Time to let Japan train their own military?

[K1052]

Originally posted by: senseamp
I thought Japan's military was limited by their constitution, not by us.

We did basically write it following WWII.

 

[imported_Aelius]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Aelius

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: Aelius

Anything beyond that and a country is exerting control. Which is what is going on right now. Sure it may seem that some nations may want us to stay in the region but it's not a straight answer. The US has refused to provide military high technology to Taiwan because of Chinese influence. In turn Taiwan wants us to remain. I'm not sure if it's the same story in both South Korea and Japan but I'm willing to bet that it is.

The only thing the US has held back was the Arleigh Burke class destroyers back in 2001, but they got everything else they wanted from the US. China basically sh!t a brick when it looked like we might sell them the AEGIS system since they don't and won't (for many, many years) have anything that can touch it.

Supposedly there is an under the table deal for the US government to finance construction of four Flight IIA Arleigh Burkes with the understanding that they would be sold to Taiwan upon competition sometime around 2010. These ships would include an upgraded capacity to counter theater ballistic missiles which is an extremely attractive option (and thus well worth the cost) to the Taiwanese since China has a bunch pointed at them.

That's intresting but that isn't the only item on the list that was blocked. I recall Apache helicopters also being blocked as well as some other high technology items such as software and various chips etc.

If I had more time I would go looking around for it but I gota run around for the next 4 or 5 hours. Sorry to post and run but I'll come back to this thread later.

The pretty much got the works, including the Apache, IIRC. Javlin anti-tank missiles, PAC-3 Patriot systems (the PRC was NOT happy about that), sophisticated missile tracking radar systems, the AMMRAAM air-to-air missiles, P-3 anti-sub planes, etc...

The only problematic items are the diesel electric subs. The US hasn't built one on several decades and the only countries with production models (Germany and Sweden I think) have declined to sell them to Taiwan. Germany has however licensed one of their diesel electric/fuel cell models to South Korea for them to construct for their navy and there is speculation that SK might build some for export to Taiwan.

I was under the impression that the P3 sub hunters were a dead deal. I guess I was wrong.

Either way it makes no difference. The US is not some sort of benevolent soul out to protect the innocent. It's there to protect its national interests and that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with what is best for the US population.

So what I said about getting out and living by those 3 principles stands.