Our Most Important Ally

The way that Japanese and American interests are practically identical has been an endless spell of captivation, at least to me. And then along came Dafna Linzer and Anthony Faiola to break the spell. Why do I say this? Well, as I emailed a friend just a short while ago:

While the post covers lots of other extraneous issues like Bush's wonderful, heroic Mission Accomplished 2.0 visit to Iraq I just wanted to make sure you got this article.

I think the key point is alluded to in the article here:

"Japanese officials characterize this as a rare cold patch in otherwise very warm U.S.-Japan relations."

And here:

As a country whose armed forces are restricted by a postwar pacifist constitution and which is protected by the American nuclear umbrella, Japan often finds that its interests naturally coincide with Washington's. But there is a growing sentiment in Japan that, particularly in the Iranian situation, Tokyo and Washington have divergent interests and that Japan's support for U.S. policy is being taken for granted.

"I think we should stand with the international community once a consensus is made on the Iran nuclear issue," said Hideki Wakabayashi, a member of Japan's upper house who was part of a delegation to Iran last month from the opposition Democratic Party of Japan. "But it's not a good idea for the Bush administration to pressure Japan before negotiations fail."

There is a lot more to the article, but I think you get my point.

My point was (is) that this whole Iran thing has the potential to damage our relationship with an ally I believe is our most important: Japan. I know the English are the sentimental favorite, but Japan, strategically is much more critical to the stability of a region which unfortunately hasn't undergone anything like the Franco-German reconcilliation. And if we let Bolton have his way he'll wreck our friendship with the Japanese just like Rummy did with old-Europe.

We've already alienated the Germans and the French. Let's not alienate the Japanese either.