{"id":223,"date":"2003-10-31T19:12:48","date_gmt":"2003-11-01T02:12:48","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2003-10-31T19:12:48","modified_gmt":"2003-11-01T02:12:48","slug":"nukes-military-aggression-proliferation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2003\/10\/31\/nukes-military-aggression-proliferation\/","title":{"rendered":"Nukes + Military Aggression = Proliferation"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Albert R. Hunt, writing in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal<\/i> (“It’s a Real War and It’s Not Going Well”), “Rather than an incentive to cooperate, the effect of the Bush pre-emptive doctrine on Iran and North Korea, the other members of the infamous axis of evil, clearly has been to expedite accumulation of weapons of mass destruction.”<\/p>\n

And that ain’t all.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Eugene A. Matthews writes about ““>Japan’s New Nationalism<\/a>” in the current Foreign Affairs<\/i>. It seems Japan, with the world’s 4th largest millitary budget, is in the process of rejecting the defense-only and no-nukes tenets of its US-imposed constitution. (Japan is stockpiling plutonium, and currently has enough to make 7,000 nuclear bombs.)<\/p>\n

“…[M]any in Japan now sense that Tokyo’s interests are diverging from Washington’s and doubt whether American military and diplomatic actions around the globe contribute to Japan’s safety. According to a poll conducted over the summer by Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s leading newspaper, 60% of Japanese citizens thought the Iraq war was not justified. …<\/p>\n

“And then, of course there is North Korea — the country that has contributed more than any other to Japan’s growing concern over its national security. It is thanks to Pyongyang’s new nuclear threat that Japanese citizens and policymakers are now openly discussing Japan’s own nuclear armament, in a way that would have been unthinkable just 12 months ago. …<\/p>\n

“Recognizing the failure of its strategy of isolation, North Korea has tried to engage its neighbors economically. These actions were motivated by desperation, not a sense of real commitment to market principles. But Japanese diplomats were nonetheless frustrated when, instead of responding to the overtures, the United States chose to isolate North Korea as part of the ‘axis of evil.’ this move led nationalists to argue that the United States was making things more dangerous for Japan. …<\/p>\n

“American blundering has done a great deal to strengthen the pro-nuclear camp within Japan. In early 2003, American officials hinted to their Chinese counterparts that if Beijing did not pressure Pyongyang to disarm, Tokyo might develop nuclear weapons. This gambit played directly into the hands of Japan’s nationalists and will make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to put the nuclear genie back in its bottle. …<\/p>\n

“A nuclear Japan would make Asia a more dangerous place, starting an arms race unlike any the region has ever seen. China would increase its nuclear stockpile and seek more military resources, particularly nuclear submarines. Asia would suddenly have five nuclear powers — China, India, Japan, Pakistan, and North Korea — and South Korea would quickly follow, raising the potential for disastrous conflict.”<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Albert R. Hunt, writing in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (“It’s a Real War and It’s Not Going Well”), “Rather than an incentive to cooperate, the effect of the Bush pre-emptive doctrine on Iran and North Korea, the other members of the infamous axis of evil, clearly has been to expedite accumulation of weapons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[676],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-antiwar-movement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}