In Japan, Kerry Preferred Over Bush

[Nicholas_J]

(CPOD) Oct. 17, 2004 â€" Many Japanese adults want John
Kerry to become the next president of the United States,
according to a poll by Asahi Shimbun. 51 per cent of
respondents want the Democratic nominee to win the Nov. 2
election, while 30 per cent would choose Republican
incumbent George W. Bush.
Prime minister Junichiro Koizumi deployed the country’s
Self-Defence Forcesâ€"600 ground troops and 400 air and
naval personnelâ€"to support the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq by
participating in non-combat duties. 74 per cent of respondents
say their opinion about the U.S. has worsened over the past
three years.

http://www.cpod.ubc.ca/polls/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewItem&itemID=4634

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. I was in Japan last month, and everyone I had a substantive conversation

with wanted to know whether I was a Republican or a Democrat. I've been visiting Japan on and off since 1977, and no one had ever asked me this before.

They all looked really pleased when I said that I was a Democrat.

Furthermore, the expats are fired up to vote for Kerry. Some of them are registering for the first time in twenty or thirty years.

[Demit]

2. I like how the story leads off with "Many Japanese ADULTS..."

It just struck me, yes, the adults of this world know that the world is in serious shit and it will take an adult to deal with them...

[Nicholas_J]

3. Well

Polls done about a month ago in 35 nations showed all but 3 supporting Kerry by extremely large margins. Average was 78 percent for Kerry 22 percent for Bush. In Germany the vote was 91 percent Kerry 9 percent Bush. Indications of serious disagreements in the German govt occured whe the Minister for foreign affairs said if their was a new govt in the U.S. they might reconsider sending peacekeeping troops to Iraq, while the Chancellor said they would not send them though if this went to the Bundestag for a vote, their are enough voted in the legislature to override Schroeder. The majority of the German government supports a Kerry win and could conceivably support Kerry if he wins to get concessions for contracts to rebuild, which would most certainly come from a Kerry administration upon ending the no bid contracts given to Halliburton. Nothing gets support like money, and Germany could shore up its fiscal crisis with financial gains gotten by taking part in reconstruction.

Conceivably, a Kerry administration, allowing France, Germany and other nations kept out of the bidding to share in the reconstruction cost in order to gain from future cheap oil would rapidly end the posturing of the European nations to be involved in Iraq. An occupation is a very different thing from rebuilding, and the Iraqi's are far more used to Europeans doing business in Iraq than the U.S. occupying it. This also could have serous effects on reducing the support for the insurgency, as both France and Germany are better at not only using their own workers in foreign countries but are very, very good at hiring locals to work with them. Right now, Americans are getting the choice jobs, while Iraqis are left with the scraps.

If this thing became a peacekeeping thing rather than an occupation, there would be far less problems with insurgents, who would likely see much support dry up.

Given that even 25 million dollars being places on the head of Insurgency leaders has not attracted one Iraqi to turn in the leaders, one must beleive that the insurgents have widers support in Iraq than the Bush Administration is willing to admit.

The French have a great deal of experience in dealing with attempting to Westernize many nations, and had a very bad experience in Algeria, which very much resembles, at least to IRaqi's what is going on in Iraq. The French considered their possession of Algeria as a democratic colony, but the Algerians did not get much in the line of Democracy while the French did. The French also have managed to maintain rather good relations with all their ex colonies, even though their colonization was not particularly welcome. The U.S. however took years to normalize relations in Southeast Asia,while the French maintained many contacts and relations almot immediately after leaving the area.

THe fact that the U.S. is building something like 17 military bases in Iraq points to nothing but a prolonged American presence in Iraq, so we cant expect the troops to come home anytime soon and this points to a mandatory draft to maintain these bases no matter what Bush and the Pentagon claim to the contrary. Kerry has not committed to building these bases, but has comitted to getting out of Iraq as soon as it is possible to stabilize the country. So with international peacekeepers, Kerry can commit to stabilizing Iraq without a long term occupation.

[Kellanved]

4. what?

Indications of serious disagreements in the German govt occurred whe the Minister for foreign affairs said if their was a new govt in the U.S. they might reconsider sending peacekeeping troops to Iraq, while the Chancellor said they would not send them though if this went to the Bundestag for a vote, their are enough voted in the legislature to override Schroeder. The

You lost me there. The chance of Schröder losing a Bundestag vote on not deploying troops is about zero. This has nothing to do with the Federal Government being pro-Kerry (all cabinet members are).
Even Struck did not say anything about deploying troops in the near future, regardless of what the outcome of the Presidential Election might be. This is largely because there are simply no troops left; the professional soldiers are all deployed and sending draftees abroad is not feasible, neither militarily, nor politically.