Sunday, August 27, 2006

The Ace In The Hole...

George Will:

"...In the first three months of this year, Japan scrambled fighter jets 107 times in response to what were assumed to be Chinese spy planes provocatively close to Japan's air space. A Chinese submarine has made an incursion into Japan's territorial waters, and the two nations are disputing whose waters cover disputed oil and gas reserves in the East China Sea. Surely it is time for Japan to end the dissonance between its necessary behavior and its constitution's text, a contradiction that can complicate policymaking and produce national paralysis.

This matters to Americans because East Asia matters. (Its share of global GDP is projected to be 27 percent by 2020.) And because rising China and demented North Korea complicate regional security. And because the list of economically formidable nations that are without virulent anti-Americanism and are eager to collaborate with America is short. The list is: Japan."

The Japanese remain our dogs of war. China, as well as N. Korea, is painfully aware of this. What the yellow peril counted on was the modern Japanese propensity for pacifism. What the yellow peril forgot was the Japanese history for war.

No comments: