[Newspoetry] Japan bombs New Mexico (fwd)

[gillespie william k]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 10:26:08 -0600 (CST)
From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu>
To: William Gillespie <gillespi at staff.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Japan bombs New Mexico (fwd)


The following is a translation of last night's speech by the Prime
Minister of Japan, explaining why the Japanese air force bombed military
bases and command-and-control installations in the American Southwest: 

"My fellow citizens: 
	Today our armed forces joined our allies in the Pacific Rim
Organization for National Treaty Observance in air strikes against
American forces responsible for the brutality in New Mexico.  We have
acted with resolve for several reasons. 
	We act to protect thousands of innocent people in New Mexico from
a mounting military offensive by the `border patrol.' We act to defuse a
powder keg at the heart of North America that has exploded twice before in
the last century and a half with catastrophic results, when the US invaded
Mexico in 1846 and 1916.  We act to stand united with our allies for
peace.  By acting now, we are upholding our values, protecting our
interests, and advancing the cause of peace. 
	Tonight I want to speak with you about the tragedy in New Mexico
and why it matters to Japan that we work with our allies to end it. 
	First, let me explain what it is we are responding to.  New Mexico
is a state of the United States, in the middle of southwestern North
America, about 1500 miles west of Cuba -- that's less than the distance
from Hokkaido to Okinawa -- and only about 1000 miles north of Mexico
City.  Its people are mostly ethnic Latino and mostly Catholic. 
	In recent years America's leader, Bill Clinton, the same leader
who started the wars in Iraq and Colombia and attacked Sudan and
Afghanistan in the last decade, increased the authority of the federal
secret police, the `INS'; Mexicans are denied their right to speak their
language, run their schools, shape their daily lives.  For years, Latinos
struggled peacefully to get their rights back.  When President Clinton
sent his troops and police to crush them, the struggle grew violent. 
	The American leaders refuse even to discuss key elements of the
Japanese peace proposal.  America has stationed Marines along the border
in preparation for a major offensive.  We've seen innocent people taken
from their homes, forced to kneel in the dirt and sprayed with bullets;
Mexican men dragged from their families, fathers and sons together lined
up and shot in cold blood.  This is not war in the traditional sense.  It
is an attack by armored vehicles and high-tech weapons on a largely
defenseless people whose leaders speak only of peace. 
	Ending this tragedy is a moral imperative.  It is also important
to Japan's national interests.  Take a look at the map.  New Mexico is a
small place, but it sits on a major fault line between North America,
Latin America, and the Pacific, at the meeting place of Catholicism and
both the liberal and evangelical branches of Protestantism.  To the South
are our allies, Peru (whose president is of Japanese descent) and
Venezuela (which produces oil); to the north our increasingly important
trading partner, Canada. 
	And all around New Mexico there are other states struggling with
their own economic and political challenges, states that could be
overwhelmed by a large new wave of refugees from New Mexico -- California,
Texas, Arizona.  All the ingredients for a major war are there: Ancient
grievances, struggling democracies, and in the center of it all, a
president in America of highly questionable personal character who has
done nothing since the Cold War ended but start new wars and pour gasoline
on the flames of ethnic and religious division. 
	In neighboring Guatemala President Clinton recently acknowledged
that American support for torture and murder cost 200,000 lives.  Earlier,
World War II engulfed the Pacific.  In both wars, the world was slow to
recognize the dangers, and Japan held back from entering these conflicts. 
Just imagine if leaders back then had acted wisely and early enough.  How
many lives could have been saved?  How many Japanese would not have had to
die? 
	We learned some of the same lessons in Nicaragua and El Salvador a
decade ago.  The world did not act early enough to stop those wars,
either.  And let's not forget what happened: Innocent people herded into
concentration camps; children gunned down by snipers on their way to
school; soccer fields and parks turned into cemeteries; a quarter of a
million people killed not because of anything they had done but because of
who they were.  Two million Central Americans became refugees. 
	This was genocide in the heart of the Americas, not in 1945 but in
1985, not in some grainy newsreel from our parents' and grandparents'
time, but in our own time, testing our humanity and our resolve. 
	At the time, many people believed nothing could be done to end the
bloodshed in Central America, They said, `Well, that's just the way those
people in the Americas are.' But when we and our allies in the UN joined
with courageous Central Americans to stand up to the aggressors, we helped
end the wars.  We learned that in the Americas inaction in the face of
brutality simply invites more brutality, but firmness can stop armies and
save lives.  We must apply that lesson in New Mexico, before what happened
in Central America happens there too. 
	Today we and our PRONTO allies agreed to do what we must do to
restore the peace.  Our mission is clear: to demonstrate the seriousness
of PRONTO's purpose so that the American leaders understand the imperative
of reversing course; to deter an even bloodier offensive against innocent
civilians in New Mexico; and if necessary, to seriously damage the
American military's capacity to harm the people of New Mexico.  In short,
if President Clinton will not make peace, we will limit his ability to
make war. 
	Now, I want to be clear with you, there are risks in this military
action -- risk to our pilots and the people on the ground.  America's air
defenses are strong.  It could decide to intensify its assault on New
Mexico or to seek to harm us or our allies elsewhere.  If it does, we will
deliver a forceful response.  Hopefully Mr. Clinton will realize his
present course is self-destructive and unsustainable. 
	If he decides to accept our peace proposal and demilitarize New
Mexico, PRONTO has agreed to help to implement it with a peacekeeping
force.  If PRONTO is invited to do so, our troops should take part in that
mission to keep the peace.  But I do not intend to put our troops in New
Mexico to fight a war. 
	Do our interests in New Mexico justify the dangers to our armed
forces? I thought long and hard about that question.  I am convinced that
the dangers of acting are far outweighed by the dangers of not acting --
dangers to defenseless people and to our national interests.  If we and
our allies were to allow this war to continue with no response, President
Clinton would read our hesitation as a license to kill.  There would be
many more massacres -- tens of thousands more refugees, more victims
crying out for revenge.  Right now our firmness is the only hope the
people of New Mexico have to be able to live in their own country without
having to fear for their own lives. 
	Imagine what would happen if we and our allies decided just to
look the other way as these people were massacred on PRONTO's doorstep. 
That would discredit PRONTO, the cornerstone on which our Pacific security
rests.
	We must also remember that this is a conflict with no natural
national boundaries.  Let me ask you to look again at a map.  The arrows
show the movement of refugees -- north, east, and west.  Already this
movement is threatening the unstable democracy in Texas, which has its own
Mexican minority and an Indian minority.  Already American forces have
made forays into Mexico, from which New Mexicans have drawn support. 
Mexico has a Mayan minority.  Let a fire burn here in this area, and the
flames will spread.  Eventually key Japanese allies could be drawn into a
wider conflict, which we would be forced to confront later only at far
greater risk and greater cost. 
	I have a responsibility as Prime Minister to deal with problems
such as this before they do permanent harm to out national interests.
Japan has a responsibility to stand with our allies when they are trying
to save innocent lives and preserve peace, freedom, and stability in North
America.  That is what we are doing in New Mexico. 
	If we have learned anything form the century drawing to a close,
it is that if Japan is going to be prosperous and secure we need a North
America that is prosperous, secure, united, and free.  We need a North
America that is coming together, not falling apart, a North America that
shares our values and shares the burdens of leadership.  That is the
foundation on which the security or our children will depend.  That is why
I have supported NAFTA and the economic unification of North America.
	Now, what are the challenges to that vision of a peaceful, secure,
united, stable North America? The challenge of strengthening a three-way
partnership with the EU, that despite our disagreements is a constructive
partner in the work of building peace.  The challenge of resolving the
tension between Latin and indigenous peoples, and building bridges with
the Christian world.  And finally the challenge of ending instability in
the United States so that these bitter ethnic problems are resolved by the
force of argument, not the force of arms, so that future generations of
Japanese do not have to cross the Pacific to fight another terrible war.
It is this challenge that we and our allies are facing in New Mexico. That
is why we have acted now, because we care about saving innocent lives,
because we have an interest in avoiding an even crueler and costlier war,
and because our children need and deserve a peaceful, stable, free North
America.
	Our thoughts and prayers tonight must be with the men and women of
our armed forces who are undertaking this mission for the sake of our
values and our children's future.  May God bless them, and may God bless
Japan."

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