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Editorials
Tuesday, September 5, 2000Waipio Soccer Complex
is a first-class facilityThe issue: The city has opened a major soccer complex on the Waipio Peninsula.
JUST in time for the Labor Day weekend -- and the Honolulu mayoral election later this month -- the city opened its 288-acre Waipio Soccer Complex. With 19 regulation fields and a 3,000-seat, lighted stadium, the facility represents a huge advance in facilities for this growing sport.
On opening day about 300 games were played. An estimated 12,000 people came out to play and to cheer on their children and friends.
For the opening ceremonies, there was a parade of people representing more than 100 soccer teams and a lighting of the Soccer Flame by the relay torch used in the 1996 Olympic Games. After that came a fireworks display and a women's intercollegiate match between Oregon State and Northern Arizona.
The park cost $12.5 million and is located on 288 acres of Navy land on the Waipio Peninsula between Pearl Harbor's Middle Loch and West Loch. Of the 288 acres, 140 acres have been developed and the rest are available for an additional 14 to 16 fields.
In return for use of the area, the city agreed to install an irrigation system for the whole peninsula.
All fields have automated sprinklers with pop-up heads. Water for the irrigation system comes from a 5-million-gallon reservoir.
The playing surfaces drew praise for their quality, good enough to attract national and international tournaments. There are 750 paved parking spaces plus bus and handicapped parking, and more than 1,000 additional spaces available on a gravel lot.
The stadium will be used for high-level events, including home games for the University of Hawaii women's team.
Mayor Harris noted that the project had been in the works for six years. He thanked his "city team," the Navy and Castle & Cooke for their support.
Whether coincidental or intentional, the opening comes at a time when it can't help but boost Harris' re-election bid. The city has also completed improvements recently in Waikiki -- at Kuhio Beach, the new Kapiolani Park bandstand and the partial restoration of the Natatorium -- all very visible achievements of Harris' administration.
There's one proposed project that the city and state should forget about -- converting the Ala Wai Golf Course into a park and moving the course to Sand Island. But that fight is developing too slowly to be an issue in this election.
Missile defense
PRESIDENT Clinton made the right decision in leaving the question of deploying a national missile defense system to his successor. There is not enough time left in the current administration to make a decision of such consequence when little would be lost by a deferral. Doubts about the effectiveness of the system should be resolved before a deployment decision is made. Finally, deferral avoids an immediate showdown with opponents of the system.
After dragging his feet for years, Clinton recognized the political appeal and practical value of a limited defense against missiles that might be launched by so-called rogue nations such as North Korea.
But the project has encountered problems, which its critics maintain are insoluble. It would be foolish to authorize deployment -- as an initial step, to begin building a high-powered radar in the Aleutian Islands to track incoming warheads -- before the system has proved itself and proved its critics wrong.
Although Clinton's decision will push back the deployment schedule -- it was initially targeted for completion in 2005 -- the delay does not appear to be critical. A missile attack on the United States by any nation is only a remote possibility, not an imminent danger.
Al Gore has said he supports continued development work but hasn't committed himself on deployment. George W. Bush supports a bigger system than the one under development. If the problems can be worked out, it seems probable that either as president would go ahead with some sort of system.
The project also has political and diplomatic opposition based not on the contention that the system wouldn't work but that it would work only too well. Leading the opponents are Russia and China, each for a different reason.
For Russia the issue is mainly a matter of pride. Moscow, clinging to the shreds of its former great-power status, wants to preserve the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty, which prohibits such systems.
For China, the concern is strategic. Beijing wants to be able to intimidate Taiwan with its missiles. The possibility that a U.S. defense system might be used by Taiwan has prompted China to engage in a strident campaign against deployment.
Clinton's decision to leave the deployment issue to his successor was welcomed in Moscow and Beijing. It bolstered the position of President Jiang Zemin as he left for the United Nations summit conference.
But it could be dangerous if Jiang thought his campaigning was responsible for Clinton's deferral and that continued pressure could prevent eventual deployment.
If the defense system works, the American public, understandably wanting a defensive shield against nuclear attack, will demand that it be deployed. In this post-Cold War era, no nation need fear that it would be used to give the United States an advantage in mounting a nuclear attack of its own.
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
