[veidr]

Yeah, my point wasn't that democracies don't wage wars -- just that they can't ignore the will of the citizenry (unless they don't actually have a democracy).

As an American, the USA's bottomless well of rah-rah nationalism any time they trot out the troops has always been a mystery. But it's definitely there, and I don't think any other country since the USSR has come close to the USA in terms of attacking other countries.

I also disagree with the comment below about a war-weary USA having a tepid response to China seizing a minor uninhabited American island. I think public support for a military response would be huge, like always.

What I was saying was that in Japan specifically, that knee-jerk support would not be there.

[tlear]

Huge support would be a massive understatement. Half the congress would be for an all out ICBM strike and other half would be for levelling the country and sending it back to stone age.