Japanese Prime Minister Abe and President Obama want Japan to be able to wage war [View all]
http://greenshadowcabinet.us/statements/japanese-prime-minister-abe-and-president-obama-want-japan-be-able-wage-war
Japanese Prime Minister Abe and President Obama want Japan to be able to wage war
Ann Wright, November 8, 2013
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Two weeks ago I was in Osaka, Japan as an international speaker at the Article 9 No War conference. I was also in Japan five years ago in 2008 at a similar conference, when George Bush was President of the United States and was undermining the spirit and intent of Article 9 of the Japanese constitution by urging the Japanese government to allow the Japanese Self-Defense forces to provide air and sea logistics assistance to Bush's war on Iraq.
One of President Bushs chief advisors, former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage had complained that Japans Article 9 is an impediment to the US-Japanese alliance," an alliance the Bush administration wanted to use to spread the financial and military operational burden of the war on Iraq.
Over the objections of many Japanese citizens, the Japanese government did provide ships for resupplying American warships and logistic transport aircraft to fly supplies into Baghdad. A 2008 decision by the High Court of Nagoya found that Japanese Air Self-Defense Force missions into Iraq were unconstitutional as they violated Article 9.
Obama Administration Wants Japan to Re-examine legal basis for Article Nine
Five years later it is Barack Obama that is President of the United States, but the demand from the United States government has not changedthat Japan modify Article 9 and end its renunciation of war.
On October 3, 2013, the United States and Japan issued a Joint Statement of the Security Consultative Committee: Toward a More Robust alliance and Greater Shared Responsibilities.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2013/10/215070.htm
In the document, the United States welcomes the Abe governments re-examining the legal basis for its security including the matter of exercising its right of collective self-defense
In other words, find a way to eliminate Article 9 that will then allow Japan to have a military policy that does not preclude its participation in wars of aggression.
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