are linked. And, you know, you can't talk about a feminist foreign policy without talking about decolonization, without talking about environmental protection without talking about. You know, indigenous communities and, you know, just empowering people like actual. Democracy, so I just want to say thanks to you all. And thanks to you all for coming on attending this panel. Everyone who attended RSVP. I dropped a note in the chat for our petition to. To reject Kurt Campbell as deputy secretary of state and for the Senate for relations committee. And, you know, he Campbell kind of represents a very pro war floating and, you know, it's time that we stand up to the to the administrations that we cannot have more escalation. So, I just like to say thank you everybody for joining this. This hour of.