Friday, March 2, 2007

Negroponte chides Congress

The Japan Times reports that US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte has criticized Congress for the comfort women resolution, saying, "Our view is what happened during the war was most deplorable. But as far as some kind resolution of this issue (is concerned), this is something that must be dealt with between Japan and the countries that were affected."

Thus the medium- and long-term implications of this resolution are unclear. Should it pass, it may produce some momentary unpleasantness -- but once again the executive branch will be in a position of defending Japan from critics in Congress, suggesting that the resolution will probably not result in undue harm to efforts to transform US forward deployments in Japan or strengthen the alliance.

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