Japan calls on US to reduce bases

the burden on them has been over the top for decades, but since it's Darth Rummy, I doubt he'll even car. He wants some more warm bodies i Iraq asap.

They now have allies questioning the foreign policy goals of the USA. I'm sure they've all got their briefing on PNAC and maybe none are too keen on being pawns in the glorious neo-con wet dream for Pax-Americana.

Perhaps this is the beginning of a larger movement in countries wanting no part in the geo-strategic ambitions of the war-profiteers who occupy our government today.

The US just doesn't appear to be the life of the party anymore!

And we are leaving Iraq in June? Bridge anyone? Cheap too.

Don

There's really nothing new here, except perhaps the governor handing it directly to a sitting SecDef. Otherwise, it's business as usual for the poor Okinawans. It's really the decision of the Japanese goernment and they continue to tell Okinawa to suck it (up).

Limbaugh was mocking the antiwar crowd by saying we don't need an exit strategy, look at Japan, ROK and Germany. First of all, apples and oranges. Second, people on the left and in those countries have been BEGGING for a US exit for years. The respective gov'ts just like the arrangements too much to allow it. The host countries get relatively cheap protection from THE global power and the US gets insurances that these huge, important markets stay open.

Although the question these days is, Who are they being protected from?

From the CBO (Byrd) report September 3rd:

"CBO also examined several other policy choices, including ending U.S. participa-tion in peacekeeping operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Sinai Peninsula and withdrawing Marine Corps ground forces from Okinawa. Terminating those U.S. commitments would increase the occupation force that could be sustained over the long term in Iraq by 12,000 to 13,000 personnel."

So bush* gets to say "we have listening to the will of the Japanese people, they have said they don't need our troops on their territory, so like a good democratic nation we are leaving", and not "we are so desperate for troops, we are stripping them from anywhere we can find them."

...bases in Japan will be prime targets. In their way of thinking, one that I find difficult to argue with, the less U.S. bases, the less potential damage to Japan itself.

Some of these bases might be converted to civilian purposes, like a former bombing range north of me that was converted into an amusement park. However, the Self-Defense Forces would likely move into the prime bases, to make up for the slack.

It is not "Japan" that is asking for a reduction in bases, it is the governor of an island prefecture that is mostly out of the minds of mainland Japanese except when they want to take a nice domestic vacation. No mention is made anywhere in the article of a representative of the national government, such as the foreign ministry, a defense official, a major Koizumi Cabinet member, etc., who is making such a request.