Pelosi Scores Big Win In House

Not that the basic issue isn't wasn't important fifty years ago, but a resolution calling on John Murtha to apologize for maligning our forces would be a bit more timely. Or, they could condemn Chavez for his media crackdown, Castro for his tyranny, or address any number of other issues around the world. But why do that when you can criticize an ally that has re-invented itself so successfully around democracy and capitalism post WW II? These people cost us far too much money for this crap.

House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House made a “strong statement in support of human rights.

“More than 50 years later, the Japanese government has still not issued a clear apology to the “comfort women.’” she said.

“This is disappointing because Japan is a critical ally of the United States and a leading international voice on issues such as global warming and assistance to the poorest people in the world.”

WASHINGTON - The US House of Representatives Monday rebuked US ally Japan and called for an apology for the sexual slavery inflicted by its wartime military on 200,000 Asian “comfort women."

In a resolution passed by a voice vote, lawmakers called on the Tokyo government to make an “unambiguous apology” for the coercion of women into army brothels during the 1930s and World War II.

The Japanese government has insisted it has already apologized for the treatment of the women and given no sign that it intends to do so again.

Backers of the resolution immediately hailed it as sending an important message to Japan about the need to make further amends on an episode that still scars, generations after the war.

Comments

[Fred Beloit]

"Backers of the resolution immediately hailed it as sending an important message to Japan about the need to make further amends on an episode that still scars, generations after the war."
Wow, it still "scars" after 50 years. Oh the humanity! But wait a second. I don't recall that Guillaume le Batard [William the Bastard (Conquerer)] a Normandy Frenchy and his countrymen have ever apologized to the Brits for conquering Britain in 1066. Say, how do they get that way?

[Terry Gain]

Let me know when Pelosi apologizes for kissing up to Boy Assad or The Embarrassment-In-Chief for calling the U.S. a pariah.

[templar knight]

What a completely stupid, assinine effort this was. Japan has already apologized for this, and frankly, it would be very much like the Diet passing a resolution calling for the US to apologize for slavery in the CSA. What a stupid, small-minded little woman we have leading the House. I'm ashamed.

[seekeronos]

Indeed! I demand an apology from the representatives of what would today be French Normandy:

The French départements of Seine-Maritime, Eure, Orne, Calvados, and Manche must rectify the wicked conduct of their ancestral leader, Guilaume le Batard, and apologize to the British Crown for raping and pillaging and using young Anglo-Saxon lasses to sate the lusts of the Norman armed men.

Reparations are due, I say, reparations are due!!

And while we are at it, those Ostrogoths better fess up some denarii for sacking Rome, too!

[IslamoLlama]

Hey, now. If you don't condemn it, you must condone it, right? You guys have been running with that logic since Al-Jazera first aired. And don't get me started on all those times Democrats failed to call Michael Moore or George Soros onto the carpet.

What baffles me, as usual, is that Republicans are once again obstructing for the sake of obstructing. It's nice to know that despite all the tough talk, they clearly aren't as vehemently against slavery as they would have their more moderate constituency believe.

[templar knight]

Does anyone, even potheads like Islamo, think this was a good idea? I didn't even see the nutroots demanding such a thing. Does anyone know where the idea came from to begin with? But I have been on vacation for the past 10 days, so maybe I missed something.

[buzz]

"You guys have been running with that logic since Al-Jazera first aired."

Oh right. "you guys". Which guys might those be? Just Republican in general?

"Hey, now. If you don't condemn it, you must condone it, right?"
Absolutely. Well done. You weed thru all the filler crap and got straight to the argument here. I didnt see anything about the (insert battle/war/poor treatment/enslavement/anything bad) in this article either, so quite clearly it is condoned here and we should push the US House, now that they have solved all the domestic problems, to pass a resolution to send a message.

"What baffles me, as usual, is that Republicans are once again obstructing for the sake of obstructing. It's nice to know that despite all the tough talk, they clearly aren't as vehemently against slavery as they would have their more moderate constituency believe."

I would snark on that, but it doesnt make any sense. Have you been asleep the previous 6 years? Talk about obstructing to be obstructing. If, by chance, you are talking about obstructing this stupid resolution, I would hope so. If my representative is making $140K to send a message to the world that we are against countries taking over other countries and using their women as prostitutes.....Hey, most everyone already knows that. The things about "clearly aren't as vehemently against slavery......" No idea what that is supposed to mean. Unless that is the obligatory Republican=raciest. Which is just idiotic. Still, I sense you are from the left so.......I guess it now makes sense. Never mind.

[bloodrage bob]

while we're deploring historical atrocities & such, does anyone know if the (democrat-controlled) congress of 1934 ever passed a resolution condemning stalin for his genocide in the ukraine? the one where he starved 7 million people - more than the holocaust - to death? the one the asshole 'NY times' reporter (redundancy, i know) won a pulitzer for denying ever happened?

no? they didn't do that? odd .... did they pass a resolution like that in 1984? 50 years later?

no?

did they pass a resolution condemning mao's little ego-trip 'the great leap forward', which resulted in 20 million dead? (triple the dead of the holocaust)
or the subsequent 'cultural revolution', which knocked off another 30 million? (500% holocaust dead)

no? *just* the japanese (who really are contemptible people, it must be admitted. [a historical fact not taught in schools today is the existence & mission of 'unit 731'] but at least when they go around murdering/enslaving millions, they don't do it *to their own people*) just the japs must be held accountable for their atrocities?

are the ukrainian holocaust and the chinese "decade of blood" even *taught* in schools today? no? because the liberals don't wish to embarrass their fellow leftists stalin & mao? what baffles me,as usual, is the democrat insistence on viewing everything, even state-sponsored genocides, through the prism of politics. if the offending government happened to be leftist/statist in any way ... then it's as if it didn't happen. what contemptible swine they truly are, huh?

[seekeronos]

"---

no? *just* the japanese (who really are contemptible people, it must be admitted. [a historical fact not taught in schools today is the existence & mission of 'unit 731'] but at least when they go around murdering/enslaving millions, they don't do it *to their own people*) just the japs must be held accountable for their atrocities?

---"

I disagree with that. The Japanese themselves aren't contemptible (or at least, no less so than we are, or the Muzzies, or any other man or woman under God's eyes).

Rather, it was the militarist clique, and the mindless obedience to "the will of the god-man emperor" that drove a number of people to such extremism and hateful acts, and demon-inspired thought (such as Unit 731) which was loosed upon Asia.

Funny thing is... both Tojo and Yamashita took the hangman's noose and still thought that they had done their patriotic duty. And for the average Japanese person of that time, it may well have been a matter of seeing that Japan had access to the natural resources that the ABCD (America, Britain, China, and the Dutch) nations had conspired to choke off from Japan.

[bloodrage bob]

odd that we don't read a whole lot of calls to exonerate the germans for *their* contemptible behavior in ww2. odd we don't see *germany's* atrocities being blamed on a tiny "militarist clique". no, germany and the entire german populace was forced to eat an entire boatload of shit - and rightly so - for their actions in the war.

japan, OTOH, is another matter. japan's "apologies" for their wartime actions are a study in clintonian mealymouthedness. ("mistakes were made") they've never officially owned up to their atrocities - from nanking to unit 731 to the official whoring out of the korean women; ans so much more - and i don't think we can blame all THAT on that "military clique" that enjoyed such vast & unanimous support. why are the japanese people somehow 'not contemptible' just because they were exhibiting "mindless obedience to the emporer"? that's what's known as the "i vas only followink orders" excuse.

it IS interesting you ascribe japan's wartime actions & atrocities as japan "responding to the ABCD *conspiracy* against them", seek. can we then excuse germany's actions as a "perhaps justifiable reaction to the sinister jewish/bloshevik conspiracy"? no? so it's perfectly understandable when *japan* starts a war - for reasons no more political than robbing a bank - but it's not ok when others do it?

lastly: has japan *ever* prosecuted, or even *published information about* members of unit 731? is that unit's existence & mission & methodology even taught in japanese schools? no? why might that be? german schoolkids know all about the ss, and the death camps. yet the japs ... not so much. they don't even mention "pearl harbor" in japanese history textbooks. why might that be?