Two US troops have been arrested over the alleged rape of a Japanese woman on the island of Okinawa.
The two men, identified as 23-year-old sailors, were detained by police on the southern island on Tuesday.
Japan's top spokesman called the incident "completely unacceptable" and the US ambassador said it was being taken very seriously.
The US bases some 26,000 troops on Okinawa, where there is opposition to the ongoing military presence.
The sentences above are from the BBC website a few days ago. I don't know whether the two accused American sailors are guilty or not. That will be decided by a court of law. It is the last sentence that needs to be understood and discussed by all Americans. The map above shows the Japanese island of Okinawa, and the orange spots on that map are the American military bases on that island -- bases that have been there for many years now.
Note that American military bases cover at least a quarter of all the land on Okinawa (if not slightly more). And the people of Okinawa want those bases gone. Can you blame them? Back in 1995 a 12 year-old girl was raped by three American servicemen. At that time there were many demonstrations demanding the Americans leave the island. The U.S. government at that time promised to close all the bases and bring 35,000 troops back home -- but only if they could build a new Air Force base on the north end of the island.
It is now 2012, and nothing has been done. The U.S. refuses to close any bases unless it gets the new base it wants, and the people of Okinawa oppose the new base being built. They just want ALL of our troops to leave. Frankly, I agree with them. It is time to bring those troops home. The Japanese are our best friend in Asia, and all we are doing by trying to hold on to Okinawa is to create ill feelings toward Americans -- both on Okinawa and in the rest of Japan. Is it really worth it?
Don't we have the ability to deliver missiles anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes, and bombs in just a few hours? Wouldn't a carrier task force in the area be just as effective (and cost a lot less, both in money and angry feelings)?
It is time to bring all our troops home, and let the people of Okinawa have their island back. And while we're at it, we should close a few hundred more military bases we have around the world. It would create better relations with both our friends and our enemies, and we could use the billions of dollars that would be saved to fix our own economy.
Right now we are the biggest bullies in the world, and we use our enormous military power to force other countries to do what we want. That needs to stop. I often hear Teddy Roosevelt's saying repeated often by people in this country -- "Speak softly and carry a big stick". But far too often our government forgets the "speak softly" part and just resorts to the "big stick" method of diplomacy. And we simply cannot afford to be the self-appointed policeman for the world anymore -- not diplomatically or financially.
The time for us to leave Okinawa was a long time ago. Cases like this have been going on for decades, and nothing ever comes of them. The rapists are merely transferred back to the continent and are somnetimes discharged, sometimes merely reassigned.
ReplyDeleteThese sailors are in local custody, but they will not remain there. They will be turned back over to the US military and shipped out. The Military Police will assume control of the "investigation." It has happened many, many times.
Instead of reducing bases such as Okinawa, we are adding new Marine installations in Australia to "protect the vital shipping lanes." How land based Marines are going to protect shipping lanes which come no closer to their base than about 800 miles escapes me, but then I don't understand why we need to occupy Afghanistan to prevent terrorists from using it to plan attacks either, so...