Peace Action at it again
Via U.S. Newswire:
On December 8, 2005, members of the Japanese Parliament along with the Japanese based League of Citizen Organizations Opposed to the Deployment of a Nuclear-powered Aircraft Carrier at Yokosuka, will hold a Press Conference at the National Press Club, voicing joint opposition against the recent proposal to base nuclear-powered submarines at Yokosuka Port in Japan just 35 miles from Tokyo’s 30 million people. Peace Action will be hosting the Japanese mission while they are in Washington.
"As the only country to face the devastation of American nuclear weapons, Japan understands all too well the nuclear danger. The proposal to make Japan the only country in the world where the Pentagon home-ports a nuclear carrier outside the U.S. shows incredible insensitivity and callousness by the Pentagon towards the Japanese. We should not force a nuclear powered warship on a people that do not wish to host it. A home port should be welcoming, not hostile," said Kevin Martin, Executive Director of Peace Action.
Here's what they're all up in arms about, from a DOD press release dated 02 Dec 05:
The U.S. Navy announced today that the USS George Washington will replace the USS Kitty Hawk as the forward deployed aircraft carrier in the western Pacific and will arrive in Yokosuka, Japan, in 2008.
This rotation is part of the Navy’s long-range effort to routinely replace older ships assigned to the Navy’s forward deployed naval forces with newer or more capable platforms.
Note to Peace Action - a nuclear power plant isn't the same as a nuclear weapon. Also - Japan has nuclear power plants. It's nothing they haven't seen before, with the possible exception of Peace Action's rabid anti-Americanism.
By Peace Action's reasoning, Japan should be boycotting American made Xray machines since a) they're used on aircraft carriers and b) they're NUCLEAR! Oh horrors!
And I strongly suspect that they didn't wait 5 days to announce this protest because they're slow typists. Just in case you've forgotten, today is the 64th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. What motivated them to cynically pick today for their announcement is anybody's guess. But I can't accept that it was a coincidence.
Thanks for raining a little anti-Americanism down on our veterans, Peace Action. What an absolutely crass way to to soil a day of rememberance.
For a little more, here's a good article from Stars & Stripes.
