Stop the cycle of lawless wars and terrorism -- Akahata editorial, September 10September 11 marks the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.
While reconstruction is under way at the site of the World Trade Center, the U.S. Bush administration's war in Afghanistan and Iraq in retaliation for terrorism are getting bogged down in a quagmire and terrorist attacks are prevalent in Iraq, Indonesia, and many other parts of the world.
War is not the answer
Terrorism is a criminal act and cannot be justified by any political view or religious belief. Terrorism should be eradicated by the force of unity of the international community and perpetrators must be arrested and brought to justice.
However, the U.S. wars in the last two years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks have hampered the international community's concerted efforts to do away with terrorism. Far from capturing terrorist criminals, war has helped terrorism proliferate throughout the world.
The United States waged a "retaliatory" war on Afghanistan based on the allegations that Afghanistan's Taliban regime was harboring the terrorist group Al Qaeda. The war brought down the Taliban regime, but the United States prosecuted the war without any rationale in light of international law and without seeking any form of justice.
What was worse, the United States attacked Iraq and overthrew the Saddam Hussein regime based on the allegations that Iraq maintained weapons of mass destruction without proving that Iraq is linked with the terrorists. The United States started the illegal war of aggression without U.N. approval.
The two wars have devastated the land and living conditions of people of Afghanistan and Iraq, without capturing the terrorist suspects. On the contrary, these wars have incubated further hotbeds of terrorism. The recent terrorist attacks on the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad and on an Islamic Shiite mosque are clear examples of retaliation.
The stark reality two years after 9/11 shows that wars cannot wipe out terrorism but further encourage it.
In the international community, it is illegal for a country to attack another even though it has not been attacked. It is also illegal to use military force without U.S. authorization. Lawless wars only compromise the great cause of a fight against all forms of terrorism.
World politics in the last two years shows that the outrageous U.S. quest for global hegemony has been rejected by the international community. With the Iraq War getting bogged down in a quagmire, the U.S. Bush government is increasingly isolated from the international community and domestically, it is experiencing broad public criticism.
These two years also have seen the emergence of a huge world current calling for compliance with international rules for peace under the United Nations Charter. In order to develop international solidarity and cooperation in the effort to eliminate terrorism, we must make this current wider and deeper.
End subservience to the U.S.
However, Japan's Koizumi government in the last two years has devoted itself to do everything in support of the lawless U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Now that the lawless war has reached an impasse with the U.S. getting more isolate than ever, the failure of the Japanese government is also evident.
Japan must immediately stop supporting the lawless U.S. wars. It should end deployment of Self-Defense Forces units to the Indian Ocean and Iraq. (end)