To: quidditch who wrote (37620 ) 8/4/1999 8:56:00 PM From: quidditch Respond to
Peripheral, not altogether OT: China and CDMAthere some thing happenin' out there, what it is ain't exacly clear, but there's a man with a gun... " (with apologies to the Buffalo Springfield, as long as we're in the month of celebrating Woodstock anniversaires). The following has profoundly disturbing implications for me, if not for Q's near-term prospects in China, if not for global stability generally.Japan has agreed to take part in a missile-defense system that Washington is developing that would use rockets to shoot down incoming missiles. And Japan is sppeeding its plans for a satellite surveillance system...[The article goes on to detail other ways in which Japan may be forced to deviate from its constitutionally mandated limitations on defense spending.]...[L]ast week Defense Secretary William S. Cohen indicated that Washington would work with Seoul to overcome [the limit of 112 miles on any missiles developed or deployed by Seoul], which could be accomplished if South Kooreajoined the Missile Technology Control Regime... not to have to resort to heavy handed force. Isn't this itself destabilizing of the so-called "new world order" over which we could have presided. (Indeed, in the inside page on which the N. Korea piece continued, there was a story about a report commissioned by Japan (albeit through UN auspices) that the US failure to endorse nuclear test bans was in effect encouraging nuclear brinksmanship elsewhere).
