Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is seemingly in a rut over what to do to secure the release of Kenji Goto, the remaining Japanese national being held captive by ISIL. The terrorists have demanded a tradeoff whereby they would exchange him for a failed suicide bomber imprisoned in Jordan, but it’s not likely that the US will allow this to happen. More probable, however, would be that Abe exploits this crisis to accelerate his country’s remilitarization, but doing so under an ‘anti-terrorism’ aegis and by deepening commitment to its overseas base in Djibouti. This would not only provide Japan’s military-industrial complex with a fertile testing ground for some of its China-directed spyware, but with its Maritime Self-Defense Forces continually transiting through the disputed East and South China Seas en route to East Africa, they can also irritate Beijing and perhaps even conduct more bilateral exercises with its Indian rival. uk.sputniknews/opinion/20150127/1013393609.html
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 12:32:30 +0000