Kudos Abound
September 10th, 2007Let’s just get this out of the way: Pedro Martinez is back in the Major Leagues and he’s won two games, throwing five shutout innings yesterday against Roy Oswalt. He also recorded his three thousandth career strikeout at the age of thirty five. It’s a figure he should’ve reached last year at thirty four but his arm gave out on him when he was two Ks short. Now he’s a finesse pitcher rather than a power pitcher, and he’s savoring every moment of it, now that he truly appreciates his body, skills and the game of baseball. It’s a beautiful story, and if you’d like to read more, check this out.
Pedro is the man.
Martinez isn’t the only person who deserves credit and praise after this weekend: the Japanese Prime Minister does, too, after he vowed to fight his legislature over Afghanistan.
Japan’s embattled Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday refused to resign and defied calls to end a controversial military mission overseas as he faced down a resurgent opposition in parliament. Lawmakers returned after the summer recess Monday with Abe under mounting pressure following a raft of scandals and a heavy defeat in July elections that handed the opposition control of the upper house of parliament.
On the eve of the two-month extraordinary session of the Diet, Abe staked his job on the need to extend a mandate for Japan’s mission to provide support for US-led forces in Afghanistan. Japanese troops “who are devoting themselves to their duties under the scorching sun in the Indian Ocean represent the very international contribution the world expects Japan to make,” Abe later told parliament.
The opposition is against the mission, which provides refuelling and other logistical support, but the United States has warned that pulling out would damage relations between the long-standing allies. A day after telling reporters he could quit if he fails to secure an extension of the mandate, a defiant Abe told lawmakers he would stay in his job to continue his efforts to erase the legacies of Japan’s World War II defeat.
“I am well aware that there is a view that I should step down,” Abe said. “We need to depart from the postwar regime by all means. I decided to stay on out of my sheer belief that we must not stop this reform,” he said.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) faces a newly empowered opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) that is doing everything it can to force Abe from office and to scupper his plans to build a more assertive foreign policy. Abe told parliament that Japan must not abandon its “international responsibility” by withdrawing support to US-led forces in Afghanistan. Japan’s mission in the Indian Ocean has become “indispensable” for the global fight against terrorism, Abe said.
The opposition, however, remained unswayed. “Although he (Abe) might seem as if he reflected on his past acts, he is still saying his policies were right. That’s why the public is feeling, ‘What is Prime Minister Abe thinking?’” said DPJ secretary general Yukio Hatoyama.
Of course, I don’t support the militarization of Japan but what they are doing is logistical and peaceful. Unfortunately, the American presence in Afghanistan is pitiful and we’ve all-but turned that country over to the Taliban in the countryside, but it would likely be worse if not for the contributions of the Japanese and for that I’m grateful.
If only we took our commitment to rebuild that country into something resembling a peaceful Democracy half as serious as the Japanese take their responsibility to aid the international community and their American ally.