Shii: Let's focus our effort on not letting SDF go

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on July 26 published a statement following the enactment of the bill allowing the Self-Defense Forces to be sent to Iraq:

The law to send the SDF to Iraq has been railroaded through, but our struggle does not end. Practical preparations are needed before SDF troops leave for Iraq and struggle is essential to stop that from happening.

This law is based on layers of false assumptions. If SDF troops are dispatched in disregard of the opposition, serious contradictions will inevitably follow. Iraq is now in a state of guerrilla war. Putting the SDF troops in such a situation will without doubt lead to using force in violation of the Constitution.

The allegations about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were the 'reason' for U.S. and British to go to war on Iraq and for the Japanese government to support the war, but such weapons have not been unearthed to date. The Iraq war has revealed itself to be even more lawless and the military occupation even more illegitimate than before.

If Japan actually sends SDF troops to Iraq, it means that Japan will assist in the lawless and unjust military occupation by the United States and Britain.

The JCP will continue to do all it can inside and outside of parliament to prevent the SDF from being dispatched in violation of the Constitution. (end)