printAmerica has been waiting for this for months, says the Economist:
“Japan’s leader, does not exude political gravitas. So it was dispiritingly in-character that when he made an announcement on May 4th that could make or break his premiership, he did so on a national holiday, speaking unpersuasively to the very people most likely to disapprove of what he said.
The bombshell he dropped on his first visit as prime minister to the island of Okinawa was that he was backtracking on what has become the most sensitive promise of last year’s election campaign—to move an American marine base off the island and possibly out of Japan altogether.
His explanation, as far as it went, made sense, though it took a painfully long time to reach. After long deliberation, the prime minister said, he had concluded that the security of a region with a nuclear-armed, reckless North Korea depends, in part, on having some American marines in Okinawa. But instead of seizing the opportunity to explain to Okinawans how American troops help keep the peace, he referred to the soldiers dismissively as a “burden” that had to be shared by Okinawans.”
[SNIP]
American occupation has been quite the burden to bear, especially for one 12-year-old 6th-grade Japanese girl, beaten and raped in 1995 by American GIs. Thirteen years hence two more women that we know of paid a similar price.
So now the ‘white man’s burden’ has become the Japanese burden. And I was hoping that Toyota would be the straw that broke the camel’s back. End of my wit for tonight. Someone said that we need to bring the soldiers home to patrol the border, but from the Okinawa viewpoint, our soldiers cause as much crime as the Illegals.
What people don’t really comprehend is just how much of tiny Okinawa is occupied by the United States as various small and large military installations. The Navy, USAF, and most predominately USMC bases cover some of the most densely populated areas on the island. Futenma Air Station abuts the crowded urban city on all sides and a 2004 CH-53 crash really brought into the light the danger of such close quarter operations there, not to mention galvanizing public opinion against it’s continued existence. Sadly, the empire refuses to care about the impact of the “gaijin” on the Okinawan people, and even less on the pockets of the American taxpayers footing the bill.
Wait till what’s now unfolding in Greece hits our shores.
There will be no need to worry about Okinawa, much less any other part of the Empire.
[You’ve preempt my WND column, to be posted shortly.]
Someone said that we need to bring the soldiers home to patrol the border, but from the Okinawa viewpoint, our soldiers cause as much crime as the Illegals.
I’ve heard this bandied around as well. For this scenario to work, the U.S. government would have to recognize Mexico as the hostile foreign nation it is and the flow of illegals as an invasion of sovereign territory (a matter further complicated by the large number of “Mexican-Americans” in the ranks). Otherwise the presence of troops on the border would be in violation of Posse Comitatus. Large numbers of federal troops acting as law enforcement would represent a clear danger to American liberty.
I say bring the troops home and discharge them. Retire colors and disband regiments, battalions, and brigades. Let the people patrol their border.