Posted on 01/10/2007 8:08:29 PM PST by varina davis
Asian Allies Offer Support for Bush By JOSEPH COLEMAN (Associated Press Writer) From Associated Press January 10, 2007 10:10 PM EST TOKYO - The top U.S. allies in Asia, Japan and South Korea, offered early support Thursday for President Bush's announcement of a boost in American troops in Iraq.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose government is providing humanitarian air assistance in Iraq, offered his support in a telephone conversation with Bush from Berlin.
"Japan regards highly President Bush's strong resolve toward Iraq's stability," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters in Tokyo.
Japan withdrew its 600 non-combat ground troops from southern Iraq last year, but has continued air support and Abe has made firm support for Bush a cornerstone of his foreign policy since taking office in September.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun also conferred with the American president by telephone ahead of the announcement and expressed support for the new policy, Roh's office said.
Bush called the two leaders to explain his new policy on Iraq before his speech to the American people, in which he announced a deployment of 21,500 additional U.S. forces to Iraq and acknowledging failures in past policy.
The South Korean president "said he understood the background of the comprehensive U.S. policies and expressed support for President Bush's endeavor to bring about stability and reconstruction in Iraq," Roh's office said.
South Korea has 2,300 troops in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil to support the U.S.-led reconstruction of Iraq. Seoul's current contribution of forces makes it Washington's biggest coalition partner after Britain.
Seoul plans to withdraw 1,100 troops by April, and parliament has instructed the administration to devise a full pullout plan during 2007.
Thank you God.
That's nice to read.
Amazing how former enemies can become friends.
Yes it is, but I think we'll probably take all the help we can get right now.
Thanks for posting this.
bump
It says a lot doesn't it?!
And how former friends can become enemies.
BRAVO! to our Friends in Asia!
Tell me this wouldn't be funny.
Vietnam offers to send a couple of hundred troops to support the US effort in Iraq. Would that send Kennedy into the drink or what?
Hmmm...I am seeing no mention of Taiwan in this story...
Bombing the crap out of them works. :-)
That is what leadership means. People will respond to leadership. If the U.S. says, "Uh, we don't know what we want to do", what kind of response from the rest of the World would we expect?
I feel like I have friends in Japan, and enemies in Washington.
By your logic, Al Quaeda will become best friends with the US any time soon. /s
We just havent bombed them enough. Compare the tonnage of bombs in WWII to today (plus the A Bomb). Not enough bombing. :-)
BTTT
I am grateful to our Allies
and all who hold Freedom and Liberty dear.
You bet it is, but their friendship has about it the smell of oil. If Iraq tanks, Japan,and S. Korea will be at the mercy of unstable oil supplies , as Iran reals in the Saudis in our absence.
And China will swallow them.
Japan and S. Korea should be doing a lot more than they are in Iraq. So should Canada.
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