8 March 2010

The fact that Japan has its own Roh Moo Hyun now is both more and less troubling than Roh’s own presidency. On the one hand, Hatoyama wasn’t elected on a wave of anti-Americanism, but because voters were understandably tired of one-party rule. If Hatoyama doesn’t improve conditions in Japan, he may not hold power for long. On the other hand, we have much more air and naval power in Japan than in Korea, and whereas Korea is strategically expendable to America, Japan really isn’t.

I hold Barack Obama responsible for the fact that somewhere in Futenma, someone hates us.

The North Korean military tries to regain control over the border.

Via Curtis, some worthwhile reading from Andrei Lankov.

South Korean food aid to the North has hit a snag.

China: We are not assholes.

If you believe in peace, it might be worth a minute of your time to condemn the utter senselessness of the terrorists who murder Iraqis for defying them and voting in the Arab world’s only truly free elections. The terrorists may even be losing the support of the BBC:

The campaign of sectarian killing is beginning to seem like mindless nihilism, rather some sort of clear-cut political strategy. Having completely failed to derail the democratic process here, it is hard to see what the extremists can do now. Other than raise the level of violence even more, of course. [BBC, John Simpson]

Who would have thought this could happen four years ago? Thank goodness President Obama had the spine and the will to stand up to all those calls to pull the troops out.