Week of Nov. 19, 2007

In terms of policy, Abe [Shinzo’s] LDP fell into two contradictions: between nationalism and universal values, and between the liberty proclaimed by the strong and the equality that takes into consideration the weak.

The first contradiction was exacerbated by Abe’s call for an escape from the postwar regime and by his enhancing of statism and nationalism. On the one hand, Abe proclaimed a “value-based diplomacy” and emphasized the United States and India as partners sharing freedom and democracy. On the other, he was a proponent of vulgar nationalism and internationally he made such bizarre statements as: “In the case of ‘comfort women’ there was no coercion in the narrow sense”. Such values as liberty, democracy, human rights are not compatible with the egocentrism of the insistence on legitimizing for Japan alone a war which is internationally recognized as aggressive. There is an inseparable connection between liberty, democracy, human rights, and the interpretations of history by which past wars are understood. Nevertheless, Abe together with his entourage of politicians and experts, were ignorant about this point until it was too late. This ignorance led to Japan’s isolation from international society.

Theodore Roosevelt’s older daughter, Alice, moved into the White House at the age of 17, in 1901, 100 years before the arrival of the Bush twins. To grasp the longevity of “Princess Alice” upon the Washington scene, one must imagine either Jenna or Barbara showing up for a party at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the year 2071, the way Alice Roosevelt Longworth took her seat in the Rose Garden for Tricia Nixon’s White House wedding 65 years after her own. Indeed, Mrs. Longworth survived for almost another decade, sticking around to oppose Jimmy Carter’s effort to give away her father’s boldest accomplishment, the Panama Canal.

MESA hasn't a brain. It's 2,700 brains.