Let the Nipponese Build An Enormous Robot Army

In the status quo, the Nipponese are constitutionally forbidden from spending more than a small percentage of their GDP on their military, which can only be used for "self defense." While this rule was appropriate when Douglas MacArthur had an American bayonnet at the emperor's throat, I think the United States has bigger concerns right now than whether or not the Nipponese will start getting restless again. In fact, some neo-imperial restlessness might do them some good, so the answer is simple: let the Nipponese build -- either for their own use, or for the United States (and we'll throw in NATO countries for good measure, but not all of them get the cool sociopathic hardware that the US gets) -- an enormous fucking robot army to kill some undesirable neighbors who happen to live near Japan.

Just as Sony teamed up with Ericsson to make superior mobile phones, there's no reason why Honda can't team up with, say, Lockheed Martin to create killer Asimo robots with lasers and rockets to kick the shit out of everybody, not to mention being programmed in Krav Maga and Muay Thai and Jiujitsu. But that's not enough. Asimo would just be a grunt, a ground soldier to make sure that nobody on the ground was fucking with their rightful overlords. But what if that weren't enough, and we don't even want the ground to exist in the first place? Simple. Do you remember those huge AT-AT walking robots from Star Wars? Well, imagine thousands of them marching through various areas in the Phillippines where the Asimos simply wouldn't be willing to root out insurgents. How easy it would be to mount a counterinsurgency when you possess the ability to eliminate the entire battleground. Just think of how wonderful the world would be with robot armies.

Also, this group can function as an endorsement for the Terminator as president.

Technically, Nippon needs America's permission to ammend their constitution. Write to your local congress people and ask them how they stand on Nippon arming itself -- and us -- with giant robot armies.

Taro Aso, we have a message for you: don't worry about your neighbors. Make them irrelevant. Then, if they make any threatening noises, you will know what to do.

Put the protection you currently have under the United States's nuclear umbrella to good use and build us (and yourselves) some fucking robots!

Anti-gravity struts would be a plus. We'll send you some of our friendly engineers at Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics to reeducate you on how to kill people

 

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Nipponese? I haven't heard that racial slur in quite some time.

 

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What year do you think this is? Just out of interest, I wanted to know because you don't really have a firm grasp on how things works out there now do you?

Firstly, Robots cost money, lots of money and lots of resources. If you hadn't noticed the current world finances haven't been too "trendy" and this is because people just don't have the money to lash out or the resources.

Secondly, Humans are cheap in comparison. Okay we need feeding, we ask for pay, but if we take a bullet we can potentially heal, if it's fatal then you just get some other John/Jane on the street to take that persons place. It's a way of keeping down the population without enforcing ridiculous controls.

While ready made and potentially combat efficient humans roam around, robots are seen as just a tool or toy, not a replacement.

Thirdly, think of the ludicrous nature of war and what would ensue if "Red Team Robots" fight against "Blue Team Robots". Extremely expensive and wasteful of resource, where war itself loses it's entire meaning, heck they might as well play a game of risk and making changes world wide based upon the outcome. Perhaps get people to raise their hand so a UN umpire can take them to sit out to one side until the next "Match".

I will agree that robots should be built (and they are by many countries) for using in hazardous and inhospitable environments, potentially taking over space exploration or aiding in mass production. There is also the potential of usages in a family environment etc. At least in these instances, the money and resources aren't being wasted and could lead to help more people than any one team.

 

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Mod note: Because I associate it with Imperial Japan, and even more darkly with the "Nip" racial slur of the 1940s- I went Googling about this loaded term. But since the official name of Japan is today Nippon Koku, I have trouble pronouncing "Nipponese" an outright epithet. But it's loaded enough to be easily misused and misunderstood.

Japanese avoid the use of "Nipponese" in general English reference to their nationality, so I encourage members to do the same here.

Edit: On second thought, I'm closing this thread. Although trade and strategic arrangements between the US and Japan are a valid and interesting subject, the way this thread was framed doesn't fly.

 

Your missing the point. He's being intentionally offensive by using that term. Who cares if there's a city named Nippon Koku. That's like saying I'm free to say the word N*gger because there's a Black country by the name of N*GER in Africa.

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OK thread closed.


A substantive discussion of US-Japanese trade and strategic arrangements is possible here, but we'll have to do it with the imperial and imperious dials turned way down from the way this thread started.