Time for Japan to Re-Arm?
July 10th, 2006 by Kevin Dayhoff
A Yahoo News video report this morning says, “‘Japan Considers Strike Against North Korea.’ Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary says his country is looking at whether a preemptive strike against North Korea's missile bases would be allowed under their constitution.”
Additionally, Yahoo News is carrying an Associated Press article by Mari Yamauchi this morning that certainly begins to put the crisis over North Korea’s rouge state behavior in another light. (“Japan may postpone North Korea resolution”)
That is, if the world and the United Nations won’t live up to its responsibilities, perhaps Japan needs re-arm and take matters in its own hands.
Meanwhile, where is China and Russia on this, besides sitting on their hands?
Okay, asking Russia to act responsibly may be a stretch, but certainly China, who wishes so assiduously to assume a leadership role in world events must realize that it has quite a stake in this unfolding drama.
Gee, if this isn’t déjà vu all over again.
When President George W. Bush was attempting to reign in Iraq’s rouge state behavior under Saddam Hussein, the United States could not get any cooperation from Germany, Russia and France.
Well, duh, the reason we could get no cooperation out of the French, Germans and Russians was simple. They were making too much money off of Saddam Hussein. Oh never mind that he was a weapon of mass destruction all by himself, as long as they were making money, what the heck. Besides, the United States will clean up the mess, after France, Germany and Russia had made enough money off the tortured and dead Iraqis left in the wake of the mad-man reign of Saddam Hussein.
Japan did send some non-combatant troops to Iraq, but didn’t they bug-out recently, leaving us holding the bag.
In a case of situational ethics, Senator Hilary Clinton has said that the president’s policy on North Korea has failed because he insists on working with our partners in the United Nations to come to a consensus as to how to go about reigning in North Korea’s behavior which is threatening the tranquility and stability of Asia.
What was it that she said, that the president was outsourcing United States foreign policy. Oi gevald!
But other liberals have criticized the president for acting unilaterally in Iraq.
My moonbat decoder ring is not helping me at the moment as to just what the liberals would want us to do with North Korea. Be sure to keep reading the New York Times, as are the North Koreans, to see what secret plan the president may ultimately have in mind.
Maybe it is time that Japan spend some of its GNP on arming itself and looking after its own interests, instead of the United States being the big brother for everyone in the world – at our expense.
Won’t China, Russia and Korea, North and South Korea, for that matter, find Japan re-arming “quite special?” After-all, throughout history, they have always had a "special" friendship. NOT.
Okay Russia and China, if you don't want Japan to re-arm, how about stepping up to the plate and having a meaningful conversation with your buddy in North Korea.
For a reality check, any pre-emptive strike against North Korea may need to be carefully thought out. North Korea does have a million troops 30 miles from Seoul, South Korea.
And oh, I did decide to somewhat ignore the issue of one wonders what all the moonbat, “cut and run” anti-military folks in California think of the current sorry state of affairs now that North Korea is trying to plug in the coordinates of San Francisco into their rockets.
So far, the only folks in peril from the North Koreans are fisherman in the Sea of Japan, however, that could change.
One wonders which side of her mouth California Senator Dianne Feinstein or Representative Nancy Pelosi is currently using - now that it may settling-in on her that Cindy Sheehan or Michael Moore are no match for the North Koreans.
And also remember, it is a San Franciscan city councilmember that questions why the United States should even maintain a military.
It’s time, for some other nations and American elected officials to take on a renewed sense of responsibility in these matters. Perhaps that time is now. /Kevin Dayhoff
_________________
Japan may postpone North Korea resolution
By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press Writer 52 minutes ago
TOKYO - Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on North Korea's missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U. N. Security Council vote on Tokyo's proposal for sanctions against the regime.
The vote itself could be delayed for several days, a news agency reported.
China asked Japan to postpone the vote until later this week and Japan is prepared to accept, Kyodo News agency said.
Japanese officials had earlier vowed to push ahead with a resolution that would impose sanctions on North Korea for its missile tests last week, but said Tokyo would not insist on a Monday vote.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters his government wants a vote on the measure "as soon as possible."
"I think we must send a message that's as clear as possible" to North Korea, he said.
Japan was badly rattled by North Korea's missile tests last week and several government officials openly discussed whether the country ought to take steps to better defend itself, including setting up the legal framework to allow Tokyo to launch a pre-emptive strike against Northern missile sites.
"If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack ... there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defense. We need to deepen discussion," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.
Japan's constitution bars the use of military force in settling international disputes and prohibits Japan from maintaining a military for warfare. Tokyo has interpreted that to mean it can have armed troops to protect itself, allowing the existence of its 240,000-strong Self-Defense Forces.
Read the rest of the Yahoo News article here.
Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.
E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org
####
