= Go get 'em.
Posted on 07/10/2006 12:18:09 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Japan mulls preemptive stike on N Korea missile bases
Associated Press
Tokyo, July 10, 2006
Japan is considering whether a preemptive strike on North Korean missile bases would be an acceptable form of self-defence under the pacifist Japanese constitution, the government spokesman said on Monday.
"If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack ... there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defence.
We need to deepen discussion," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said. Abe added that the ruling party might take up the matter internally.
Japan's Constitution currently bars the use of military force in settling international disputes and prohibits Japan from maintaining a military for warfare.
Tokyo, however, has interpreted that to mean it can have armed troops to protect itself.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Monday that the international community must be united in saying that North Korea's missiles launches last Wednesday were wrong, a news report said.
Koizumi told an internal Liberal Democratic Party committee that Japan was working at the UN Security Council to produced a unified global response, Kyodo News agency reported.
"We are responding (to the launches) at the UN Security Council in a way that will enable the international community to unite and say that 'it's wrong for you do such a thing," Koizumi told members of his Liberal Democratic Party, Kyodo News agency reported.
Japan is pushing a UN resolution condemning North Korea for the launches and imposing sanctions on the communist nation.
On Sunday, Defense Agency Chief Fukushiro Nukaga told reporters that Japan needs to move forward on debate over whether having first-strike capabilities would still be within the bounds of the constitution, a news report said.
"It's only natural as an independent country that people should think we ought to have some minimal capability within a fixed framework," Nukaga said, according to Kyodo News agency.
Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has long pushed for a constitutional revision to make it easier for its military to fight if the country came under attack.
Tokyo currently interprets the constitution in a way that allows the existence of its 240,000-strong Self-Defence Forces.
The Chinese are the real ones doing this and they should IMO worry if Japan becomes an active military player.
I think China wanted to see our missile defense system working, but probably didn't bank on this news from Japan.
Neuter his air-defense network and start having C-17's airdrop MRE's, radios and cell phones. His regime wouldn't last a year.
I don't believe the hype about how a liberated North Korea would be a horrible burden economically to unifed Korea. There is already a bustling underground economy out of necessity, and former SK enterprises would flood the area for cheap labor.
The chicoms are the ones changing the geopolitical landscape, not Japan. It was bound to happen. It's best it happens now, while the free world can still address the situation together.
China looms like a huge black cloud over all asia. They're the center of the 'axis of evil'. They're what all the maneuverings and build ups have been about. Free people will have to set aside old grievences of the past and work together, in order to leave a free world to their grand children.
= Go get 'em.
If the US gov't made sounds like this, I'd nnnnnnnnever believe it, but usually the Japanese pattern is when it gets ANNOUNCED TO THE PUBLIC, in fact, the actual decision has been made in private YEARS EARLIER.
So you can be pretty sure than now that they're actively "forming a consensus", the money is getting allotted, etc., and the proper expensive dinners in Tokyo have already been eaten.
The Japanese need Tomohawks up the ying-yang, air-to-air refueling, heavy bombers, long-endurance UAV's...lots of stuff.
And with the Taiwanese getting serious about land-attack missiles, the Asian Pacific theater looks like it stands an outside chance of not getting swallowed by the PRC wholesale in 15 years, or so...
GREAT NEWS!
I sure hope this Crazy Kim keeps on shooting 'em off...!
How do we KNOW that China has asked Japan not to do it?
That great plan was stopped by the pro-appeasement *SK government*!
The truth is, for all the talk about "Korean brotherhood", very many in the SK gov't dread whatever costs SK would incurr if the Nork gov't fell.
Basically, it's cheaper for SK if the Norks go on getting terrorized and starved, so they go with that.
According to Ed Shulz on Air Amerika...BUSH is behind Koizumi's back telling him to say these things...in order for the USA NOT to look like the ones pushing for a pre-emptive strike.
NK is certainly giving Japan lots of reasons to amp up her military. Even if there is no direct conflict and the evil Kim runs out of Viagara and ceases to provoke, Japan (and the world) have seen enough.
Condi's not such a bad option in a nation that takes Hillary, Kerry, McCain, Romney, Rudy seriously as presidential material.
ping
If the US gov't made sounds like this, I'd nnnnnnnnever believe it, but usually the Japanese pattern is when it gets ANNOUNCED TO THE PUBLIC, in fact, the actual decision has been made in private YEARS EARLIER.So you can be pretty sure than now that they're actively "forming a consensus", the money is getting allotted, etc., and the proper expensive dinners in Tokyo have already been eaten.
That's my take also. Since the preemptive option has been mentioned before by officials, I take this latest version to mean that preparation is, in the Duke of Wellington's phrase, "done already".
Considering how the Japanese have initiated military operations in the past, I suspect that if they do take preemptive measures that we will all be surprised at both the boldness and the complexity of the plan.
I wish the JGSDF were capable of conducting military ground operations. I am afraid DPRoK forces would tear them without any trouble.
sabre rattlomg. Actions talk, words walk.
Please add me to the list!
Thanks!
China, who Pat Buchanan thinks has no clout with North Korea, controls the majority of fuel oil shipments into that country.
China can simply turn off the fuel... and North Korea will either cooperate or their war-machine/missile factories/drug labs/counterfeiting operations stop running.
Not to mention the ability of the Chinese military to stage an 'invasion' exercise right on the border of North Korea.
No clout? My @ss!!!
Hey, I resemble that!
:-P
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