"Peace through strength"

The Christian Science Monitor carries this one.

In a new thread to the North Korean bomb saga, arguments over Japan's nuclear ambitions are becoming the focus as prominent politicians from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) continue to raise the issue.

Any objections yet? I thought not. On we go.

Security experts say that nukes would be of little or no benefit to Tokyo - neither politically nor in military terms - and that the recent statements are mostly bluster. Yet the continuing, very public discussions underscore how regional security threats are deepening the anxiety among Japan's conservative political set.
"Alarmist views have been continually wrong in the past and they are wrong again now," says Shunji Taoka, a defense writer and former professor at Tsukuba University.

Why is it that the fruitcakes in academia seem to label every threat "alarmist"? The threat posed by terrorists and wide-opened borders? Alarmism. They haven't the stomach nor the substance to prepare for war, and it is this preparation that is the surest road to peace. You keep the other dogs from biting you by ensuring you have the sharpest teeth.

"Nuclear deterrence will not work against an irrational or desperate opponent" and would be unlikely to prevent the desperate last acts of a North Korea on the brink of collapse, says Taoka.

Neither will screaming and running to the UN for shelter. And I'm not entirely convinced that painting a giant red target on Kim Jong-Il's palaces wouldn't grab his attention. If anything, he's self-interested.

Some victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still bear physical scars, and the moral implications of the US decision to use nuclear weapons haunt a generation.

Then I'm sure they will agree, it would have been to their advantage to have nukes of their own at the time. Too harsh? *shrugs*

While we're at it, let's remove the restrictions on Japan's military. With China rising in power, Russia hiding their cards up their sleeves and North Korea's leader showing his ass, Japan seems to be our best friend over there.