i lived in japan for 9 years and i can tell you for certain that the japanese people are all fervently anti-nuke. they will never go for it, period.

i am a big krauthammer fan, but this is a bad idea.

homesickamerican on May 26, 2009 at 9:58 PM

I lived there for 8 years, I believe you are absolutely correct.

ajacksonian on May 27, 2009 at 8:18 AM

I don’t trust South Korea as far as I can throw them. Not one bit. Aside from their ungrateful bitching about America at every turn, do you remember how that whole country cheated like crazy during the Seoul Olympics. That was one of the most disgusting displays I had ever seen in my life and, if that’s how low they are with respect to a sporting event, I would never trust them with anything serious. I was just appalled. Some may say that it was a minor event, but to me it said quite a lot about their culture, and nothing good. And then all of their America-bashing just turns my stomach.

Japan I trust, but not with nukes, to be honest.

The key today, though it won’t happen, is to get nukes out of the hands of the savages like Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, … not to empower other countries with nukes. If we don’t have the guts to hit these belligerent regimes and take away their nukes (doing away with decent amounts of the populations in the process) then this game is lost, anyway. Just outsourcing nuke strikes (which is all that empowering others with nukes is) doesn’t work for me. If we aren’t willing to do what needs to be done, then it’s all over.

I trust Japan, S. Korea and Taiwan with nuclear weapons far more than I will ever trust N. Korea… and if you go by the ‘you break it, you own it’ deal, then China pulled N. Korea’s bacon out of the fire in the ’50s and really has to figure out what to do with it as it is their responsibility. And if they are perfectly happy with the Magic Kingdom of Mr. Kim, which goes far beyond nukes to the Super Note trade and narcotics/pharma trade, then they should have zero problem with a Japan able to turn out nuclear devices as fast as, say, it turns out Honda cars. Plus Japan already has missile technology as witness their ability to orbit their own satellites.

Yes, no problem at all with people who have representative democracy in a Republic deciding to defend themselves. And if we can’t summon up the forces to help them, then helping their technical folks get up to snuff is the next best thing. Japan probably doesn’t need that, but offering to help would go a long, long way in this ‘supporting friends and allies’ thing that the President talks so much about and does just the opposite when he finally has to do something.

Japanese nukes might cause them to flip out and attack

This made me laugh. AP, the NKs are already crazed psychos. I think we need to bomb NKs capital and their reactors with deep bunker busters. Flatten their military. It would take a large sustained run, but their ability to fire anything at anyone would be zero.

But South Korea may beat them to it and, with Obama weakening the American military—all the more reason to get the bomb-of course, not without harsh protests and even street riots.

Hey SuperCool:No they ain’t getting it yet,and never will.If they couldn’t see through Obama’s B.S. before they voted for him,they never will.When they see the mushroom clouds,they wil blame it on Boooooooosh.

DDT on May 27, 2009 at 3:51 AM

Only the regime diehards will stick around if we lose a city.

Most of the suckers normal folks who voted for Big 0 will know EXACTLY where the blame lies when an American city gets vaporized.

And they ain’t going to be blaming Bush…

The only way to get NK to get rid of their nukes is to force China to put pressure on them to do so. And perhaps the only way China will do that is if they have skin in the game. And that won’t happen unless there are nukes in Japan or South Korea. It would help if it was subtlely implied that in the case of a NK nuclear strike, our (and our allies’s) nukes could find themselves pointed toward Beijing as well as Pyongyang.

The best option of all is to install the sort of nuclear shield in Asia that we were working to put in Eastern Europe. Of course that involves all sort of diplomatic problems as well, including resistance from our own current government.

But there are no easy answers here. NK missiles have to be countered, either by a shield or by nukes.

Hate to be the one to tell them this, but the guy in The White House? Yeah, not going to use the U.S. nuclear “umbrella”. Arm yourselves or prepare to eat another nuke (or four).

Our current honcho isn’t interested in anybody’s enemies except his own, and all his enemies live right here in the U.S.

In other words: Good luck, you’re on your own.

(BTW, wasn’t 0bama’s “coming” supposed to herald some “hopeful new era of change and peace” where everyone was just going to throw down their weapons and embrace the miracle that IS the first black American president? Yeah, I didn’t buy that BS either but a lot of dopes did. Think they’re getting it yet? Probably going to be “Arma-gettin’ it” soon enough…)

Time for Japan to arm herself.

BTW , Why don’t Charles want to see the Unicorns?

I nod to Krauthammer’s brilliance but I’m not convinced that anyone else getting nukes is a good idea. Sure they are our friends today… but how fast loyalties change in today’s world.

We may not always be the Super power they feel a need to please. China could take our place.

Spiritk9 on May 27, 2009 at 12:52 AM

I think that Pakistan and India will start it off, if we’re lucky. We should have let it happen naturally back in 2003.

Will the cause be Iran’s schizophrenia, or North Koreas?

Which theater will be first, the middle east or SE asia?

Will China join in the fun? While we’re messing with North Korea, China takes Taiwan, and the Russian Chinese border erupts like never before, meanwhile Gaza screams for attention with little missiles into Israel, causing a response into Gaza AND Syria, then Iran blows it’s top.

Not far from any of this, thinking nobody will notice or care, Pakistan and India start trading punches again.

And Africa melts.

Here in the USA, Obama is hailed as the muslim prophet who finally brought the apocalypse! Race wars flare in the USA as conservatives and liberals take to shooting each other in the head for giggles.

Interesting times

But we wouldn’t let them because the new administration was convinced that Japan would apparently use any F-22s we sold them to invade China or something. Of course, Obama and Gates also knew it was a brilliant move to completely cut the F-22 program.