On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 19:26:05 +0900, Eric Takabayashi  ...
>
>Brett Robson wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 22 Dec 2003 22:44:34 +0900, Eric Takabayashi  ...
>> >
>> >The 2-Belo wrote:
>> >
>> >> I wonder why no one ever considers what the US would
>> >> think of Japan repealing
>> >> Article IX completely.
>> >
>> >I have encouraged it for years. They should take
>> >responsibility for their own country and its defense if
>> >necessary.
>>
>> They can't, the reality of the Pacific still holds. Japan could effectively
>> (sort of) defend it's territory from attack as at the end of that war. But
>> consider an oil tanker travelling from Kuwait to Japan. Every tin pot country
>> with a 50 cal machine gun strapped to a row boat could interfere with Japans
>>main engergy import and what could Japan do about it? Japan would have to have a
>>navy rivalling the USN with an aircraft carrier on station near the Gulf, one in
>> the Indian Ocean and one in the Pacific, a requirement of 6 carrriers.
>
>So do it, spending (more of) their own money and risking their own lives if
>necessary, instead of leeching off the US or whining to the UN. Imagine the
>employment opportunities for Japanese. Even gaijin in Japan would be able to
>cash
>in on this.
>

First of all that would be illegal under the constitution an aircraft carrier is
an offensive weapon platform. Of course that can be changed. But imagine the
international outcry as Japan lays the keel of it's first carrier.

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