Ruling coalition forcibly enact SDF dispatching bill

The ruling coalition parties on July 26 used their force of majority to have the bill to dispatch the SDF to assist in the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq passed through the House of Councilors and enacted.

The law enables the government to send the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq, where combat still goes on, ostensibly to provide humanitarian aid for the Iraqi people and logistical support for U.S. forces trying to restore security.

Don't forget lessons of history

At a House of Councilors Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting on July 25, Japanese Communist Party member Yoshioka Yoshinori stated, "Starting from a conspiracy, the Iraq war is getting bogged down in a quagmire. Even the prime minister cannot say there is a safe area in Iraq. The SDF cannot be sent to such an area."

Recalling that, when the Japanese Army cooked up the Manchurian Incident to start a war of aggression in China in 1931, all cabinet members became "accomplices of silence" by approving the incident even though they knew it was a conspiracy. Yoshioka stressed that the government must not offer "cooperation of silence" in the Iraq war. (end)