European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 12, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes Friday october 12,1990 columns David butt Japan face to face with Mideast dilemma Tokyo a the scene is a Baghdad office two months after iraqi tanks crushed Kuwait a Independence. Antonio Linoki a 6-foot-3-Inch, 231-Pound japanese professional wrestler turned politician is giving a Bear us and kisses to the son of iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Linoki gives a silk japanese Kimono to Saddam a daughter in Law and electronic dancing Flowers to his grandchildren. He then pleads with the Young Hussein to release to him some of the 141 japanese hostages being held As human Shields. Later a disappointed Linoki returns to Tokyo empty handed and scolds japanese politicians for making remarks that have angered the iraqis and Hurt the Chance of getting Back the hostages. I Nokia a misadventure in Baghdad is one of the More bizarre examples of Japan a utter confusion Over How to respond to the persian Gulf crisis. This week the debate Over Japan a reaction to Saddam a invasion of Kuwait a and Japan a role in a new world order a moves to the japanese diet or parliament where Linoki and his 760 fellow members open a monthlong emergency session to decide whether Japan should Send troops to the Gulf. In a series of interviews diet members representing a wide spectrum of viewpoints said they Are absolutely opposed to sending armed forces to the Gulf. In the last five years the japanese have come to accept that their economic might a a Gross National product second Only to that of the United states a carries with it certain responsibilities in the world. They say they Are ready and willing to assume their share of Power in a new Post cold War world order. But the Gulf crisis has demonstrated that Japan a leadership capability abruptly ends where the threat of armed conflict begins. Japan has pledged Money a a $4 billion package of Aid to the multinational forces and front line states a but they Are paralysed by the question of whether to Send troops. Their Strong aversion can be traced to the disastrous results of Japan a military adventurism in world War ii and failure of the japanese since the War to convince themselves and their asian neighbors that they will not repeat the mistakes of the past. Because that doubt remains the japanese fear taking the slightest step which could set them on a path to future militarism. That first step they believe would open a Pandora a Box. The aversion is so deep that some diet members including Masaharu Motoda who at age 76 remembers Well the pain of world War ii say that if Japan a new wealth carries with it a responsibility to participate in armed conflicts Japan should consider giving up its wealth. And not just doves oppose sending japanese troops abroad. Shizuka Kamei perhaps the most avid Hawk in the diet said a the fact that we cannot Send japanese troops 1945. It lab a Colb you go to Wak Aga attn Wigeorge will overseas is As certain As the fact that we need air to Kamei is willing to stick to this principle no matter How far Saddam a army advances. A if Hussein controls All of the Middle East Oil we will just have to learn to appease Hussein the Way we have Learned to appease the United states a Kamei said. Politicians admit there is considerable confusion in Japan Over what should be done and say they Are just now with a big nudge from the crisis waking up to the task of finding their new role in the world. A is it necessary for Japan to become a military Power a asks Kazuo Aichi a moderate diet member. A we have reached an environment where we must face that question for the first time. Japan has become too Strong to ignore the the diet debate which is to open Friday will Center on whether sending troops overseas would violate Japan a Constitution. The 1947 document written by the . Occupation forces renounces Japan a right to use or threaten to use Force As a Means to Settle International conflicts. To get around this restraint prime minister Toshiki Kaifu has proposed that Japan Send Only unarmed troops to the Gulf and Only after they have been temporarily stripped of their status As members of the self defense forces. The troops would go under the Banner of Japan a newly formed . Peace cooperation corps and be strictly limited to non combat areas. The result would be a patently impotent japanese contingent. But Kaifu believes this is the Best Japan can do. A fooling with the Constitution would cause great turmoil a said Setsu Shiga a diet member and close associate of Kaifu. A it would raise so Many questions wed rather not get into such As what to do about the emperor but the Days when Japan could avoid the Tough questions seem to be rapidly coming to an end. United press International Darman s statement on 7y unsupportable evidence that .Ashington is strictly speaking deranged a literally disconnected from reality a includes Richard Darmand a statement on television that president Bush did not do what the nation saw him do. Darman the budget director said the president in his television speech concerning the budget Deal 1 Wasny to actually asking the Public to support this is what Bush said a Tell your congressman and senators you support this. La with the a a. Urge them to stand with a the president urge them to do what the bipartisan leadership has done. Urge them to stand with their congressional leaders. Ask them to fight for the future of your kids by supporting this budget Darman insists the president actually said a in effect to congressmen not the american people to congressmen a in a telling your constituents this is a hard vote for of the president goes on ,.ashington talks Only itself. This is .Ashington solipsism nothing but us exists. Trying to trigger Public support the president on to triggered the Public a opposition and this question How can a president so popular be so powerless the answer is lurking in the question he is popular because he makes minimal use of Power. He ran a Blue skies Campaign and even just 814 months ago said he saw in the sky a deficit now projected at about $300 billion of Only $64 billion. After the polarizing conflicts of the Reagan years the country wanted to be left alone and elected just the president to perform that no function a president who believes in bipartisanship Domestic summits the blurring of party differences. But now out of the Blue As it were he tells the nation that if we go on piling up deficits As we have done during the 10 Reagan Bush years we will not survive because deficits Are like however this life threatening disease Calls for nothing Radical a no political equivalent of surgery chemotherapy radiation. More like half an aspirin. The rejected Summit package was a pastiche of cooked assumptions about growth and interest rate ribs and drabs of Little taxes a tax code painted by Jackson Pollock spending a Cap so that May be Only As binding As the Gramm Rudman deficit reduction requirements a Dukakis Campaign Plank assuming billions to be gained from improved enforcement of the Revenue code and some Republican socialism tax shelters called a incentives a to subsidize investment in certain supposedly private enterprises. The proposed 1991 tax increases and spending cuts amounted to Only 0.7 percent of Gnu All the taxes would have reduced americans after tax income about 1 percent. And the stumbling Block in the budget negotiations has been the Republican insistence on a capital gains Cut which the presidents own economists predict would increase the annual growth rate just 0.06 percent. That amount is too tiny to forecast meaningfully. When numbers supposedly instruments of precision Are instead used for propaganda then the Cavalier use of words As in Darmand a gloss on Bush a speech is unsurprising. If All this were purely cynical it would be less alarming than the weird sincerity of people who have been striking deals with each other for so Long they really think deals determine reality. Uliey think the meaning of numbers and words is a on the table a part of the partisan meanings Are asserted differences get split and reality is expected to conform to the participants in the budget Marathon Are exhausted and genuinely indignant when it is suggested that the numbers they Are dealing with Are Small compared to the problem As it already is before recession. The Best face that can be put on All this is put by sen. Phil Gramm a Texas who says this the Day Gramm Rudman was passed Federal spending was 23.9 percent of Gnu. Today it is 22.6 percent. If something with the net configuration of the Deal just rejected is finally adopted and enforced then five years from now spending will be 18.3 percent of Gnu. The Only new entitlement enacted in the Gramm Rudman Era was the catastrophic health insurance program which was a political catastrophe because people hate socialism that comes with a Price tag. So chuckle headed As everyone Here May seem to everyone out there it is possible to believe that Progress is being made. But the Way it is being made is deepening the Public a misanthropic mood. C .Ashington Post writers group
