And stuck with a really lousy deal in the process. You think Obama has problems? Try being the current Prime Minister of Japan:
The Hatoyama government is neither radical nor anti-U.S.; nor is the man himself. But they seem determined to prove the old proverb that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. They started “negotiations” with neither a vision of the destination nor a road map to get there. I put the word “negotiations” in quotation marks because Washington has hardly been involved yet in serious discussions, except to repeat that while it thinks the 2006 agreement is the best plan, it is prepared to listen to suggestions.
Hatoyama has been ditherer-in-chief in internal discussions on the Japanese side. Rather than asserting himself as a leader with a plan or an orchestrator of smooth and sensible discussions, he has allowed a dangerous profusion of voices to sway the arguments, some with little concern for political, military or practical reality.
Inside the government the smaller parties have sought to dictate terms. The leader of one minor party, who has a tiny following, would like U.S. troops out of Okinawa and Japan altogether. Government members have spent time and money exploring Okinawa, Guam and other stretches of the Pacific to see where they could send the U.S. troops. They got no takers, with Guam pointedly saying that it could not accommodate more than the 8,000 marines it has agreed to take once the Futenma closure is complete.
Want it bad-get it bad.