"Am I therefore become your enemy,because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH...?"
(Galatians 4:16)

Japan's more provocative military makes neighbors nervous

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE,Guam: To take part in annual exercises with the U.S. Air Force last month,Japan practiced dropping 500-pound live bombs on Farallon de Medinilla,a tiny island in the western Pacific about 240 kilometers north of here.The exercise would have been unremarkable for almost any other powerful military,but it was highly significant for Japan, a country still restrained by a Constitution that renounces war and allows forces only for its defense.Dropping live bombs on land had long been considered too offensive,so much so that Japan does not have a single live-bombing range.
Flying directly from Japan and practicing live-bombing runs on distant foreign targets would have been regarded as unacceptably provocative because the implicit message was clear:These fighter jets could perhaps fly to North Korea and take out some targets before returning home safely.But from here in Micronesia to Iraq,Japan's military has been rapidly crossing out items from its list of can't do's.The incremental changes-especially since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US-amount to the most significant transformation in the Japanese military since World War II,one that has brought it ever closer operationally to America's military while rattling nerves throughout northeast Asia.In a little over half a decade,the Japanese military has carried out changes considered unthinkable a few years back.In the Indian Ocean,Japanese destroyers and refueling ships are helping the U.S. military fight in Afghanistan.In Iraq,Japanese planes are transporting cargo and U.S. soldiers to Baghdad from Kuwait.Japan is acquiring weapons that blur the line between defensive and offensive.For the Guam bombing run,Tokyo deployed its newest fighter jets,the F-2,the first developed jointly by Japan and the United States.Unlike its older jets,the F-2s were able to fly the 2,700 kilometers,or 1,700 miles,from northern Japan to Guam without refueling-a "straight shot,"as the Japanese military said with pride.Now Japan is indicating that it is intensely interested in buying the F-22 Raptor,a U.S. stealth fighter known mainly for its offensive capabilities,like penetrating contested airspace and destroying enemy targets, and whose export is prohibited by U.S. law.In Tokyo,the Defense Agency,whose profile had been kept low,became a full ministry this year.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe used the huge parliamentary majority he inherited from his popular predecessor,Junichiro Koizumi,to ram through a law that could lead to a revision of the pacifist Constitution.Japan's 241,000-strong military,although smaller than those of its neighbors,is considered Asia's most sophisticated.Its $40 billion military budget has ranked among the world's top five in recent years.Tokyo also has tapped nonmilitary budgets to launch spy satellites and strengthen its coast guard...
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As in the days of Noah...