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发表于 2010-12-10 10:39:55
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VOX POPULI: Keeping a close eye on what the bully will do
2010/11/30
Inspirational tales of heroism abound about great men, and U.S. President George Washington (1732-1799) is no exception. One episode has young George standing up to a schoolyard bully by the name of Bustle.
Big and mean, Bustle picks on hapless classmates, and he fights dirty. One day, he dares George to challenge him, and George takes up the gauntlet. As the other kids--all Bustle's past victims--mill around and watch anxiously, George throws Bustle down on the ground. The next moment, everyone is all over Bustle, punching and kicking their erstwhile tormentor.
When a teacher finally steps in to break up the fight, George tells the teacher that it is all his fault. Honest, courageous and a born leader, the boy grows up to become the first president of the United States.
A U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier named after this founding father of America departed last week from Yokosuka Naval Base in Kanagawa Prefecture to take part in a joint military drill with South Korea in the Yellow Sea, where big and small "Bustles" await. Following North Korea's shelling of the South Korean island of Daeyeonpyeongdo, it appears the mission of the USS George Washington is to make North Korea refrain from any further provocations.
China reacted with undisguised disdain to the appearance of the flagship of the U.S. Seventh Fleet in its own "front yard." Invisible demarcation lines crisscross the Yellow Sea--the Northern Limit Line drawn by United Nations forces, the "maritime military demarcation line" that North Korea insists upon, and the boundaries that define the exclusive economic zones of various countries.
And beyond these waters lie Taiwan, Okinawa Prefecture and the Senkaku Islands. The geography reminds me anew that only narrow strips of water separate us from our neighbors in the Far East.
The present standoff between the United States and China is chillingly reminiscent of the Korean War era. Over the past 60 years, a huge gap has opened between North Korea and South Korea in terms of their levels of economic development. Now a member of the advanced world, South Korea has too much to lose if it were to go to war again. But the anger of the South Koreans, who have put up with their irrational compatriots to the north, is nearing the boiling point.
In this volatile situation, we in Japan can only watch anxiously, like the kids who stood by while young George and Bustle went at each other. While we must be prepared for any eventuality, the least we can do is remain firmly focused on developments in the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan.
Those waters are just too close to us for comfort.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 29 |
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