Japan may re-arm
Maginnis: Japan may re-armChad Groening - OneNewsNow - 5/27/2010 7:00:00 AM
A Pentagon advisor and national defense expert says the recent revelation that North Korea was responsible for the sinking of a South Korean warship has compelled Japan to rethink its national security policy.
Tensions over North Korea's sinking of a South Korean warship are serious enough to have prompted Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to break a campaign promise. He had pledged to close the U.S. Marine base in Okinawa, but he now says he has decided to keep Marine Corps Air Station located on the strategically important island, which is close to Taiwan and the Chinese mainland and not far from the Korean peninsula.
The island hosts more than half the 47,000 American troops in Japan under a mutual security pact.
Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis (USA-Ret.) believes Japan recognizes its vulnerability "not only because of North Korea, but also the Chinese and the Chinese aggressions."
"It's really a tough set of circumstances that the Japanese find themselves facing," he notes. "I do believe that they're going to make decisions that are in their national interests, and that well may be the need to build up its armed forces. They'll use the excuse, of course, of a hostile North Korea, which isn't getting any better, and...a growing and very robust Chinese military."
The national defense expert adds that Japan has one of the world's leading economies and may decide they no longer want to depend solely on an overstretched U.S. military for their national security.
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Originally Posted by malsua
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