Re:Japan’s Parliament Approves Overseas Combat Role for Mili...
by copsarebastards on Saturday September 19, 2015 @05:43PM
(#10245638)
> A country should be able to defend itself and the strongest defense, is a powerful and potent offense.
Ugh. Thousands of Americans died in September 11, which is the obvious result of American military action in the Middle East, and thousands more died in the following wars.
You can't just go around killing people and assume that they're not going to attack you back. The best defense is a good foreign policy that avoids conflict in the first place.
Re:Japan’s Parliament Approves Overseas Combat Role for Mili...
by ethbro on Saturday September 19, 2015 @10:33PM
(#10246366)
> The best defense is a good foreign policy that avoids conflict in the first place.
Like some kind of hypothetical agreement with Iran?
Re:Japan’s Parliament Approves Overseas Combat Role for Mili...
by copsarebastards on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @02:03PM
(#10260382)
Yes. Keep in mind that currently anti-Western hostility in Iran are a direct result of American imperialism during the Cold War. The Iran nuclear deal framework wouldn't be necessary if the US hadn't tried to prevent democracy in Iran in the 1970s.
Re:Japan’s Parliament Approves Overseas Combat Role for Mili...
by ethbro on Friday September 25, 2015 @10:27AM
(#10278330)
This is likely true, however there are a lot of strings if you pull on anything associated with the Cold War. Even without leaning on domino theory and assuming that Iran was better with a democratically elected government, I don't think it's conclusive to say that "If the US hadn't been involved in Iran, the world as a whole would have been a better place." I think Poland, Hungary, and a lot of Eastern Europe are probably happier without the Soviet Union?
As a friend in Jordan said, sometimes democracy isn't the best first step. And I'd argue that both Atatürk and Nasser played pretty close to the line as well.
There are also pretty big differences between Japan's SDF and a modern military. Only scraping the surface here, but members of the SDF can leave at any time, for any reason since it's a purely volunteer position. This weakens their military. They are afraid of being too hard on solidiers because if they are, they'll leave. This means you have an army of weak soliders who may not have the proper skills or training that an army like the U.S or China has.
This is why they need to be allowed to have a military. A country should be able to defend itself and the strongest defense, is a powerful and potent offense.