Senators urge Obama to freeze Asian base overhaul: "Influential senators called Wednesday on the United States to freeze plans to relocate military bases in Japan and South Korea, describing the moves as politically unfeasible and too costly.
The three senators -- John McCain, Carl Levin and Jim Webb -- also suggested that Japan needed to focus on rebuilding from its massive earthquake and tsunami disaster rather than wade into a political quagmire.
The base realignment plans "are unrealistic, unworkable and unaffordable," the senators said in a joint statement.
The appeal undercuts an effort by President Barack Obama's administration to press Japan to honor a 2006 plan under which the Futenma base -- a long source of tension as it lies in a crowded part of Okinawa -- would move to a quiet patch on the same island."
