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It's Time To Leave
by James Glaser April 26, 2010 
On my way to Vietnam back in 1968, I had a two week lay-over at a Marine Corps base on the Island of Okinawa. Okinawa is part of Japan, and we took it from them with a fierce battle in WW II. In 1968 we still owned that island, but we did give it back to Japan in 1972. Well, we didn't give it all back, we still have 30 military facilities there today. During those two weeks I was there, the local people were having mass demonstrations trying to get the American military to leave. Yesterday, the people of Okinawa had another protest, this time trying to stop the American military from relocating a base on the island. Here is how the New York Times reported it:
There are many reasons that the people of Okinawa want us out of there. One reason is that over the years of our occupation, many Okinawan women have been raped by American servicemen. Another reason is that so many Okinawan women over the years have become prostitutes. While I was there, many local women had good paying jobs on our military bases. Those women would fraternize with American Soldiers and Marines. That tended to bum out Okinawan men. Think about if you were a young man growing up there. Your local job pays you maybe one tenth of what a young American Soldier makes. That Soldier can wine and dine your sweetheart in a manner you can't even dream of. That makes you mad. Maybe your sweetheart can't get a job at the American base, but she can get a job as a bar girl in one of the hundreds of bars surrounding every American base. That makes you mad. Your sweetheart or sister or maybe even your mother gets into the prostitution trade, and the American Soldiers and Marines are her customers. That get you mad, too. Every day of your life you have to see drunk and loud American Soldiers and Marines making passes at your loved ones. Your women have to live in a real state of fear and vigilance due to the American military presence. Yes, you could say American troops fought and died for us to get Okinawa. That would be true, but that was 65 years ago. We are now three generations removed from that war, and few Okinawans who were alive when we took possession of that island are still alive today. Right now we have close to 50,000 troops in Japan, with 25,000 of them in Okinawa. Why? It is time for us to leave. We are not making friends there, except for the people who control the sin trade there. I have no idea how much it costs us to keep 50,000 troops on the other side of the world, but it is in the billions of dollars. It seems pretty simple to me. It's time to leave. |
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