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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJapan Claims Right to Pre-Emptive Strike on N.Korea
Former Japanese defense minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is considered a likely prime minister, on Sunday said Tokyo should have the ability to deliver a preemptive strike against its enemies.
The comments came amid mounting threats of a missile launch by North Korea and resurgent Chauvinist sentiment in Japan.
Ishiba, the second-highest-ranking member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said in a TV interview that preemptive strikes against enemy bases in order to prevent ballistic missile attacks "legally constitute self-defense."
Under its pacifist post-war constitution, Japan is prohibited from launching a first strike against its enemies and is allowed to retain a military only for self-defense.
Japan does not have any long-range missiles that can deliver a preemptive strike. But Ishiba said, "It would be too late to come up with a response after North Korea fired its missiles and tens of thousands of people have died."
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http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2013/04/15/2013041501034.html
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)When your own country is simmering from perpetual radiation bathe, might as well share the fun with another country.
Whole f**king world has gone officially bat shit crazy.
doc03
(35,148 posts)anyone we want to attack?
santamargarita
(3,170 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)and this was bound to happen.
A lot o people are saying this is just NK's way of getting attention, that i they make enough threats sanctions will be reduced and the food shipments will be increased.
It is tragic that one noisy bully may return Japan to the road of national socialist imperialism.
Old and In the Way
(37,540 posts)Nothing would please me more to wake up and find out that Japan/Taiwan/South Korean and (hopefully) China took action and "dealt" with this out-of-control dysfunctional prison-state. This relic of the 50's needs to go.
Bucky
(53,795 posts)Of course not having a real army for 50 years (followed by another 20 of pretending they didn't have one) might do that to a nation. RoK people you hear being interviewed seem almost blase about the threat from their communist cousins. You really just have to let the dipshittery run its course and then start bribing Kim with food for his people again. Escalating the rhetoric, as Japan seems to be doing, doesn't really help anyone, least of all Japan.
TimberValley
(318 posts)Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)NK has been rattling its nuclear saber, and no country on earth understands better the horrible outcomes possible when that happens. I agree with you that ramping up the rhetoric isn't helpful, but I understand the motivation.
bananas
(27,509 posts)Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)If only someone had been able to predict the likely consequences for allowing our idiots-in-residence to do what they want in reaction to a Saudi attack on us...
Oh wait...