Hatoyama negative about U.S. sending more troops to Afghanistan

Thursday 05th November, 05:44 AM JST

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13 Comments

IchyaWarFare at 10:09 AM JST - 5th November

Cool. Let's pull the troops out and you guys go ahead in and start building. Let us know how it goes.
panzerkampwagen at 10:32 AM JST - 5th November

From the view of strgetic concerns, the more US troops sent to afghanistan will made the US military more stressing thin and attritions that made herself overall vulnerable and is good for asian countries to be free of US influences! So I like to see the escalating of conflicts in afghanistan. But Mr Hatoyama does has a point, he is the first Japanese PM 'lecturing' to US preident. Go...Hatoyama-san...this is your turn!
CMEANDU26 at 11:10 AM JST - 5th November

What I think should happen is that Japan say the military forces in the country leave and you can bring the Afgans to Okinawa.
sfjp330 at 11:19 AM JST - 5th November

Most people agrees that it's crucial for U.S. goals for the Afghan government to function, that's about where ambition stops. Anything better would be nice but not necessary. Afghanistan is 176th out of 180 on corruption perceptions Index.

If the president doesn't decide to send tens of thousands of new troops, defining Afghanistan down helps explain why it's OK to send the limited number. If he decides to send no more troops, or a number closer to the low end of the range he's considering (say 10,000 to 15,000), lowering expectations will be necessary so that it won't look like he's underestimated the resources needed to do the job. That's been Obama's consistent claim about the Bush war effort. By contrast, he'll be able to argue that he didn't fail to remake Afghanistan because he didn't send enough troops, because he never promised a makeover.
panzerkampwagen at 02:38 PM JST - 5th November

The best method to solve the afghanistan problem is western countries open their doors and take over a huge immigranting afghan refugees to their society and let them understanding what is a 'normal country'! I hope Mr Hatoyama can accept such a burden of duty when japanese calls they are willing to particpitate the world affairs!
USNinJapan2 at 04:17 PM JST - 5th November

panzerkampwagen

Spoken like a true European. That's the last thing any of the EU countries need, more Muslim immigrants.
numbskull at 04:30 PM JST - 5th November

Why does the U.S. solution always seem to be more boots and guns? Why can't a cowboy just leave well enough alone?

The real failure in Afghanistan was not catching bin. The largest success has been in making people think that setting up a viable stable government in Afghanistan might actually be possible! But the propaganda machine has its limits, and people are coming around to the fact that nation building in Afghanistan was the combination of very pure hearts and very stupid minds on one side and greed at any cost on the other.

Vietnam II
dasyhard at 05:28 PM JST - 5th November

Either you support us or don't support us, in the future don't announce volunteering services publicly and back out later. Goodness gracious, can't they make decisions in house among their staff before telling the world? It may be another Vietnam that is a lost cause but our soldiers/contractors lives are at stake and we will know who our true supporters are when the going gets rough.
numbskull at 05:48 PM JST - 5th November

we will know who our true supporters are when the going gets rough.

The going has been rough for 8 years now. If America, after all this time and all these blunders, does not know who her true friends are by now, she does not deserve any frankly. Your post sounds less like an appeal to friends and more like a demand for sycophants! Hail to the new Rome!
yabits at 09:03 PM JST - 5th November

‘‘I don’t mean to deny all military methods,’’ Hatoyama said, but added that the United States ‘‘has failed in Iraq, and that’s what Mr Obama admits.’‘

Prime Minister Hatoyama is right on this one. Good for Japan!

Small wars like the one in Afghanistan are undertaken by large superpowers only for one reason: to control smaller countries. Ostensibly, the reason touted is all about "security," but dig a little deeper and you find that it is all about the evolved form of colonialism whereby the local crooks and warlords are given a bigger slice of the pie to run their territory in accordance with the wishes of the superpower elites.
yabits at 09:31 PM JST - 5th November

The best method to solve the afghanistan problem is western countries open their doors and take over a huge immigranting afghan refugees to their society and let them understanding what is a 'normal country'!

I disagree. A much better method would be to train a volunteer in one of the local languages and pay them (very well) to take on a 10-year assignment whereby they live in one of the Afghan valley hamlets and come to truly learn that part of the country. After the first year or so, the volunteer would learn what kind of very small-scale development projects could be undertaken to improve the lives of the local people without making them dependent on Western aid. The volunteer would demonstrate the virtue of listening rather than expounding the values of western life.

The volunteer must also bring skills in areas like simple, non-renewable energy development, animal husbandry, and medical first aid. (Yes, it does sound a lot like the Peace Corps, doesn't it?)

Multiply that one volunteer times 1,000, disburse them slowly and carefully in other regions and, within a generation, the local people will come to feel extremely positive about their relations with these "foreigners." As people of the western nations come to know the host country more intimately through the stories related back to them from the volunteers, they will also come to a new and better relationship with other nations.

Many (probably most) of the remote Afghan tribes adhere to an ancient custom of taking in a visitor and caring for them. (It's the sudden incursion of thousands of "visitors" armed to the teeth and who bomb them from the skies they find hard to accept.)

The problem with the Peace Corps approach comes when the nation and people they are representing undermine them by launching military assaults. Or, attempt to use the volunteers to work with the elites of the country to promote large-scale development projects whereby the resources and local people are exploited. Natives properly recognize this situation as the "white-man-speak-with-forked-tongue" syndrome.
PepinGalarga at 10:33 PM JST - 5th November

Karzai is a Bush/Cheney/CIA loyalist, which makes him difficult to control by Obama's administration. Once they got the taste of the heroin trade again, its hard to stop it.

Hatoyama may sound cool by lecturing US, and i guess its time to get a backbone, but if the US troops would pull out, there's no way Japan would consider to have anyone in Afghanistan. Even UN is pulling out these days.
Adamwesti at 02:18 AM JST - 6th November

I agree with Hatoyama. What benefit will it be for the US to remain there? The local people don't care for the Taliban and could care less for the US & foreign forces on their land. The only ones happy in that country are the politicians where more money is provided. The other comment is Opium. The US complains about Opium being exported and some ending up in the USA. Well the rule is Supply and demand!