Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Japan has proved to be an important ally of the United States--on a par with Britain--through its dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq and other recent international contributions.

Armitage said that estimation will be included in the revised edition of his "Armitage Report," which will be published next month. The original version of this policy recommendation was published in October 2000 and called for further strengthening the Japan-U.S. alliance.

"Of course, I didn't mean nuclear weapons, but I meant everything else. And that is that we share with Japan like we share with the U.K. in everything--political information, intelligence, that we enhance our security cooperation in every way," Armitage said in a recent interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun. He stressed that the Japan-U.S. alliance is, and forever will be, the cornerstone of the United States' Asian strategy.

Armitage was fulsome in his praise for Japan's international contributions. "Look at what Japan has done, after 9/11...[Japan] 'showed the flag' and then the 'boots on the ground,'" Armitage said.

He was referring to the dispatch of Maritime Self-Defense Force supply vessels to the Indian Ocean to assist the United States in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States and the dispatch of Ground Self-Defense Force members to Iraq to assist that country's reconstruction following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Armitage said the second report will call for an even stronger Japan-U.S. relationship to cope with the new situation in Asia, namely the emergence of China as a regional power.

"The U.S. and Japan should have a good, close, political, security and economic relationship and that'll be what the report is about," he said.

Armitage was critical of the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush for not paying enough attention to the region partly because a number of Asia hands--most notably himself--had left the U.S. government since the president's second term started last year.

He went on to urge the U.S. government to place more importance on its Asia policy, saying, "in every measure, everything's shifting to Asia."

Yomiuri

Japan is important...to us...

Japan is a lapdog to the US? Old news.

Not completely...but as long as we can keep our warships, soldiers and so forth closer to China...the safer I feel...

lol the safer you feel you insecure lil......

Power can only be maintained by power...especially with Idiot Bush wasting our resources...we need to keep the status quo as much as possible...