One more, and I'm done

Please remember these few facts about the now notorious Mr. Hashimoto, Mayor of Osaka:
1. Osaka is not a country. This mayor does not make foreign policy. He in no way speaks for Japan.
2. Mr. Hashimoto is chief of a splinter party. He is not a member of the ruling coalition, another reason why he does not speak for Japan.

With these points in mind, let us now sweep him into the dustbin of history and get on with real life.

Here's sand in your eye?

When a public figure as canny as Osaka's former mayor says something so totally removed from common sense as what Toru Hashimoto has said about the "needs" of military men, past and present, one has to ask why? It's like a street fighter throwing a handful of sand in his opponents' eyes to keep them busy while he gets his dirty work done.

What are we being distracted from seeing? Could it be that, all over the world, there are military people in places where they do not belong? Could it be that, all over the world, there are women being treated as conveniences rather than as human beings?

Look around. What are we not seeing when we are distracted by outrageous words?

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

I am not going to dignify the ultra-rightist Ishin Kai's Mr. Hashimoto's remarks about soldiers and women by repeating them here. The point is, he is clueless about the basic issue: these military men (no mention of women in the military in the ultra-rightist lexicon) with their "unmet needs" should be home in their own countries, with their own friends and families, meeting their "needs" in socially-acceptable ways. They do not belong in Okinawa.

It's the 21st century, well past the age of colonizing foreign lands. It's time for foreign military personnel to wake up and smell the coffee--in their own homeland.