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This article is unadulterated BS.

Before Obama the US averaged over 4% GDP per year in defense spending.

Today we are at 3.5%.

And Japan has averaged less than 1% over the last 20 years.

I'd sure like to hear a cogent case on why we should allow that to continue, versus giving them an ultimatum: Get to 3% in five years or we cut you loose.

Completely.

And the same ultimatum to every treat ally in the world.

No matter what.

The Japanese are FREELOADERS on stupid US largess.

No More!

I served for 3 years in Sasebo Japan on shore duty at our US naval base and ammunition facility there. There are a lot of dynamics in the situation there:

We gave the Japanese their Constitution which limits Japan to a small Self-Defense Force. And Prime Minister Abe has been pushing the Japanese people to build up their armed forces and modify the law.
Indeed the self-defense force is very weak. As far as naval forces go, they have no aircraft carriers, for example. What limited military infrastructure they have is purchased from the US.
Historically Japan has always been a warrior nation. They experienced a long feudal period with lots of civil wars and bloodshed. And once they were forced to move into the modern era and abandon the samurai government, they quickly adapted and became a world military power -- as we well-know. And that's precisely what the Chinese and Koreans now fear.
The people are naturally competitive. Very similar to Americans: they take their sports seriously and love winning.
Technically, Japan is fully capable of being a strong military power. They have a very active space program that has sent spacecraft around the moon. They have also sent a spacecraft to land on and retrieval rocks from an asteroid and return those rocks to earth (landing in a remote area of Australia). When they buy fighter aircraft from us, they modify the aeronautics and send suggestions back to the US manufacturers for improvement.
Japanese nationals perform 90% of the maintenance and repair work on our ships and military facilities there. And the US government pays for that. I see no reason why a lot of that work couldn't be done by American workers living in Japan at naval bases. Japan is a great place to live, so it would be a highly prized overseas assignment.
Owing to the utter tyranny of the Japanese government during World War II -- and the disastrous results of that war, Japanese are afraid of military power and highly suspicious of it. As a result, the armed forces in Japan are not treated with proper respect by the populace.

I think a strong Trump presidency would force Japan to make the necessary transition to picking up their fair share of the defense load. So this will actually help Abe to go where he wants to go. Without America pushing for change, however, nothing is going to happen.

Below is the naval base in Sasebo...

Mariner, you’re missing the point.

1. YES, it’s sensible to make wealthy nations pay more for their own defense.

2. NO, it shows complete lack of understanding of TRUE STATESMANSHIP when Trump chestbeats about how “China & Japan are taking money from us.” He actually said that. Incredulous!! And the lame, cavalier way he says “Good luck, have a nice time...” [if Japan & SK get in a war with the Norks]. That sounds like abandonment. There are better, more diplomatic ways to say it and Trump blew it again.

I’ve been to Japan 5 times and my wife is Japanese. I know how his soundbytes play on NHK television for the people of Japan. You don’t insult your allies with senseless poorly-articulated accusations.

Although Trump is the best choice, and I’d vote for him, he’s no Ronald Reagan. He needs to pay for some handlers to soften his unnecessarily rough edges.

Yes, some of his rough edges are fantastic (fighting Political correctness), but not these types of international gaffes.