Posted on 10/23/2009 5:39:34 PM PDT by george76
Japan's new government appeared to bow to pressure from US military officials, saying on Friday that Tokyo supports keeping a major US marine airfield on the southern island of Okinawa.
The move narrows - but does not close - a rift between the two alliance partners ahead of President Barack Obama's visit in three weeks.
The new Tokyo administration, elected in a landslide in August, has said it would assert a more independent stance from Washington than previous administrations. However, Tokyo does not want to unduly strain ties with its chief ally and key trading partner.
The government of Yukio Hatoyama, the prime minister, has suggested it would like to make changes to a 2006 agreement that would realign the 47,000 US troops in Japan, including moving 8,000 marines to the US Pacific territory of Guam.
A major sticking point has been the future of Futenma airfield, which under the pact would be relocated to a less crowded part of Okinawa. However, Mr Hatoyama has suggested he would like the airfield moved off the island entirely.
Robert Gates, the US defence secretary who visited Tokyo earlier this week, insisted the Futenma must be relocated on the island, calling any other options "politically untenable and operationally unworkable".
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
How about we pull out, and when things get tough with the Chinese we will negotiate what they have to do to get us back?
Hate to see Futemna go.. spent a year there way back when.
nice long air strip .. just watch out for the habu
Besides...where would they keep the nucs?
Taiwan, Or South Korea.
Bring the troops home..
W
Seeing as it’s right in the middle of the city, it seems it would be good if it could be moved north to Schwab, or maybe share with Kadena. After that bad accident a few years ago, the concerns are pretty valid.
Thanks for that pic!
I missed a World Expo by a few months in ‘75, they had built a floating city sort of at the north end of the island, Nago City.
The share with kadena idea would be tough to pull off , only so much available real estate as is.. go to schwab, yeah but that ain’t gonna be cheap.. I remember the week before I went on station there, 3 ch-46s had dropped out of the sky.
I feel for those folks who have lived in the flight paths all these years.
Camp Hansen. And the only good thing about Hansen was
that it wasn't Camp Schwab.
Personally, IMHO, we should be out of almost everywhere we stationed troops after WWII: S. Korea, Japan, Germany, etc.
Eff ‘em; let them worry about their own security. The people don’t really want us there, and it costs us too much to stay there.
>> Eff ‘em; let them worry about their own security. The people don’t really want us there, and it costs us too much to stay there.
I agree. F*** em. Bunch of ungrateful turds.
BUT my cousin serves in Sokor. A majority in his bn are thinking the same thing but wont say it: they’re just there to checkmate China.
If we want to keep them there, we’ll have to pay. It’ll still be better than not having them. I agree with you on the folks that live there, they got a right to be safe.
These are the Japanese version of Obama type liberals in power who believe an Utopia of EU for East Asia.
I spent 2 tours at Schwab.
At least it wasn’t Northern Training Area..
What price are you willing to pay for not having it?
I am not against insurance; Lord knows I pay enough for the boatload of it I carry..
Learn a little history, FRiend, and quit viewing things through a cold war lens. Will you worry about insurance when your family is naked and hungry?
America pulled together and defeated Germany twice and Japan once last century, starting from literally nothing. On the other hand, The communists fought us to a stalemate in Korea, and forced a shameful withdrawal from Viet Nam, although they aided by traitors in our own country to do it.
The USA is still the only world’s superpower, and the only major communist power left is China. Communism all over the world has fallen or is falling under its own weight.
Our ability to project power globally in a mater of days is all the “insurance” we need IF our leaders have the guts to use it effectively. If they don’t, then all the forward-deployed forces in existence won’t help us.
It is a needless expense that we can no longer afford.
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