Saturday, June 25, 2011

The Top Ten Reasons The U.S. Marines On Okinawa Are Essential To Peace And Security In The Pacific

From The Heritage Foundation:

Top 10 Reasons Why the U.S. Marines on Okinawa Are Essential to Peace and Security in the Pacific




by Bruce Klingner



The Heritage Foundation



June 14, 2011



Backgrounder





Two factors have driven the debate over the planned U.S. military realignment in Japan: campaign pledges made by the Democratic Party of Japan and complaints from Okinawans about the presence of the U.S. military. These factors have had a particularly strong impact on efforts to preserve the Marine Corps Air Station on Okinawa. However, other critical factors—national interests, regional threats, and the U.S–Japan alliance’s military requirements—are absent from the discussion over the station’s scheduled relocation from Futenma to a more remote locale. The Obama Administration should continue to press Japan for implementation of the military realignment agreement. It is past time for Tokyo to jettison its passive consensus-building approach and take more assertive steps.





URL: www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/06/top-10-reasons-why-the-us-marines-on-okinawa-are-essential-to-peace-and-security-in-the-pacific

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