Editorials
Friday, April 2, 1999Soldiers’ capture is
painful dose of realityTHE capture of three American soldiers by Yugoslav forces, following the downing of a U.S. warplane and the rescue of its pilot, destroys the illusion that it would be possible to attack Yugoslavia without paying a human price. Every American hopes that the three will be released without harm, but that can't be assumed. Rather, the likelihood is that there will be more incidents of Americans captured, wounded and killed.The issue: Stopping Yugoslav forces may require ground forces.
President Clinton has refused to consider the use of ground forces in Kosovo because of the danger of casualties and the effect on American public opinion. Attacking from the air poses less danger, but casualties are still possible. And there is growing doubt that air power alone can force the Serbs to cease their attacks on the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
Despite administration denials, it appears that the NATO attacks spurred Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to intensify the brutal ethnic cleansing campaign. It's been reported that the CIA warned Clinton that Milosevic would respond to the air attacks in this manner.
The challenge now for the NATO allies is to find a way to stop Milosevic before his forces kill or expel all the ethnic Albanians from Kosovo.
Clinton was quick to pull American troops out of Somalia when a few soldiers were killed in an ambush. In attempting to punish Saddam Hussein for violations of United Nations orders, he has used only air strikes, again to avoid casualties. In Bosnia, American troops were introduced only as peacekeepers after an agreement was reached in Dayton. That has been Washington's approach in the Kosovo crisis as well, but it doesn't seem to be working. Air power alone can't solve every military problem, and in Kosovo the Yugoslav army continues its attacks despite the bombing.
Having encouraged the public to think the United States can wage war without casualties, Clinton may have trapped himself. The alternatives seem to be to let Milosevic wipe out the Kosovar Albanians or to send in ground forces to stop him, with the greater risk of casualties that would entail, and a backlash in public opinion.
Tourism increase
AFTER months of declines, it's a relief to learn that Hawaii visitor arrivals turned up in February. The increase of 2 percent over February 1998 is admittedly modest, but because the visitors stayed longer than in the same period last year their impact on the economy was probably greater. The result of both trends was a 12 percent jump in the number of tourists in the islands on an average day -- from 171,160 to 192,210. That's a significant improvement.
The increase is particularly notable because the Japanese economy remains in the doldrums and the number of visitors from Japan continued to decline -- by 7 percent from 1998. More than making up for that drop was a 9 percent increase in visitors from the U.S. mainland and other spots in the Western Hemisphere, reflecting the strength of the American economy. Without the mainland increases, Hawaii's overall visitor numbers for the past few years would have been much smaller.
Despite the continuing decline in the number of Japanese visitors, Hawaii remains a very popular tourist destination for the Japanese. Reconfirmation of that fact comes in the form of a survey by Japan's largest travel agency that found Hawaii has regained its position as Japan's favorite overseas honeymoon destination after being displaced for three years by the mainland.
The survey found that 39 percent more couples than last year said they will spend their first days of marriage here. Of couples planning to get married overseas, 59 percent said they would do it in Hawaii -- far more than any other destination.
Despite the calls for diversification, tourism is still Hawaii's economic mainstay and will be for the foreseeable future. The new Hawaii Tourism Authority represents the state's attempt to handle visitor industry promotion more effectively with assured funding and more autonomy. The latest arrival numbers suggest that the authority has a positive trend to build on as it begins operations.
Elections officer
DWAYNE Yoshina took a lot of heat for problems resulting from the introduction of a new vote-counting system in last year's elections. The criticism was probably overdone -- as the recount demonstrated. However, it might have bolstered public confidence in the state's conduct of elections if he had been replaced.
The decision to reappoint Yoshina to another four-year term as chief elections officer was made by the five-member Elections Appointment Panel on a 3-2vote along party lines. Yoshina has to work hard to fix problems -- such as the difficulty the Republicans had in obtaining enough voter registration forms in the last campaign -- and restore faith in the system.
The Election Oversight Committee's recommendation that the operation of elections be returned to the lieutenant governor's office is based on the idea that the lieutenant governor is accountable to the voters. The change was made because of the suspicion that the lieutenant governor might be tempted to tamper with the election returns. Returning to the old situation would not be an improvement.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
