Red blogule to Japan - No UN Council seat for an Unrepentant Nation

Japan shouldn't be offered a UN Council seat before they fully apologize for their past and moreover for their unacceptable present continuously devoted to revisionism (Dokdo, Yasukuni Shrine, Comfort Women, history textbooks, even archaeological hoaxes...).
Germany showed the way and can be proud of it. This is worthy of a great nation and a great people, both responsible and respectable.
Japan is simply wrong : just like Bush, Junichiro Koizumi keeps sending the wrong messages at the wrong places and the wrong moments. In order to please hardliners and prevent them from losing face he doesn't realise he actually has his whole country lose face in front of History and the rest of the world. Humility is their only way out of utter humiliation, but this is too disturbing a concept for such a stubborn bunch of fanatics.
I fully support the opposition to a permanent seat for Japan at the UN Council : the world should seize this opportunity and demand a true act of contrition (without the religious flavor, of course), which would be a genuine act of grandeur. Stephane MOT

Red blogule to the Contra-terrorism squad

Much has been said about John Negroponte's past in the troubled Contra scandal, involving torture in Honduras and sponsoring terrorist activities. Well this man should know about intelligence, and the former Honduras, UN and Iraq ambassador may have changed. Everybody has a right to make mistakes, but there is a pattern : strangely enough, 3 other former Contra men have been promoted at key positions since last november elections :

• John Poindexter : the new Information Awareness Office Director at the Pentagon lied to the Congress and was convicted several times
• Elliot Abrams : this man pleaded guilty to have not disclosed information about the scandal. Five years later Bush I forgave him and now Bush II appoints him head of his Middle East task force
• Otto Reich : from the State Department, Reich would be involved in illegal pro-Contra propaganda. He's now working for the Western Hemisphere Affairs.

So in this lovely Administration, the head of justice promotes torture and the people in charge of counter-terrorism and diplomacy used to sponsor terror and torture. You know what you've got to do if you want to be promoted. Just stick to the stick.