Talk:Kamehameha I/Draft

Military comments

I'm delighted to have the request; the lack of collaboration has been rather frustrating. On my first cup of coffee, I made a minor link change for a submarine and will fill in the link.

My basic problem is that I don't know why and how the Hawaiians fought wars. The fact of the Law of the Splintered Paddle, to which I'll return in another context, shows there was some sophisticated thinking about what the West called jus in bello within the broader context of just war theory. Indeed, while it may not have been considered, it could well have been input into the Lieber Code, Hague Conventions, and Geneva Conventions.

Some Pacific peoples, as I understand, fought wars more for manhood rituals, exchange of women, etc. Others fought wars for conquest. Not that it's specific to this article, but why did Hawaiians decide to go to war? What were their objectives? (This also reminds me that I need to work on Fred Ikle's book, Every War Must End).

I understand that some Pacific peoples had razor-edged spears and arrows for hunting, but blunted them for war — someone might get hurt. It doesn't sound like the Hawaiians were quite this symbolic.

In other words, from a military standpoint, a record of a battle or war, especially when considering the command aspects, is more than just that an engagement took place at a certain time -- although I disagree with a former Editor that the battles themselves are less important than the context. Both are meaningful. In this article or perhaps better in another one, I need to understand more about the Hawaiian concept of war before I can really advise on the content in these areas. Howard C. Berkowitz 15:32, 12 August 2009 (UTC)