Putting Our Allies First
John McCain and Joseph Lieberman /Special to The Yomiuri Shimbun
(May 29, 2008) - The U.S.-Japan alliance has been the indispensable anchor of peace, prosperity and freedom in the Asia-Pacific for more than 60 years, and its importance will only grow in the years ahead. Deepening cooperation, consultation and coordination between Washington and Tokyo is the key to meeting the collective challenges that both of our nations face--from nuclear proliferation to climate change--and to advancing our common interest in building a safer, better world for all of our citizens.
In many respects, the U.S.-Japan alliance has never been stronger. Polls consistently show deep support for the alliance among Americans and Japanese alike. Our security partnership has grown in leaps and bounds in recent years, measured in terms of interoperability, technology-sharing, and joint exercises. And we are deeply grateful for the continuing contributions that Japanese forces have made to the international fight against terrorism...
Putting Our Allies First
John McCain and Joseph Lieberman / Special to JoonAng Daily
(May 29, 2008) - The next President of the United States will face an array of challenges and responsibilities in the world, including the need to protect America and our allies from the threats of terrorism and proliferation, keep international markets open and vibrant, and advance the universal values that underpin our common security and prosperity. We firmly believe that strengthening and expanding America's close partnership with the Republic of Korea is a critical to accomplishing all of these goals.
From time to time, on both sides of the Pacific, doubts have been raised about the future of the U.S.-ROK alliance. Not so long ago, some even claimed the alliance was on its last legs. These voices have recently grown silent, however, and rightly so, in particular after President Lee Myung Bak's highly successful visit to the United States in March, which reaffirmed anew the extent to which the United States and Korea remain deeply bound together by both shared interests and shared values...
Why did the respective ghostwriters of these two essays, published on the same exact day, not at least agree to have different titles? Or do Japan hands not talk directly to South Korea hands, and vice versa? Maybe it is me, but the overall effect makes the essays a little less "special" than purported.
It is also amazing how self-congratulatory the rhetoric in these two essays sounds--and how dated, even though the pieces are ostensibly only a little more than two weeks old.
Later - All of which gives me the opportunity to link to this short, palm-of-the-hand analysis by Weston Konishi.
...which would allow me to segueway to introduce a new East Asia blog produced by the Bruces and Sheilas of ANU's East Asia Bureau of Economic Research.
...which allows me to link to Tobias Harris's review of RAND scholar William Overholt's clear-eyed, anti-revisionist report on the political position of the United States of America in East Asia.
An embarrassment of riches.
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