(This is not conceding that the Chinese military can, or will be able to in the next 50 years, chop down the Japanese military force even as it now stands)…

But, China deciding to take on Japan as a minor meal would bring about that great conflict with the United States some people frequently crow about and some seem to desire….

of course i mean the constitution, are you trying to be silly?

china could smell a weenie, and salivates for its next meal.

Unless you mean Chapter II, Article: 9 of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, I presume you mean the Japanese constitution and all that anti-war nonsense.

Come on, man… we have a War on Terror to fight… anyone who wishes to join the Coalition of the Willing shouldn't be held back by some arbitrary document which has outlived its usefulness of 50 years ago. America supports a high-tech militarized Japan!

…but, more seriously, a big, bad China is preparing to come on-line… a China hungry for energy and minerals. Do you want to fight these guys? Or even a Cold War of sorts? No… let the Japanese put the Fear into them… and they'll do it, too. They need oil and steel as well… and want no Payback from a newly-powerful China preparing to project its newfound power and increase its sphere of influence. Besides, if they are busy hating each other, they aren't being haters to us, eh?

And, as a bonus, a militant Japan is a better counter to North Korea than a coddling Roh administration… although, for the record, unlike many, I don't necessarily disagree with South Korea's stand on North Korea. Someday, the two countries will have to work together… why not make that semi-unification as easy as possible.

Until then, Tora, tora, tora!

J!

(Chapter II, Article: 9)

History will repeat itself.

The current range is the Farallon de Medinilla, an uninhabited

200-acre island, stands about 280 feet above sea

level and its' size is approximately 3 miles by

1/2 mile. The Farallon de Medinilla Target Range

is located about 150 miles north of Guam and is

leased from the Government of the Commonwealth of

the Northern Marianas Islands. The Farallon de

Medinilla Target Range is the Pacific Fleet's

only U.S.-controlled range available for

live-fire training for forward deployed naval

forces." Cited in "Farallon de Medinilla (FDM)

16° 01' north latitude, 146° 04' east",

GlobalSecurity.org. (Source: Farallon de Medinilla.)

What is significant to me is not the dropping of live bombs, but the inflight refueling capabilities for the Japanese fighters by the Japanese tankers — meaning capabilities to bomb any perceived threats from the disputed islands with China, the air coverage of Tokdo if it ever came to that (ROK with F-15K can last only an hour or so over the area), and most pointedly — the North.

I wouldn’t worry too much about what North Korea thinks the Guam exercise is provocative or not. How did Japan feel when Kim Jong-Il fired his rockets last year after all? The Japanese may need to use those bombers one day against North Korea one day….