What the Hell?!? You don't want to see AA hubs in MSP and DTW?!?
I've never really been in favor of AA acquiring all of NW either, but plenty of internet posters assert that the Fifth Freedom rights (Japan) cannot be sold by NW - they somehow have to stay with the corporation.
My opinion is that those posters are full of it (after all, how do they think that UAL got their Fifth Freedom rights in the first place?) but if those rights have to stay with Northwest Airlines (the corporation), then I'm certain that AA's lawyers can figure out a way to structure the deal so that AA acquires NW (or vice versa) and that AA ends up with the valuable NW assets. B)