On 05/05/2011 01:12 AM, S. Dale Morrey wrote: > On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 10:11 PM, Bryan Sant <[email protected]> wrote: >> On Wed, May 4, 2011 at 8:14 AM, Merrill Oveson <[email protected]> wrote: >>> I believe Japan wants us there. Russia and China make them feel >>> "uncomfortable." >>> If they didn't want us there, they could kick us out. >> >> I completely agree that our military bases are wanted. Armed Forces >> are extraordinarily expensive. We spent roughly $700 billion on >> military in fiscal year 2010. In a very real way we are subsidizing >> the cost of defense for many nations throughout the world. I think >> our presence is indeed wanted, but considering that we're 14.3 >> trillion dollars in debt, we can't remotely afford it. >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Federal_Spending_-_FY_2007.png >> http://cdn1.globalissues.org/i/military/11/country-distribution-2010.png > > Folks, Japan has no standing military and thats because of us; it has > nothing to do with them feeling uncomfortable; furthermore we can't > pull out and they can't kick us out. Doing so would be a major treaty > violation.
Not all the Japanese are particularly thrilled with our bases, especially Okinawa which is right in the middle of everything. It's been a big issue in the last few election cycles with politicians promising to get the bases moved/closed and then backpedaling. And just last week there was a lawsuit filed by 22,000 people complaining that the noise, etc. has ruined their lives. > Before the modern Muslim decided Jihad was a good idea, the Japanese > had Kamikaze or "Divine Wind", so try to remember these folks > practically invented the suicide bomber; the concept of flying planes > into things to blow them up is an original Japanese invention. It's > probably for the best not to let them get ideas like that again. I'm sorry, but the reason the Japanese haven't turned into blood-thirsty suicide bombers is not because we're standing on their soil holding guns to their heads. They grew up. There's a real sense there that war is not the answer and they'd rather rule the world by dominating its technology than through force. I'd say they're doing a decent job of that. Corey
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