From Fox News: Democrats Edge Away From Troop Withdrawal Legislation Despite Heavy Rhetoric.

     WASHINGTON  —  Congressional Democrats have put on the back burner legislation ordering troops home from Iraq and turned their attention to war-related proposals that Republicans are finding hard to reject.

     The legislative agenda marks a dramatic shift for party leaders who vowed repeated votes to end combat and predicted Republicans would eventually join them. But with Democrats still lacking enough votes to bring troops home, the party runs the risk of concluding its first year in control of Congress with little to show for its tough anti-war rhetoric.

     "We can no longer approach the discussion on Iraq as a partisan issue," said Rep. John Tanner, a conservative Democrat from Tennessee. "Our soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen and Guardsmen aren't fighting as Democrats or Republicans but as Americans."

     Damn, I thought my head was going to explode there for a minute.  Some little birdy must have reminded that next year is an election year and that pandering to the far left was a sure way to get un-elected.  Now I don't believe for a minute that most of these dummy Dems are merely following the latest polling data, and would say they supported an immeadate invasion of North Korea if they thought that was what the public wanted to hear.  Their Viet Nam legacy has once more bitten them in the ass, the American public, unlike Dimocratic legislatures want to make damn sure another Viet Nam doesn't happen. Why can't these America hating hippie commie wanna bes just hurry up and fade from the scene already.  Their rhetoric was tired in the seventies and it is only more so thirty some odd years later.

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From the China Post: Taiwan demonstrates military prowess at National Day parade for the first time in 16 years.

(itallics mine)

     TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's president decried China's government as totalitarian Wednesday as residents gathered for the island's first National Day parade of military hardware since halting such displays in 1991 to ease tensions with Beijing.

     In an address to officials before the parade, President Chen Shui-bian renewed a pledge to continue seeking membership in the United Nations, saying the self-ruled island has the right to rejoin the world body despite objections of rival China.

     "Taiwan and China are two separate states that don't belong to each other, and this is a historical fact as well as the reality," Chen said in front of the ornate presidential office.

     "The problem in the Taiwan Strait today does not rest with Taiwan .... but with China's totalitarianism, authoritarianism and dictatorship," he said.

    I can now offically confirm that President Chen Shui-ban has a pair of giant brass ones between his legs.  Not only did he blatantly state that Taiwan is an independent nation, he also called out the mainland commies for the murdering totalitarian bastard they are.  Bravo sir, bravo indeed.  Those last words will sting for the same reasons Reagan's words about the USSR being the focus of evil in the modern world stung, because they are true, and the people on the receiving end know that to be the case.

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     Prime Minister Fukuda's honeymoon continues, as the newest numbers show that his cabinet's approval ratings went up slightly since he first took over form Abe.  But then again he has had a pretty easy couple of weeks hus far, character after all is defined by how we handle adversity, not by how we handle normality.  Fukuda can tkae comfort in the fact that the public is generally supportive of his position on the major issues facing Japan at the moment, now we get to see if he can turn that support and goodwill into results.

From the Yomuiri Shimbun: Fukuda Cabinet's approval rating at 59%

     The Cabinet of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has achieved the fourth-highest approval rating for a cabinet since surveys of new cabinets began in 1978, polling 59.1 percent approval and 26.7 percent disapproval, according to the findings of a nationwide Yomiuri Shimbun conducted Friday and Saturday.

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     Talking about military issues in Japanese politics is like trying to have a frank discussion about social security in the US, everyone knows the issue needs to be adressed yet no one really wants to risk the political backlash of changing the status quo.  Largely this is the result of years of smeantic footwork to avoid and conceal the fact the Japanese government has long been in violation of Article nine of the Japanese constitution.  See my previous thoughts on that issue here.

Exhibit 1: PM treads softly on collective self-defense issue.

From the Yomuiri Shimbun:

     Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Tuesday at the House of Representatives Budget Committee that the issue of the right to collective self-defense has to be handled "carefully," a departure from former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's tendency to lean toward approving the use of the right.

     "Sufficient discussions are necessary on what kind of international activities the Self-Defense Forces may exercise the right to collective self-defense in terms of the constitutional interpretation," he said.

      Under the government's interpretation of the Constitution, Japan has the right of collective self-defense under international law, but may not exercise the right.

     So we can have a military but we can not use it.  If that is the case then why maintain a military at all?  Everyone knows that this is utter bullshit but no mone has the stones enough to stand up and say so.  If Japan is ever going to become a normal nation the continual self deluding, feel good semantic trickery needs to come to an end.  Just as when the SDF was formed no one bought into the concept of a military witout military potential as it was described, I do not think anyone really believes the position that has been continuously put forward by the Japanese government, even by the current PM.  For him it is simply an excuse to shoot down a proposal by the DPJ, one that he probably should have siezed and run with because, A) it would help to further normalize Japan militarily and B) because Ozawa probably figured that Fukuda would reject his offer.  If he had agreed he could have shifted the playing field further toward normal than by only pursuing the current path, which is important and helpful, but why have just one piece of cake when the offer of two is on the table?

Exhibit 2:

From the Japan Times: Ozawa's Afghan gambit rejected.

     Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura on Tuesday rejected Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa's suggestion that Japan participate in NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

     Afghanistan is "a very dangerous area and can be called a combat zone," Machimura said during a session of the House of Representatives Budget Committee.

     "Based on the Constitution (which prohibits the use of force), we cannot support" Ozawa's opinion that Japan should participate in ISAF activities, he said.

     The semantic confusion surrounding the SDF creates another problem, namely that it isn't entirely clear who has the final say regarding the conduct and scope of ongoing SDF missions.  This lack of a readily identifiable civilian commander and chief is something that I have noted before, here.  The editors at the Japan Times seem to think that the Diet needs to approve evry detail of the operations as the continue, at least that is how I read what their syaing.  You have to give someone a final say, because if you let the whole of the diet run things nothing will ever get done as any slightly contentious issue gets bogged down in days or weeks of debate when an important decision might need to be made in hours or even minutes.

Exhibit 3:

From the Japan Times: Refueling bill undercuts Diet.

     The ruling coalition has presented the opposition bloc with an outline of a new law to continue the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean. The new law, if enacted, will replace the current special law, which expires Nov. 1. Although similar to the current law, the new law would undermine civilian control of the Self-Defense Forces because it would not require Diet approval for starting a new operation.

     Under the current law, the MSDF is refueling naval ships of the United States and other countries to support antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. The law, which was enacted in late October 2001 and remains in effect for two years, has been renewed three times.

     At some level a degree of autonomy must be given, because the person on the scene is typically much better equipped to make a decision than some one commanding a desk in Tokyo.  The smeantic maze that Japanese defense issues are trapped in can only be escaped from by a prime minister saying what should have been said long ago.   That Japan will take any actions she deems necessary to maintain her security, up to and including pre-emptive unilateral military action.  Every other country in the world takes this position, so why should Japan be any different?  She shouldn't be, and it is time to accept that break with the past.  Idealism is all well and good, but the world today calls for hard and cold pragmatism.  Until then the endless semantic maze will keep Japan's full potential on the international scene trapped inside.

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From the Yomuiri Shimbun: U.S. texts 'prove secret deal' Show Japan-U.S. agreement on Okinawa reversion, N-weapons.

     Japan and the United States reached a secret agreement to allow the United States to bring nuclear arms into Japanese territory in exchange for the return of the U.S.-occupied Okinawa islands in 1972, according to declassified U.S. government documents.

     The memorandums, bearing the dates of Nov. 12 and 13 in 1969, were discovered at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The documents were declassified in 2005 and recently discovered by Nihon University Prof. Takashi Shinobu.

     In his book, Kei Wakaizumi, an aide to former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato who was involved in secret talks with the United States on the return of Okinawa, mentioned the secret agreement between Sato and then U.S. President Richard Nixon to allow U.S. nuclear weapons into Japan. However, the recently discovered documents are the first U.S. official documents that prove the existence of the agreement.

     There is nothing surprising about this, after all if Japan wants to be shieled by America's nuclear umbrella then they have to be prepared to allow for the tools of that protection to be available to do so.  Really this is merely confirmation of something that everyone has known for a long time but this is the first written irrefutable proof that such an agreement was reached back in seventy two.

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     The Cowboys won, that is good, but I nearly died watching them do it.  The NFL needs to put a stop to this timeout right before the snap business, it is getting real old real fast.  Tony Romo looked, well awful, but the mark of a great team is the ability to overcome your mistakes and to find a way to win, which the boys did.  So now to prepare for New England next week in Dallas.  That should be a good game, and hopefully nowhere near as terrifying as this one was at times.

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     Sometimes somebody has to state the obvious and this is just such a case.  The Japanese have managed to muddle through each crisis as it developed, but the inadequacy of having a basic framework fro using and governing the use of her military Japan hamstrings herself even in situations where she has both a vested interest in participating in operations and a public consenus to do so.

From the Japan Times: Permanent SDF law should set dispatch principles: Ishiba.

     Japan needs a permanent law that lays out the basic rules for dispatching the Self-Defense Forces overseas, instead of enacting short-term special laws for each mission, newly appointed Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in a recent interview.

     "We should set basic principles and rules to decide under what conditions we will send (SDF units) overseas," said Ishiba, a noted expert on defense issues. "Enacting a special law each time is problematic.

     Given the fact that the world is only going to become more unsettled before stability returns one hope that the Diet will sit up and take notice of Defense Minister Ishiba's words.  The current mission in the Indian ocean looks to be continued despite the opposition of the DPJ, so why not prevent such wasted energy and time in the future by permanently fixing the problem now than putting off down the road for a nother two years.  The results would likely be the same and would give Japan a lot more manuvering room on the international front.

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     Despite all of the progress that China has made in the last two decades the country remains deeply troubled.  I once described, and accurately I believe, China as a feudal society to which had been applied a veneer of modernity.  The greivences of the people are the same as they have been for the past hundred plus years and they show no sign of abaiting.

From the Yomuiri Shimbun: Chinese villagers seize city hall / Frustration at corruption spills over in southern village of Xiantang.

     Residents of a small village in southern China infuriated by corrupt municipal government officials have illegally occupied a municipal office building for three months.

     While Chinese President Hu Jintao continues to repeat his pledge to build a harmonious society, people around the nation have been unleashing pent-up frustrations, of which the building occupation is just one example. The timing of these protests has worried authorities who are nervous about any social unrest that might cause problems in the run-up to the 17th Chinese Communist Party Congress on Oct. 15.

     The village of Xiantang is located in the west of Shunde district in Foshan, Guangdong Province. The district is home to many Japanese-affiliated automobile parts makers.

     With farming being the main source of income in the village, most of the 3,500 residents there are poor. In the impoverished surroundings of the village, the sight of the grand five-story government building in the center of Xiantang is incongruous to say the least.

     The illegal occupation of the building was triggered by the municipal government's refusal to disclose its accounting records. Villagers suspect the mayor and government officials misappropriated public funds for the construction of the government building.

     China is a massive explosion of public outrage and discontent waiting to happen yet again as it did in 1989.  If that happens again can the Chinese government afford to act as ruthlessly as it has in the past?  I do not believe so, to do so today would to be invite economic and political repercussions that would destroy the one thing that currently holds China together, economic prosperity in the cities, without which the Communist regieme would be doomed.

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From the Yomuiri Shimbun: Man resisting arrest shoots cop in buttock.

     A police sergeant was shot in the buttock at point-blank range by a man who grabbed his gun while resisting arrest on suspicion of stealing from a roadside vending machine in Tagawa, Fukuoka Prefecture, early Friday, police said.

     The sergeant arrived at the scene at about 4:40 a.m. with two other officers after a security company reported to Tagawa Police Station that a vending machine on a national highway selling DVDs and other items had been ransacked about 20 minutes earlier, according to the police.

     The police tried to restrain two men they found in a car near the scene. One, Akira Uranaka, 29, of Kama in the prefecture and a member of the Taishu-kai crime syndicate, tried to escape, but was caught by an officer about 40 meters away. The other, unemployed Masamichi Oda, 21, of Tagawa, tried to break free when being held by the other two officers, grabbed the 29-year-old sergeant's gun from his holster and shot him.

      Since nothing more is said I think we can safely assume that the officer is going to make a full recovery.  No matter how much time passes he will be hearing about this form his buddies until the day he dies.  I would also venture a guess that he is going to be shopping for a level 3 holster as well.  This time its funny, but it reinforces the lesson that weapon retention is important for any one who carries a weapon.  The only thing worse than being shot is being shot with your own gun.

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From the Japan Times: DPJ faces dilemma as MSDF support grows.

     Opposition camp leader Ichiro Ozawa is facing his first big challenge since his party marked a historic victory in July's Upper House election — a widening gap between public support for Japan's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean and his resistance to it.

     While new Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is calling on Ozawa for dialogue on the contentious diplomatic issue in the Diet, which reopened Monday, everyone is waiting to see how Ozawa can survive what critics are calling a "shrewd" trap set by the soft-spoken and more seasoned prime minister than his inexperienced predecessor, Shinzo Abe.

     Ozawa, head of the Democratic Party of Japan, is against a government plan to continue the refueling mission by Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels to support antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan on the grounds that there is no U.N. authorization for the naval mission. The special temporary law authorizing the mission expires Nov. 1.

     The public apparently backed Ozawa's argument several weeks ago, with a Kyodo News poll showing at the end of August that 48.2 percent opposed the continuation of the mission, while 38.6 percent supported it.

     However, after Fukuda took office Sept. 25, the trend has reversed, with 49.6 percent in the latest poll saying the government should continue the MSDF mission and 39.5 percent opposing it.

     This is reversal is due to two things, the utter comitment and resolve the LDP has shown and the politically brilliant move of obtaining the UN Resolution praising the JMSDF's mission in the Indian ocean.  Whoever came up with that play is a master, understanding and using the Japanese public's love of multilateral organizations to give the mission a huge amount of piblic legitmacy.  That will be difficult to overcome, as the Japanese man on the street wants his nation to be respected and admired in the brotherhood of nations, and perhaps even more so given Japan's past.  I would be willing to sya that the DPJ is going to have to except a new law allowing the mission to continue, and use what political capital they have to win concessions to advance other parts of their platform.

The JDS Mashu resupplies the USS Anzio in the Indian ocean. (USN Photo)

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     Today the Space Age offically entered its fiftieth year, as today marks fifty years since Sputnik roared off the pad at Baikanor Cosmodrome and into history.  Amazingly only twelve years later man would walk on the moon.  Since the end of the Apollo progeram one has to wonder if the intervining years of space exploration have been wasted.  I would say that they have not been wasted, but rather under utilized.  Our continuing efforts in space have returned massive dividends here on earth, but we need to and finaly are resuming the path of outward human exploration of our solar system.  The Orion program to return to the moon is a well thought out and well designed program, it combines the early NASA grand vision and seemingly impossible goal (manned missions to mars by 2030 or so)  with all of the knowledge and experince NASA has gained through the shuttle and robotic exploration programs of the last thirty five years.  What will the next fifty years of the Space Age bring?  Who knows, but I would benture to guess that in the next twenty five years Space will be opened to the average man and woman as commercial space tourism and other commercial ventures in space go from a niche market catering to the super rich (current) then the well to do (SpaceShip 2, 5 years or so away) to afforable to all (10-15 years from now).

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     I have advanced this same line myself here, but a realistic assesment of the situation and China's past actions lead me to believe that they will continue to run interference for their loyal vassal.  I would not be surprised to learn that the orders to put down these demonstartions came from Beijing rather than Yangon.  From the Japan Times: The road to Myanmar passes through Beijing

     NEW YORK — Three hard facts set the boundaries for the talks that United Nations negotiator Ibrahim Gambari is undertaking as he shuttles between Myanmar's ruling generals and the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

     First, despite the heroic leadership of the Buddhist clergy and the prodemocracy community, almost 50 years of military misrule and terror tactics have worn down Myanmar's people, who will likely find it hard to maintain their defiance unless there are obvious splits among the ruling generals or widespread desertions among ordinary soldiers.

     Second, Myanmar's generals know that they face a stark choice: Either maintain power or risk imprisonment, exile, and possible death. In their eyes, this leaves them with virtually no choice but to hold on to power at all costs.

     Finally, as long as China provides political, financial and military support for Myanmar's rulers, it will be all but impossible for any meaningful change to occur. Until China decides that it has more to gain from a more legitimate government in Myanmar than it does from the current incompetent military regime, little can happen.

     China's decision to block the U.N. Security Council from condemning the Myanmar regime's assault on the Buddhist monks and other peaceful protesters last week underscores its long-standing political support for the junta.

     Another side effect of the crack down in Burma has been a total dearth of news that I have to believe is being managed by someone with way more political skill and savy than is to be found in the Burmese government.  China will only reign in Burma if it is their best interests to do so.  Unless the west severely punishes China and the Chinese economy they will continue to sit in their hands locally and globally continue to protect the Burmese from international meddling, as they see it, in an internal matter.

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From the China Post: Missiles against the mainland?

     Last Friday, both the New York Times and the International Herald Tribute reported that Taiwan, led by a pro-independence government, was deploying long-range missiles against the mainland. It was a follow-up to an AP dispatch from Taipei two weeks earlier. According to these reports, Taiwan has in recent months tested a land-attack cruise missile with a range of 1,000 kilometers, or 621 miles, that could carry a 400-kilogram warhead to targets as distant as Shanghai.

     Offensive missile strikes are now part of Taiwan's planned response to an attack from the mainland. Taiwan's military currently has no long-range missiles that could attack distant targets on the mainland. Senior military officials and lawmakers in the ruling Democratic Progressive Party have confirmed that the land-attack cruise missiles are under development.

     You know I have long wondered if the Taiwanese may have secretly developed a nuclear deterrent force?  The Reasons for doing so are readily apparent, and with this sort of delivery system would provide a strategic check to the PRC's continual threats of invasion for what ever it deems to be politically unacceptable.  Now there are a lot of reasons to believe that they do not posess nuclear weapons, but there also things that point to the possibility as well.  In the against column are the cost to develop such weapons and the specialized infastructure needed to support them, which appears to be lacking on Taiwan.  On the rather heavier for column are the Taiwanese involvement in the development of the block 60 F-16C, which has unrefueled range enough to one way a bomb to Beijing, and you don't do that to drop one 2,000lb GBU.  The development of alternative delivery systems such as cruise missiles and finally the close military relationship between Taiwan, Israel, and South Africa, one de-facto nuclear state and one former nuclear state, and memebers all of the international parriah club.  Makes you wonder doesn't it?  And the Taiwanesse hope that it will make Beijing think too.  If ten or twenty major cities in the PRC get vaporized for military action against the ROC the ability of the Chinese to continue military operations and conduct relief and recovery operations would be strecthed well beyond the breaking point.  So if they're smart the will give that posibility some serious thought.

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From the Taipei Times: Tibetan nomads ordered to settle down in cities for the sake of the environment.

     China is ordering 100,000 ethnic Tibetans to give up their traditional nomadic habits and settle in towns because their way of life is threatening the environment, state press reported yesterday.

     Overgrazing from the Tibetan herders' livestock and the growing number of people living on the grasslands of China's Qinghai Province are endangering the source of the nation's great rivers, Xinhua news agency said.

NEW TOWNS

     By the end of this year, 60,000 Tibetans will have been moved into new towns in Qinghai, with the number to grow to 100,000 by 2010, Xinhua reported, citing a government document and local environment officials.

     While the agency highlighted compensation packages of up to 8,000 yuan (US$1,060) a year for families, it acknowledged that not all Tibetans were happy with having to give up the lifestyles their families have known for centuries.

     The real reason for this order is so the commies can keep an eye on their restive and for their liking all too independant and self sufficient subjects.  This along with the deliberate efforts to flood Tibet with ethnic chinese is clearly aimed at creating a situation that short of external miltary intervention it would be politically impossible for Tibet to be free of the Chinese yoke.  This move also reinforces the fact that the reds in china realy haven't changed all that much since the sixties, they still have no respect for history and tradition, given that they are trying to destroy one of the last remaning Asian nomad cultures.  Much like the misguided three gorges dam they don't give a damn about protecting history when it gets in the way of their misguided and foolish schemes.  The sooner these bastards are kicked to the curb the better, for they have inflicted far too much suffering on far too many people for far too long a time.

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From First Multi-National Force Iraq and Defend America:

Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner and Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh, Oct. 3 (Briefing, with a PowerPoint presentation!)

Cache found in Mansour.

Coalition forces disrupt al-Qaeda killing six terrorists, two suspects detained.

Attack aviation crews kill roadside bombers.

Cavalry Soldiers, ISF detain high-value individual.

Coalition forces detain 12 suspects during operations to disrupt al-Qaeda.

Iraqi Security Forces, U.S. Special Forces detain four extremists in Southern Iraq But the most important news comes at the end of the story "No Iraqi or U.S. forces were injured during these raids."

Iraqi, Coalition Forces detain six extremists in Tha’Alba raid.

New Ramps Increase Bagram Capacity.

Al Mamoon rises again.

82nd SB enhances Polish capabilities.

International news links, Oct. 3, 2007 A link to links, some good stuff though.

New Exchange Makes Life Better for Deployed.

Concerned citizens turn in cache.

New School Offers Space for Learning.

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1 Ooohhh, I bet Gen. Walsh has LOTS of slides......

Posted by: Nick at October 03, 2007 10:07 PM (Z7Vo0)

2 PowerPoint, crack for staff officers.  There is even a seperate link to the PowerPoint slides in quetsion too, for the really dedicated types. 

Posted by: Raging Tachikoma at October 04, 2007 05:40 PM (cqI3i)

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From the Yomiuri Shimbun: Bill would require MSDF mission reports.

     Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura and Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Tuesday drew up an outline for a new bill that would extend the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean.

     Key elements of the new bill would restrict the MSDF's activities to refueling and supplying water to vessels of other countries, and would require the government to periodically report on the MSDF's activities to the Diet.

     On Tuesday, the government and the ruling parties reached a broad agreement on the outline of the bill, government sources said.

     A clause in the current Antiterrorism Law that requires Diet approval for the activities likely will be scrapped.

     The DPJ seems to get some, but not all of what it wants in this bill.  They would be kept in the  loop but they would, quite rightly not have a veto over the operations themselves.  Really this whole flare up is due in part to the fact that the exsistence of article nine means that their is no one person or entity that is readily identifiable as the civilian comander and chief of the Japanese military.  In a more normal constitutional monarchy this would typically be the Prime Minister, acting on behalf of the sovergien.  But it is all up in the air right in Japan.  This is something that needs to be corrected, because if a war were to break out that pulled in Japan the current situation would have far too many chefs in the kitchen.

And some more evidence for the continuation of the JMSDF's mission in the Indian ocean. MSDF pullout would hit antiterror efforts.

     The legal authority for the Maritime Self-Defense Force's logistical support operations in the Indian Ocean, primarily involving the refueling of warships that form the multinational force patrolling the region as part of the war on terrorism, looks set to end next month.

     In mid-September, reporters were shown the MSDF's activities in the Indian Ocean ahead of a Diet session in which the ruling and opposition parties were to debate whether the Antiterrorism Law should be extended.

     The first-hand look at the operations, conducted as part of the ongoing antiterrorism efforts, help answer questions arising from the military tie-up with the multinational force and clarify Japan's national interests.

     During the press briefing on the Indian Ocean, the Tokiwa, an MSDF supply vessel, provided fuel to a Pakistani Navy destroyer in the Arabian Sea, north of the Indian Ocean. At sea, the blazing sun had sent temperatures soaring to 39 C. From the bridge, an MSDF officer spoke in English over a walkie-talkie to guide the Pakistani warship in. The ship approached the stern of the Tokiwa then drew up on its starboard side.

The Towada class AOE JDS Tokiwa at sea.

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From the Chosun Ilbo: N.Korea Won't Declare Nuclear Weapons This Year.

     North Korea has made it clear in six-nation talks that it will report its nuclear programs but not its nuclear weapons by year's end.

     After the six-party talks came to an end Sunday, the chief North Korean negotiator Kim Kye-gwan reportedly said, "We can't declare nuclear weapons this year, because if we do it at this stage, our nuclear weapons technology level will be revealed." He hinted North Korea wants to keep its nuclear weapons as the last bargaining chip for the negotiations.

     The higher the technology level, the easier it is to produce nuclear weapons even with a small amount of plutonium, an official involved in the six-party talks said. That makes it possible to guess the technology level a country has achieved by looking at the number of nuclear weapons it possesses.

      In recent days I have come to believe that the six party talks and even potential direct US-North Korea negotiations are only a delaying tactic that gives Kim Jong-Il more time to further refine his nuclear arsenal and to spread the nuclear know how he now posseses to Syria and Iran.  Nothing that the Norks do gives one any reason to believe that they will hold up their end of any potential deal.  Their past history tells us that they wil do all that they can to decieve and deny while carrying out the tasks the Dear Leader has set them.  Negotiations and summits at this point only prolong the time until the inevitable colapse of  North Korea.  The US and South Korea would be better served by the confrotational and agressive approach that brought down the Soviet empire that had imeasurably greater economic and human potential compared to the hermits of the north.  By doing so the South can guarantee its continued prosperity and security rather than trying to both appease their beligerent nieghbor while at the sam time providing them with economic and material assistence that weakens the South Korean economy.   We should only negotiate after  Kim Jong-Il and his decrepit empire have fully and truthfully disclosed their nuclear facilities, capabilities and inventory to an impartial third party that has verified the report through unannounced on site inspections.  But I expect that to happen right about the time hell freezes over.

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From the Yomuiri Shimbun: Seoul's Pyongyang policy at crossroads / Visit puts Roh's conciliatory approach toward North Korea under the microscope.

     Can the summit talks between North and South Korean leaders, which started Tuesday in Pyongyang, lay the foundation for real progress on alleviating international concern about North Korea's nuclear programs? Can the three-day summit meeting ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula?

     South Korea's diplomacy vis-a-vis Pyongyang switched abruptly from the conventional confrontational approach to that of reconciliation or cooperation under the administration of former President Kim Dae Jung, who pursued the "sunshine" or "engagement" policy.

     Kim's successor, Roh Moo-hyun, championed the "policy for peace and prosperity" to further develop Kim's reconciliation strategy. Roh's initiative calls for the resolution of problems through dialogue, and seeks a spirit of mutual trust and reciprocity. In concrete terms, Roh has sought to find a peaceful solution to the dispute over denuclearization of North Korea through large-scale economic cooperation and assistance, thereby trying to foster the prosperity of both Koreas.

     With the inter-Korean summit now underway all anyone can now do is to wait and see what is anounced as each day of the meeting ends.  The powerlessness is frustrating in the extreme.  Whatever president Roh has decided is now effectively set in stone and immune to the criticism of the South Korean Media and public.  And of that there continues to be plenty of.

From the Chosun Ilbo: A Message to President Roh.

     President Roh Moo-hyun walked across the Military Demarcation Lline at around 9 a.m. this morning. Roh is scheduled to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang and announce a joint statement tomorrow.

     This summit is a peculiar and special meeting. The president has set out to hold a summit whose consequences will have a decisive effect on the future of his country, at a time when he has just two months left in office and when his approval rating hovers in the 20 percent range. This is unheard of even between the United States and the Soviet Union and between East and West Germany during the Cold War.

     The only condition under which the U.S. and West Germany were willing to hold such meetings was if the president who was to attend that meeting had ample time left in his term and the solid support of his people. That’s the only way the president would not be pushed around in negotiations and was able to protect the long-term interests of his people.

     Perhaps it is due to these concerns that the majority of South Koreans would prefer the summit to pass without any problems than talks to lead to a breakthrough in inter-Korean relations. As he goes to North Korea, the president should contemplate the wishes of his people deeply.

My previous thoughts on this issue here and here.

Additional Links to Comentary and News Stories about the summit:

7 Thorny Issues for the Inter-Korean Summit.

The Inter-Korean Summit and Our Choices.

A Declaration Alone Cannot Guarantee Peace.

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     After a long time, at least for me anyway, chapter 14 of Bunnies of Love is up and I like this one a lot.  It isn't my favorite, because in a way they are all my favorite but I think that moves things nicely toward the next chapter.  Although I am not so sure now as to wether or not the next chapter will be the last as I noted in the note to chapter 14, we will just have to wait and see.

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   I have been working intermittantly on Chapter fourteen of Bunnies of Love, I have eight pages done so far and I hope to have it complete late tonight or by the middle of monday.  That means I will be splitting my attention between the Cowboys game and writing from noon until about three fifteen or so when the game should wrap up.  Also I should have a couple of posts going up in the late afternoon, one on the situation in Burma and another dealing with the political situation in Japan, and possibly one more piece about the upcoming inter-Korean summit.  Beyond that maybe a fresh from the front, but that will probably wait till monday night given, we shall see.  So now back to work on that chapter, since I can't really weasel out of it now.

     Oh if you are wondering what the heck I am talking about in the first half of the paragraph above I should reiterate that I write fan fiction. (how otaku is that?) Not too surprisingly I post under the name Raging Tachikoma at Fan Fiction.net.  Bunnies of Love is my only story thus far but I will probably be throwing the first part of a FMA story up later this week or early next.

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