As a resident of Bush’s Amurka, I have exactly no moral high ground from which to bitch about any nation taking up the projects of (re)armament or “defensive” preemptive strikes. I’m also a poor student of Japanese and Asian history. But I’ve been told that the “whole point” of the NK posturing is to create circumstances in which Japan can reenter the world stage as a military power by people I think would be in at least a partial position to know. Further, I’m not at all sanguine about a lot of the language and posturing coming from an increasingly frustrated and stagnant Japanese society and leadership. This is the age of the waking Chinese Dragon, and it’s logical that Japan, given their history, would seek some ways in which to counter that, even if said counter is a really, really stupid idea:

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