OBAMA'S ASIAN PIVOT BACKFIRES ON JAPAN

     The Japanese Government, already exasperated by a series of American political and military blunders, was obliged to deal with more bad news on Sunday. The first incident came from the big mouth of US Vice-President Biden.

       Biden boasted in an interview with PBS that he had put some rather arrogant demands on Chinese President Xi Jinping (although he never specified when this alleged meeting occurred). Biden basically demanded that China either put pressure on North Korea or the US would put advanced THAAD missiles in South Korea, which of course are also in range of China. Biden then went on to threaten China with the possibility that the Tojos might retaliate too, with atomic weapons.

       "What will you do? Do you think we should stand back?" Biden allegedly demanded of Xi, "What happens if we don't work something out about North Korea? What happens if Japan, who could tomorrow, go nuclear tomorrow? They have the capacity to do it literally overnight!"

          The Imperial Government, who are in the middle of high-level diplomatic meetings with China over the Korean situation, exploded with fury. China well remembers, unlike the US, that Akihito's father bombed Pearl Harbor in the middle of peace talks. The Japanese leadership immediately denounced Biden's remarks, stressing that Japan has not, and never will, seek to deploy atomic weapons.

          Xi Jinping made no statement about the remarks, but appeared this weekend with Russian President Putin, who is in China this week on a state visit. The two leaders announced signing a new series of enhanced military, economic, and scientific cooperation.

            "As both Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi Jinping have said, the deployment of the Aegis Missile System in Poland and Romania, as well as the THAAD Missile System being deployed in Korea and missiles being deployed in Japan and elsewhere constitute a mutual danger for the two countries." said a Sputnik News Analyst, "We are looking ultimately at the vast majority of the world pulling together to create an alternative to the self-destructive and globally-destructive policies pursued by interests in Washington."

              As if this wasn't enough, yet another violent crime involving our brave men and women in uniform occurred on Okinawa---just days after the Pentagon promised a crackdown. In fact, this latest incident was almost a carbon-copy of the last crime. It seems that another female in uniform---with 4x the legal limit of alcohol in her veins---plowed her car into oncoming traffic, critically injuring two Okinawan citizens. No word from the Pentagon yet about what reforms they will take this time.

               At some point, Japan is going to have to start questioning whether having the US as an ally is worse than having them as an enemy. Maybe that process has begun: Tokyo recently announced a series of diplomatic reconciliations with Russia, and a meeting between President Putin and Prime Minister Abe scheduled to take place in September.

The New Powers in the Pacific