So if ship A gives fuel to ship B and ship B already has fuel and mixes it in its tanks but then gives fuel to ship C and then ship C changes targets from one country to another and then shoots missles at that new country, does that mean ship A bears responsiblity for those missles that were fired or what … exactly? Right.
Posted by Matt Dioguardi on October 14th, 2007
Minshuto: SDF fueled core ship in Iraq war
Opposition Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) intensified the pressure on the government Thursday, saying a Maritime Self-Defense Force vessel directly refueled a U.S. destroyer used in the war in Iraq. …
If the government was not behaving responsibly here, then certainly this needs to be brought to light. However, it’s an unenviable task. I mean you have to have make arguments like this:
According to government officials, the MSDF refueling vessel Tokiwa provided about 800,000 gallons of fuel to the U.S. military tanker Pecos on Feb. 25, 2003. After that, the Tokiwa directly provided the Paul Hamilton with about 200,000 gallons of fuel. … The Paul Hamilton is said to have launched at least 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles during the Iraq war, the most by any U.S. Navy ship.
You know, didn’t the tanker Pecos perhaps already have some fuel. And if the fuel it had was mixed the fuel it got, which fuel did the Paul Hamilton get? Maybe they should have zapped the Japanese fuel with some kind of radioactive isotope so they could track it? Was their a fuel accountant on board?
Again, I think if the law was not being followed correctly, it should be brought to light. But at least in a superficial way, this all seems … I don’t know … just so lame. It’s hard to understand how this will help the DPJ, unless they come across a real smoking gun.
As far as Ozawa, if his position is that it’s okay to use force overseas, so long as the SDF carries a UN flag, then I strongly disagree with his position. I was at first under the impression he only wanted boots on the ground to help in the rebuilding process. As soon as I have time, I really want to look more deeply into this.