Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Yanks Out Of The Pacific

What purpose do the Yanks serve, apart from their own, by keeping their troops in the Pacific? There are some 38000 troops in South Korea and I don't know how many in Japan.

When I was in Japan I saw some banners saying "No troops in Yufuin" - the fact that it was written in English was a surprise. Why are the Yanks still in Japan with heaps of bases? Is it because they can't have sex with underage children in their own country anymore and in Tokyo there is no minimum legal age for sex? Yankee troops in Japan have caused a huge amount of trouble. Where is the threat coming from - it certainly isn't necessary to keep the Japanese in line - their constitution bans them from assembling an army and going to war.

In South Korea the Yankee soldiers obviously enjoy the sport of running over schoolgirls in tanks, something sadly lacking from game play in The States. It must have been outlawed years ago. Why does South Korea need the Yanks - to antagonise the North Koreans? If the Yanks left and the North Korean soldiers poured over the border they'd be exhausted due to a lack of food. Maybe not. I hear that the North Korean soldiers are pretty well fed - it's just the rest of the country that is starving.

What's going on in Taiwan? It is a hotbed for democracy but at what cost? I would love to see them have a better relationship with China - like Australia and Britain. The Yanks just seem to be there to stir the pot.

The Yanks watch American TV channels and can purchase anything they like on the base in US dollars. Where is the enrichment to be gained from mixing with the locals? Or perhaps they shouldn't be mixing with locals and spreading their ideology.

9 comments:

Nick Souter said...

Yes, all very good points you raise there Hambone! That's why the Europeans are all trying to sell weapons to China, they figure that China is the only country in the future with any hope to counterbalance America's might over the entire world. I guess America's initial deployment in the Pacific was back in the old anti-communist days, but apart from Nth Korea which is still a worry, what is their purpose today? We could go on for pages and pages on this topic!

Anonymous said...

i'm a yank (i guess) but i don't understand my own country's decisions anymore than the rest of the world. i also don't understand what's to be gained by keeping our men and women overseas.. it's not as if having a base in japan is all that worthwhile unless they are doing research in conjunction with the japanese military. after all, a lot of great and useful technology came from the US military (if only it was all peaceful technology.) a lot of us over here in the US are just as stumped as you. our administration loves to make decisions behind closed doors just to keep us in the dark.

Hammy said...

Thanks for the comment Gleek. I have read your site for a while from comments at 35 degrees.

The administration is to blame and not so much the army. Mind you, the ability to attract mindless morons to the military is almost universal.

Closed door diplomacy should be a thing of the past. Accountable, open and approachable government would do the world some good.

On the other hand, if it wasn't for warfare mankind would be 100 years in the past. Look at the planes we have today from technology gained during wartime. Let's not defend warfare though.

War is too big a business for governments to really try and stop it. Let's face it.

Nick Souter said...

Apart from America's seemingly closed-door diplomacy, they still have the most open and fair system of government in the world in my opinion, most of the rest of the world and their governments are all pretty fucked up really, we just hear about America most because they're leading the way. I wouldn't be trusting many other nations with the responsibility of being the most powerful nation, especially not China.

Anonymous said...

thanks for coming by and leaving a comment! i never know who is out there reading my stuff. it's nice to put a name/face to the stats (^_^)

Hammy said...

"they still have the most open and fair system of government in the world" - What a load of codswallop, Nick.

Just look at the voting system for the President who chooses the people that will be in the administration. At least in Australia the people chosen to run portfolios have been elected by the people. The US President can have pretty much anyone they please, although I believe they have to have Congress' approval of the person, which means George W can surround himself with non-elected cronies.

The Congress has a certain number of members, something like 470, and this number never changes. I'm not at all in favour of American politics. Sure, if the right person is elected then all well and good.

How do Americans vote for their President. Well, Americans in Puerto Rico and other American territories (American Samoa etc) have no right to vote for their president. That hardly seems fair. Presidential elections are held on a Tuesday, unlike Australia where they are held on Saturdays and people have more time to vote, and I believe that there are very few polling booths anyway. Fancy having to wait for 10 hours on a work day just to cast your vote.

I do approve of the fixed terms. It makes elections less costly as they can't be called on a whim and would make the politicians slightly more accountable for their actions. Although those in the President's Administration aren't really accountable to anyone.

Americans don't get much of a say in their politics and I believe that their Presidential elections are greatly flawed and unfair. The voting system should be the same throughout the country, remember the chads (?), and everyone should be able to vote.

In short, no I don't agree with your statement. But whose opinion is correct?

Nick Souter said...

Well, fair enough! At least it's not compulsory to vote over there (coz everyone's would be too lazy to vote if it wasn't compulsory in Australia!) Yes, America's system has it's flaws, but the fact remains that we HEAR about their flaws more than any other country because 1. they are the most powerful country that everyone watches closely, and 2. they do openly lay things out on the table more than any other country, so we hear everything, good and bad. That's what America is all about. If other country's were as open as America then America would be the most boring coutnry on the news, shit you'd be hearing some dodgy stories coming out all over the world my friends! (the best one's coming from China!) Winston Churchill - Democracy is the least bad system that we have ever thought of. It's not perfect, but it tries harder than a lot of other systems of government which allows it to survive under power and not collapse like Russia.

Nick Souter said...

By the way, that Winston Churchill quote was only the first sentence after his name, not the rest of the stuff I wrote afterwards! (that was ME!)

Hammy said...

I think that the politicians in America are so rich and powerful that they try to cover up as much as they can - it certainly isn't open. Ever heard of Chappaquiddick?

Agreed, we do have it much better than China because of the democracy imposed on the world by the US. There are some great points to them being so powerful.