[PEN-L:31504] Re: Planning US occupation of Iraq

[Charles Jannuzi <b_rieux@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is where Chalmers J makes me gag:

>>In return for letting the U.S. keep its
military bases on Japanese soil, the Japanese
demanded unrestricted access to the U.S. market
and American tolerance of their protectionism.
The results of this policy can be seen today in
any U.S. parking lot. It also produced the
largest trade imbalances (in favor of Japan) in
economic history.<<

I find it hard to believe that the Japanese ever
demanded anything of the sort--nor did they ever
get anything of the sort. The trade offs
calculated by the US was that, if the Japanese
economy floundered, the Japanese would become
socialist or worse yet communist. The US never
asked the Japanese what they wanted in return for
the US bases being in Japan. The US has
increasingly demanded that the Japanese taxpayer
pay for more and more of the cost of these bases,
even though the whole issue has never been put to
a democratic test, such as a referendum. Most
Japanese demands in trade negotiations have been
counter-demands in the face of US demands. So
Johnson had better come up with some documentary
evidence to support his claim.

What is US tolerance or unrestricted access? The
Nixon tariff? Automobile and memory chip quotas
(which not only kept Japanese product out of
Japan but forced the Japanese to buy quotas of US
product)?
Vitiation of Japanese processor chip and OS
development?

Johnson is a propagandist and it's time someone
started calling his bluff.

C. Jannuzi


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