Top o’ the morning to you too, Collie.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell says Japan must consider revising its pacifist constitution if it wants a permanent UN Security Council seat.

Even with an election looming, apparently we have no intention of stopping spouting inanities.

You tell me, who are we to tell Japan to not be pacifist? What business do we have telling another world power to change its constitution to a more war-loving one or be excluded from playing policeman to the world? And anyway, doesn’t the world need some peace-loving policemen at this point?..

And in the same breath, he takes a jab against one of his own [previously-] enlisted men, presuming him guilty and a deserter before proven so. Un. believable.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 13th, 2004 at 9:39 amand is filed under politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Responses to “Top o’ the morning to you too, Collie.”

  • stacy Says:
    August 13th, 2004 at 9:54 am

    Hmmmm. Once again, I am No Fan of the Administration, but Powell’s comments in this case don’t sound that unreasonable to me. (Unless, of course, there’s more to what was said than I see in this article.) It doesn’t look like he’s telling Japan “revise your constitution,” since the article includes his line “Whether or not Article Nine should be modified or changed is absolutely and entirely up to the Japanese people to decide.” It looks like he’s saying ‘hey, if you want this Sec Council seat, it’s probably incompatible with your current policy of not having a military that could be used in ways we ask Council members to use them.’ Whether or not that *should* be the expecation on Council members sounds like a reasonable debate, but if that’s the policy currently, then pointing out the conflict doesn’t seem unreasonable.

    Also, regarding Jenkins, I don’t think there’s much doubt about his deserting. I mean, absolutely, give the guy a trial if he wants to protest innocence or argue mitigating factors, but my impression of what’s happened with him is that there’s very little factual doubt that he intentionally defected to NK.

  • vika Says:
    August 13th, 2004 at 10:29 am

    Stacy – I don’t know. Japan is a first-world power, with a lot of clout. I don’t believe that the Security Council should only resolve things by sending in military, and in any case, Japan’s input would be invaluable, there. How many countries are sitting on the Security Council right now that have a good idea of the Eastern mindset, and diplomatic skills to boot? But the SC doesn’t play policeman to the-world-minus-the-Far-East, it goes anywhere it feels there’s a need for military intervention. To say to a reasonably strong, pacifist country “get your war on or you can’t play in our sandbox, but WE will come over to your house if we feel like it” is, in my opinion, unreasonable and insulting.

  • maga Says:
    August 13th, 2004 at 12:52 pm

    Let’s just ignore *why* Japan’s got a pacifist constitution in the first place, shall we… just like we’re ignoring why the Middle East is so grumpy…

    Yep, deeply ridiculous. Can we invade Switzerland now for being dirty pacifists? Can we? Can we? I want Idi’s stash, goddamn it!