October 10, 2007

Further Adventures in the Semantic Maze.

From the Taipei Times: Fukuda seeks greater military role.

     Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda yesterday told a resurgent opposition that Japan must not be a "bystander" in the US-led "war on terror" as he fought to extend a naval mission in the Indian Ocean.

     The opposition won control of one house of parliament in July elections and has vowed to defeat government proposals to extend the naval mission providing fuel and logistical support to US-led forces in Afghanistan.

     It has so far ignored a government compromise that would stop refueling operations backing combat troops, restricting support to ships policing the Indian Ocean.

     Addressing a parliamentary committee attended by key lawmakers from the ruling coalition and opposition, Fukuda said that Japan, as the world's second-largest economy, needed to contribute to international security.

     Saying that the international community was united after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the US, Fukuda said: "How can we sit back as a bystander?"

     He also assured the opposition that the Indian Ocean mission does not violate Japan's pacifist Constitution, which was imposed by the US after World War II.

     "First of all, the mission is not an act of force," Fukuda said. "It does not infringe on the Constitution at all."

     Ok, Ozawa doesn't want the MSDF to support combat ops but he is OK with sending ground troops to participate in ISAF, where the inevitable result would be real, live (or dead) Japanese casaulties.  This plays up what I was saying earlieer, the longer you go with out adressing the reality of the situation the more warped your preception of reality becomes.  If Fukuda wants to play a bigger role in such military operations he should go ahead and do one of three things.

1.  Bluntly admit that the mere exsistance of the SDF violates the constitution (which it does as noted here) and that of you are already in violation then there is nothing holding Japan back from violating the rest of article nine.  Call this the 'in for a penny, in for a pound' approach.

2.  Force through a revision to the constitutional amendment law to get rid of the three year waiting period before the constitution can be amended and move for an immeadate amendment of article nine.  This is the legalistic approach, and the one that offers the most legitimacy, at least to those that would scream bloody murder if Japan went for option one.

3.  Deny that the current constitution is not binding on Japan due to the fact that it was adopted under duress.  This of course ignores the fact the current constitution was ratified by a plebicite before it came into effect, but the argument can be made that the involvement of the occupying power in the drawing up of the governmental charter taints it due to the clearly superior-inferior status of the two nations. 

     Of these three options I would say one would only happen if a PM had an unassailable majority in both houses, massive popularity and a mjor crisis on Japan's doorstep, in which case national security takes precedence over what other people may think.  Number two is by far the most likely, but still a long shot as the DPJ was largely opposed to the current amendment law that was passed back in may.  As for number three it is only possible on an earth in some paralell universe, the political  and practical fall out at home and abroad would simply not be worth the results in any sense of the word.

     So how do you play a bigger role in military operations when you can not allow your military to actually fight?  That is a question that I certainly can't answer, one can either fight or not.  I am deeply apreciative of the actions that Japan has taken thus far, but once more I have to say that Prime Minister Fukuda should change the debate from wether or not Japan should be supporting such operations, but rather why she must participate directly, and that article nine is a relic of the past that needs to placed firmly where it belongs, in the past.

Posted by: raging tachikoma at 01:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 695 words, total size 5 kb.

Comments are disabled. Post is locked.
/images/tachikoma7.jpg

All content here in is the opinion of the author(s) and does not represent the views of the Department of the Army, the Departmnent of Defense or any other goverment agency or official. Note this site may contain content that is not work safe, you have been warned, but we all know thats why you come here anyway.

Search Thingy



http://ragingtachikomablog.mee.nu/images/tachikoma.gif

http://ragingtachikomablog.mee.nu/images/ROC-Emblem.png?size=175x175&q=95 I Am A Freind of Taiwan, the Free, Democratic China!

Recent Comments

  • free reverse phone lookup verizon Wohh just what I was hunting for, thanks for putting up. entry
  • http://homecinemasansfil.net/ Hello, I would like to subscribe for this website to take most recent updates, so where can i do i... entry
  • Amy Jie I love Fuuka. These are definitely being incorporated on my porn site. Thanks for the compilat... entry
  • Alice en BCN I am actually grateful to the holder of this site who has shared this great paragraph at here. entry
  • cronolucca Mother of God.... entry
  • custom thesis While not necessarily heavy on thought provoking plot or an examination of some great concept online... entry
  • free vlc converter Free VLC Converter is the best program to Convert VLC files with high output quality easily, and thi... entry
  • free vlc converter Free VLC Converter is the best program to Convert VLC files with high output quality easily, and thi... entry
  • free vlc converter Free VLC Converter is the best program to Convert VLC files with high output quality easily, and thi... entry
  • free vlc converter Free VLC Converter is the best program to Convert VLC files with high output quality easily, and thi... entry

Blogroll

The Castle Argghhh!
Ambient Irony
EU Referendum
In From The Cold
Free Market Fairy Tales
Of Arms and the Law
Icarus Publishing Blog
Pat Dollard
The Ten O'Clock Scholar
Chizumatic
Defence of the Realm
Hiesei Democracy
The Huntsman

Warning sites in Yellow are not for minors and are not work safe

Politics and Pundits

Rush Limbaugh
Mark Steyn
National Rifle Association
Republican Party HQ
Sean Hannity
Dennis Miller
Stop the ACLU

Otaku Links

Roberts Anime Corner Store
Viz Media
Dark Horse Publishing
TOKYOPOP
Del Rey Manga
DMP
CMX
Seven Seas
ADV
Funimation
Bandai USA
Media Blasters
The Right Stuff International
Anime News Network
Anime On DVD
Fan Fiction.Net
4Channel

Categories

Anime!
Manga!
Behind the Beaded Curtain
Reviews
The War
General Musings
Technical Orders
Books
Movies
TV
Sports
Gaming
Natural Oil
Guns,guns,guns!

News to Use

Fox News
The Daily Yomiuri
Japan Times Online
The Drudge Report
The Washington Times
The Wall Street Journal
Michael Yon
Defend America
City Journal
The China Post
Taipei Times
The Chosun Ilbo
The Korea Herald
The Korea Times
Asahi Shimbun
The Bangkok Post

Links of Knowledge

NASA
Wikipedia

website stats

View My Stats

"Having defeated our enemies let us treat them not as the conquered and submited foe but rather as those now freed from opression and privation. Let them be reborn, not as enemies but as allies, friends not foes. We seek to help create a more equitable and just world. We extended now the hand of help and aid having laid aside the might of sword and shield. Let us working together build now a free, just and democratic world, and may history judge that we left the world a better, safer, freer and more prosperous place than we first found. And barring that may posterity record that we tried with all our might to make it so."

Monthly Traffic

  • Pages: 3621
  • Files: 443
  • Bytes: 327.6M
  • CPU Time: 1:21
  • Queries: 120888

Content

  • Posts: 233
  • Comments: 57

Feeds


RSS 2.0 Atom 1.0

23kb generated in CPU 0.0329, elapsed 0.0751 seconds.
36 queries taking 0.0513 seconds, 76 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.