Japanese Premier Abe Shinzo has been insisting he wants Japan to be more aggressive military for years now. Today, he couched that policy as a reaction to the recent deaths of a pair of Japanese hostages at the hands of ISIS.

The deaths of the hostages have shocked Japan, and Abe seems to be hoping to parlay that into a further abandonment of their pacifist constitution in favor of joining US overseas adventures.

Long-time opponents to Abe’s rearmament warn that any overseas operations need to be exclusively humanitarian, fearing that more aggression would just get more people killed.

Abe had insisted he would do anything necessary to secure the release of the hostages, but spurned an ISIS call to pay a $200 million ransom, and was unable to get Jordan to trade prisoners with them.