Democratic Party of Japan President Yukio Hatoyama, who is expected to be voted in as prime minister next week, indicated Thursday he remains firm on his plan to end the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean, despite Washington's calls for its continuation.Like I have said before - it is long past that the #1 economy should be subsidizing the defense of the #2 economy ... especially when #1 is a debtor to #2.
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The refueling mission, which began in December 2001 with the aim of supporting U.S.-led antiterrorism activities, was briefly halted in November 2007 after a temporary law authorizing it expired. The operations resumed after a new law was enacted in January 2008 and extended to January 2010 after an amendment last December.
The DPJ won 308 seats in the 480-member Lower House in the Aug. 30 election but still needs the two small parties to retain a majority in the House of Councilors. One of its allies, the Social Democratic Party, adamantly opposes any overseas military dispatch.
"Japan is a great power, one of the world's wealthiest countries. And there is an international responsibility, we believe, for everyone to do their share, as best they can, to contribute to this effort to bring about a more peaceful and secure Afghanistan, to avoid it returning to a country that could launch attacks against Japan, the U.S., any of our friends and allies around the world," Morrell said.
He said the Pentagon will, in collaboration with the new Japanese government, try to execute the existing bilateral agreements, including one committing Japan and the United States to follow through on the planned transfer of U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam by 2014, contingent upon completion of a replacement air base in Okinawa for the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
The DPJ has said it will aim to relocate the replacement base outside Okinawa, despite a 2006 Japan-U.S. accord on the transfer of the facility within the prefecture.
WWII is long over folks - let's bring everyone home. Yes, everyone. OK, I'll throw you a bone, we can have one Combined Air and one Combined Sea logistics base with the Japanese. That is it.
Too bad we don't have a NS Long Beach or NS Alameda ... or what was an Army/USMC base we gave away during the Clinton Administration ... to bring them home to .... but that wasn't my call. That was all the transformational bean counters.
Remember, we are a Representative Republic - not an empire. Even if we have to shoe horn them in somewhere - bring them home.
Remember, we are a Representative Republic - not an empire. Even if we have to shoe horn them in somewhere - bring them home.
1 comment:
To be fair, the reason why it is so difficult for anything defence-related to go on in Japan is due to Article 9, which is very much America's fault.
(Yes, McArthur swears it is Shidehara's idea, and the Japanese even agree with this interpretation, but McArthur still was the one who decided to put it in his notes. The only reason anything defence even goes on is because his American subordinates soft-soaped it and some far-sighted Japanese soft-soaped it further enough to allow room for interpretation).
Ever since, peaceniks have been hanging onto Article 9 like koalas or ostriches, hindering every such attempt. Such a change, for better or worse, is America's responsibility.
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