Dispatching SDF to fulfill a promise to the U.S. is tantamount to committing a major crime -- Akahata editorial, February 4The Koizumi Cabinet defied public opposition and carried out a dispatch of the main unit of the Ground Self-Defense Force to Iraq in violation of the Constitution.
Prime Minister Koizumi, in his address at the dispatch ceremony, emphasized the significance of "the Japan-U.S. alliance and international cooperation".
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who had kept urging Japan to send the SDF to Iraq and stated, "Don't walk away" from the task and that supporting Iraq's reconstruction would not be like attending a "tea party," said, "Prime Minister Koizumi has set a new benchmark, not just in the dispatch of Japanese Self-Defense Forces to Iraq, but also in redefining Japan's role in the world."
The allegation that Iraq has "weapons of mass destruction" was used to justify the Iraq War. This pretext has been damaged by the top U.S. weapons inspector's testimony. The Bush administration, which launched the Iraq War on the false pretext, is increasingly isolated in the world.
Denying a United Nations role?
By "international cooperation"Koizumi means being subservient to the United States and cooperating in setting up a U.S.-centered "international order". The Koizumi Cabinet explains that the SDF dispatch to Iraq is significant primarily because it is in the interest of "the Japan-U.S. alliance and international cooperation". This shows the cabinet's true nature.
Confirming the definition that the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty is a global military alliance, Prime Minister Koizumi promised U.S. President Bush an SDF dispatch during a Japan-U.S. summit shortly after U.S. forces took control of Baghdad. Koizumi has since rushed to dispatch the SDF to fulfill the "promise he made to the Unites States".
The Japan-U.S. Security Treaty cannot be used to justify SDF dispatches to foreign countries at war because it is supposed to serve "Japan's defense".
It became evident that the Iraq War was unjustifiable and Prime Minister Koizumi was obliged to say, "Japan and the United States are allies but the United Nations cannot be Japan's ally. The U.N. doesn't protect Japan" (Lower House special committee meeting, January 27).
The assertion that peace and security can be defended by military alliances and not by the United Nations amounts to negating the United Nations Charter providing that international peace and security should be maintained by the efforts of the international community.
The prime minister tried to justify the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq by publicly denying the contemporary international order that bans the use of force by individual countries based on the lessons of the two world wars in the 20th century. This implies that the real motive of the prime minister is uncritically following the U.S. Bush administration's unilateral use of force that denies a U.N. role.
Armitage's call for Japan's role to be redefined through dispatching its troops to Iraq is a call on Japan to extend its military and other cooperation to the United States in carrying out its preemptive attack strategy.
The world in the 21st century must not tolerate cooperation in policies of hegemony that destroys the international order of peace. This is why so few countries in the world have their troops deployed in Iraq despite U.S. pressure and promise of benefit used as a bait.
Japan is subordinate to the United States and disregards its stated foreign policy that recognizes the importance of the United Nations.
Using strained assertions that the dispatch of the SDF to Iraq is part of Iraq's humanitarian reconstruction assistance and that it would help create local jobs, the government cannot continue to conceal the fact that the troops will assist in the war of aggression and the military occupation.
This is why the government had to establish the unconstitutional rules of engagement allowing troops to fire before being fired at.
Now is the time to turn back
The U.S. war of aggression against Vietnam and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan got bogged down in quagmires, and the invading forces were defeated. In the 21st century world, wars of aggression and lawless occupations are doomed to fail.
Will Japan, bound by its pledge to the United States, continue to send troops to Iraq?
Now is the time to stop the insanity. It will be too late to do so after the SDF causes deaths of Iraqi people or sees casualties themselves. (end)