The Other Side of the Mirror

On Thursday, July 22, 2004 a massive contingent of troops bombard, invade and quickly overwhelm the Hawaiian Islands. The invading force is a coalition of Chinese, North Korean, Iranian, Yemeni and North Vietnamese soldiers. In fact, eighty-five percent are Chinese troops, ten percent North Korean and only token forces from the other coalition participants. Using modern weapons and surprise the invading forces suffer minimum casualties and subdue the islands within two days.

Although initial world opinion is overwhelmingly critical of this action, the international community is unable to make any coordinated effort to stop the invasion and occupation of the islands. The invading coalition makes it immediately clear that it has placed and armed numerous nuclear devices on the island. It has informed the international community and the United States that any attempt to retake the islands or attack any territory of the coalition partners will result in the detonation of these devices.

Although it is unclear why the coalition took this actions, several communiques and recent statements by politicians and the press in the coalition countries have cited the United States poses a threat to world stability, that United States has repressed and prevented the indigenous Hawaiian population from obtaining self rule and they allege that the United States has and is concealing an enormous cache of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). International press stories hint that the real reason for the invasion was for China to gain access to the lucrative sugar crop in light of the recent demand for sugar that has tripled the price of this dwindling commodity. This has been vehemently denied by the Chinese government.

In order to protect their citizens, the coalition nations have detained any US citizens who were in their country at the time of this action. Although no formal charges have been made against these detainees, they remain in detention centers and have no communication with the outside world. Coalition countries continue to assert their rights to this action and state that the detainees are being treated humanely.

It is now over two years from the start of this incident and the islands are still occupied. Many Hawaiians have responded to the occupation with violence. Militia groups continue to harass and attack coalition forces. Sugar cane fields are routinely set on fire. Electric and water utilities are disrupted. Coalition forces are responding with house to house searches to seek out and engage the insurgents. Many coalition troops and thousands of civilians have been killed or injured in this ongoing effort. China reports that over one thousand of its troops were killed or injured during the past two years. That is in contrast to sustaining less than one hundred casualties during the initial invasion.

The United Nations is actively working to broker a settlement. Although self determination for the Hawaiian people is an issue, the demand by the coalition forces that the United States reveals and destroys all its WMD and that the US vows to discontinue research or production of such weapons is preventing any diplomatic resolution of this conflict. The US refuses to consider this demand even with the offer of the coalition force nations to do the same. Right now, the conflict is at a stand still. Daily casualties for both civilians and coalition forces continue to mount. The pressure on the global economy and sugar shortages and runaway prices takes a toll on all economies. There is a reported demand from some the Chinese population for a resolution of the conflict. But the central government and their control of the press has been able to isolate and neutralize the effects of any internal protests.

At this time, we can only wait and hope the suffering of the people in Hawaii soon comes to an end.