Lessons from Japan about war and peace

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/23/lessons-from-japan-about-war-and-peace

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Article 9 of the Japanese constitution (Japanese MPs pass bills ending ban on troops fighting abroad, 17 July) is not best described as pacifist; it is the “Peace (Heiwa) constitution”. The first line states that: “Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people for ever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.” If only a few more countries would adopt such a position. If only the reactionary Abe administration would leave it alone.Richard LittleField Broughton, Cumbria

• Senator John McCain (Report, 20 July) was not a war hero in 1967 when he bombed a power plant in Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, during an unnecessary trillion dollar war which resulted in 60,000 US and 2 million Vietnamese deaths. How would we feel about a pilot from a faraway superpower bombing a power plant in Washington DC? McCain was not a war hero in 2003 when he urged Bush to invade Iraq, leading to an unnecessary $4tn war which resulted in 3,527 US and 500,000 Iraqi deaths; in April 2007, when he sang “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran”; and in September 2013, when he urged Obama to bomb Syria (likely to have resulted in Isis overrunning all of Syria). Currently McCain is far from being a war hero when he denounces Obama’s and our European allies’ historic deal with Iran which, in exchange for Iran obtaining sanctions relief, prevents Iran from having a uranium and a plutonium path to create nuclear weapons and allows unprecedented verification access for international inspectors.Mitchell RubinPhoenix, Arizona, USA