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.
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