STUCK IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC:

Pullout of U.S. forces could skip Japan (NAO SHIMOYACHI, Aug. 18, 2004, The Japan Times)

If these movements come about, Japan would become a U.S. frontline Asia-Pacific command post, according to Hiromichi Umebayashi, president of Yokohama-based disarmament think tank Peace Depot and an expert on the U.S. military in Japan.

"The message is more political than quantitative," he said. "By concentrating command functions in Japan, the level of cooperation between the Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military would increase.

"The U.S. may be counting on Japan, which is now a key ally in (Bush's) 'coalition of the willing,' " he said.

But Umebayashi warned that such moves, which would give U.S. forces in Japan command over operations in areas as far away as the Middle East, would inevitably violate the 1960 Japan-U.S. security treaty.

Some actions, however, may have already moved the two countries away from the bilateral pact. Researchers claim that U.S. forces in Japan in the past have engaged in activities that went beyond the scope of defending Japan and maintaining stability in the Far East.

At the start of the war in Iraq, for example, the 7th Fleet battle group, led by the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, was in the Persian Gulf and attacked Iraq with Tomahawk cruise missiles, according to the U.S. Naval Forces Japan.

Fighter jets from Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture and Kadena Air Base in Okinawa also reportedly participated in the Iraq war.

Some 3,000 U.S. Marines based in Okinawa were sent to Iraq in January as reinforcements.

In addition, the U.S. military in Japan reportedly played pivotal roles in the 1991 Gulf War and the 2001 U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

A 1995 U.S. Defense Department report on East Asia said: "There is no more important bilateral relationship than the one we have with Japan. It is fundamental to both our Pacific security policy and our global strategic objectives." [...]

Washington has often called Japan the most generous of any U.S. ally.

Japan pays nearly half of all the costs of the U.S. military here, including salaries for Japanese staff at U.S. bases and utilities. In the fiscal 2004 budget, 244 billion yen was allocated to host-nation support of the U.S. forces.

What's the over/under on how long it takes Democrats to figure out that the Atlantic Century is over?

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 17, 2004 9:18 PM