US Supports Japan, Confronts China And Russia Over Island Disputes Rick Rozoff In a six-day span the US State Department has bluntly affirmed unequivocal backing for Japanese territorial claims against both Russia and China, even invoking a defense treaty provision that could lead to direct military intervention and war with the world’s most populous nation. Beginning a 13-day, seven-nation tour of the Asia-Pacific region on October 27 in Hawaii, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and met with Admiral Robert Willard, head of US Pacific Command — the largest overseas regional military command in the world — and held a joint press conference with new Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara in Honolulu. Clinton’s comments on the occasion underlined Washington’s increasingly assertive — and intrusive — role in East Asia and the western Pacific Ocean. They included: “This year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of our alliance, which was forged at the height of the Cold War. At the time, President Eisenhower described the indestructible partnership between our two countries, and time has proven him right. The world’s geopolitical landscape has shifted many times since then, but the partnership between the United States and Japan has endured….This alliance is the cornerstone of American strategic engagement in the Asia Pacific….. I’m grateful that we are the two largest contributors to reconstruction in Afghanistan.” [1] Responding …