Posted on 04/27/2012 2:27:58 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Roughly half the U.S. Marines on Okinawa will be transferred under an agreement announced Thursday that will reduce the military footprint in Japan, easing local resentments over the amount of land being used by American forces.
Some 9,000 Marines along with their family members will be transferred under the agreement, with about 5,000 being sent to Guam as part of a military buildup on the U.S. territory in the Pacific, according to a joint statement released by the U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee.
"I am very pleased that, after many years, we have reached this important agreement and plan of action," Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said.
The announcement by the committee, which included the top U.S. and Japanese defense officials, ends years of seesaw talks aimed at cutting the American presence on the island south of Tokyo.
Though no exact timetable was given for transfer of the Marines, preparations are under way at Guam.
"Recognizing the strong desires of Okinawa residents, these relocations are to be completed as soon as possible while ensuring operational capability throughout the process," the statement said. …
The call for the U.S. military to leave Okinawa escalated following the 1995 rape of 12-year-old Japanese girl by three U.S. military personnel, a crime that outraged the Japanese and led to calls by many that American troops leave.
In 1996, spurred in part by Japanese anger on Okinawa, Washington and Tokyo signed an agreement to reduce the amount of land being occupied by U.S. forces.
About 40,000 U.S. personnel are based in Japan, though more than three-quarters of the military bases are located on Okinawa. At its height, U.S. military operations on Okinawa accounted for about 20 percent of the land use on the island chain. …
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
My late father helped take that miserable island, but that’s yesterday’s newspaper, right Mr. Pannetta?
“...with about 5,000 being sent to Guam...”
Guam is definitely going to capsize now.
But are we taking into consideration the possiblity Guam may tip over ?
I also believe that the locals are tired of their young women marrying marines instead of proper Japanese males.
Maybe we should take Hong Kong from Red China instead.
Of course Panetta,and his boss,have a white-hot contempt for our Armed Forces but that doesn't necessarily mean that the Japanese didn't demand this.If,by chance,my hunch is correct the Marines were either gonna be "withdrawn as a matter of course" or they would have been kicked out.
Our deployed troops in Europe and Japan should come home.
The war ended nearly 70 years ago. Time for us to let these areas defend themselves. We should, however, warn Germany and Japan to NOT make us come back!
There is no reason to maintain these expensive and hazardous overseas deployments, when we are so obviously not going to fight anybody.
The only purpose the Marines on Okinawa or the Army and Marines in Korea serve is to get killed for no reason, and that’s not enough for me.
My Nephew is a 2nd Lt recently sent to Okinawa, he would love to get off that island, I don’t think Guam was what he had in mind.
I was just thinking exactly that. Guam will NOT be an improvement over Okinawa for our guys, that’s for sure.
That was funny. How could one man have sooo much stupid locked in his head?
I lived on Okinawa for 11 years, total. While I'll admit that the first two years, when I was an enlisted man in the Army, I didn't appreciate the place, the years I spent there as a contractor were some of my happiest.
It's a great place when given a chance. I'd love to have the opportunity/means to move back and even retire there. Sadly, I don't see that happening.
Japan gets a free ride on defense with the US paying
for most of it.
Japan’s recovered from WWII; so has Europe. It’s long past time for these nations to take up their own defense.
They've been in Germany for three years, and we have missed them terribly. They were on Okinawa for three years 2003-2006, and were on Guam 1992-1995 as well.
We’re in Okinawa as a counterbalance in support of South Korea and Japan against China and North Korea. Moving Marines to Guam and Australia kinda defeats the purpose. I don’t mind, it’s their security, I’d rather move them all back to safer positions be honest, but it doesn’t seem prudent for Japan to be kicking out part of their volunteer police force.
What's this? A cunning plan?
Take over Hong Kong while Beijing is distracted with the Bo Xilai murder incident? Surely they won't miss it until we've got it all under our firm control.
But wait, I have an even MORE cunning plan:
Let the Chinese Communist Party erupt into internecine warfare as once-thinly-veiled antagonists capitalize on the swirling eddies of tension brought to the surface by the Bo Xilai murder mystery, and make bold strokes of their own.
Then, while the Big Boy on the Asian continent who holds Iran's leash isn't paying attention, let Iran put the nuclear squeeze play on Israel.
Simultaneously maintain pressure on a destabilized Turkey, and Egypt — both grappling in differing ways with internal factions — to move these nations headlong into the Abyss of hard-line, radical Islamism.
Keep Europe economically hamstrung with no taste for war, not even in defense of democracy next door, and lacking in both the will and funds necessary to effectively project restraining power into the Middle East, so their diplomatic efforts remain utterly castrated. Use green theology, Ecstasy, and the club scene to distract the young with superficial, meaningless pursuits.
Keep the United States mired in the doldrums of pathetic economic performance, stinging from self-imposed limits to its effectiveness in Iraq and Afghanistan; its forces increasingly frustrated with the panty-waisted cluster f__k that materializes when politicians 7,500 miles away try to win a war without actually killing anybody; its clinically depressed American public absorbed with — by turns — Dancing With The Stars and a Presidential Election cycle wherein they face the unpalatable proposition of selecting their next national leader from a menu of choices featuring "Left" and "Lefter"; its military postured to retreat from installations around the globe that once served as regional platforms for the projection of American military might that effectively gave the velvet glove of American diplomacy a fist of iron.
In sum, put the significant powers of the Earth into a retreat from both their willingness and ability to either restrain or combat evil in any degree, in any quarter of the globe where it may arise. Leave the field of battle altogether, and allow the Islamists and Russians to have their way with the Earth.
Pop the popcorn.
Exit Light.
Enter Night.
Your sole mission: SURVIVE until dawn. If there is one.
WELL PUT.
VERY WELL PUT.
THX
Yup; that’s why I mentioned that the one that gains the most from this is Red China. There are also some radical factions in Japan that benefit from this.
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