[Candor7]

Bravo! Bravissimo!

Your predictions are highly accurate IMHO.

The whole Korean and US allied contingent should be put on high alert because of this bowing incident.

Over the next week or two the shite will hit the fan. Come to think of it, that's what I read in Akihito's face.

The Orient now knows that we have a weak president, one who falsely assumes a wisdom which is astoundingly absent.

Japanese diplomats are probably scurrying around in the background wondering how they might compensate for Obama, or perhaps are asking each other whether they should even bother.

Perhaps the end result here will be that Japan realizes it must now go it alone for a while, and beef up their military. Some say that is inevitable, and perhaps to the Japanese, Obama is a signal that they now have no alternative.This Obavisit to Japan will likely give huge energy to the Conservative wing of the Japanese political scene.

[AmericanInTokyo]

The tectonic shift occured this summer with the North Korean Taepodong-2 launch right smack over Japan into the Pacific Ocean on its way to Hawaii as an ICBM test, but also as a direct national security threat to the Japanese People (and even though we have thousands of US troops here as well).

And Obama slept.

He also did nothing.

That was the wakeup call to Japanese senior diplomats that the guy is very, very weak and an empty suit at best.

This bowing incident today in Tokyo was just icing on the cake and sealed the deal in their minds today, IMHO. They now know for sure that they know.

[jonrick46]

You have touched on my thoughts about the situation too. See my post #242.

[maica]

Perhaps the end result here will be that Japan realizes it must now go it alone for a while, and beef up their military. Some say that is inevitable, and perhaps to the Japanese, Obama is a signal that they now have no alternative.

@@@@@

European leaders have also come to the same conclusion. Looking for anything positive, I think that if these other countries decide to spend more on their own military forces, it will help the USA not to have to be “policeman to the world.” Sixty years after WWII, twenty years after the decline of the Soviet Empire, is plenty of time for these countries to reach their own adult status, and not to rely on us for their defense.

[Aroostook25]

Thank you for the strategic implications of such bow indicating weakness.
Enemies in North Korea and China have no doubt noted 0bama’s weakness.
Wars have started when enemies perceived that they would not be seriously opposed.