War of aggression has opened 'hell's gate' -- Akahata editorial, November 1The United Nations has decided to pull out its staff from Iraq. U.N. officials have explained that they would not return before public order is restored, but no one can tell when that may happen.
The Red Cross and other humanitarian aid agencies are planning to reduce their presence.
In Iraq under military occupation, ambushes and bombings will not end and hostility is intensifying between U.S. forces and local armed forces.
U.S. President George W. Bush says Iraq is a dangerous place, but tells Japan not to hesitate to send troops.
The Koizumi Cabinet states that it will stay the course and send the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq. Withholding details of the dispatch plan from the general public to avoid being criticized in the general election, the government is hastening preparations for the SDF's departure.
A setback for Bush administration
The United Nations secretary general ordered the pullout in defiance of the U.S. secretary of state's request not to.
The Washington Post reported that the U.N. decision represents a setback for the U.S. Bush administration. It is because the Bush administration's attempt to use U.N. activities in Iraq to justify the war has failed.
The U.N. secretary general pointed out that resistance will last as long as the occupation forces stay, and the U.N. withdrawal shows us that the military occupation will further drag out the war and incapacitate U.N. reconstruction and humanitarian aid efforts.
To get U.N.-led reconstruction and humanitarian aid activities in Iraq on the right track, it is necessary for the U.S. forces to immediately withdraw and return sovereign rights to the people of Iraq.
Despite these facts concerning Iraq, the Koizumi Cabinet insists on sending the SDF to Iraq.
Basically repeating the U.S. president's speech, Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro states that Japan will play into terrorists' hands if it hesitates sending troops because the alleged Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, over which the war was waged, were not found.
By saying this, Koizumi tries to paint the picture of present Iraq upside down and closes his eyes to what's really going on in Iraq: the brutal U.S. -British attacks for mass destruction of Iraq and the occupation forces' failure to fulfill their duty to help stabilize the living conditions of the Iraqi people have roused hatred and resistance and increased the possibility for acts of terrorism.
If the U.S. president is correct in defining the attackers against the U.S. forces in Iraq as terrorists, he should recognize that the lawless war and occupation are the source of the attacks.
The reality shows that war nurtures terrorists instead of eliminating them.
The real point here is the illegality of the U.S. war of aggression. Sending the Self-Defense forces to Iraq to assist U.S. forces in the continued occupation of Iraq has nothing to do with helping in Iraq's reconstruction or extending humanitarian assistance. It will only lengthen the occupation and further terrorist responses. Sending the SDF not only runs counter to the Constitution, which bans the threat and use of force; it is tantamount to assisting in the lawless war.
The general election must be a verdict on the ruling parties, including the Liberal Democratic and the Komei parties, which cling to the wish in sending the SDF.
The Democratic Party of Japan's secretary general stated that it would endorse dispatching the SDF to Iraq if a U.N. resolution is adopted.
In contrast, the Japanese Communist Party has warned over and over again from the early stages of planning of the possible consequence of a war on Iraq.
JCP position corroborated
It was only a year ago that JCP Chair Shii Kazuo used a one-on-one debate with Prime Minister Koizumi to let him know the Middle East countries' concern that a war will "open hell's gate", and demanded that Japan increase diplomatic efforts instead of supporting a war.
The events that have transpired have proven that the JCP's call was accurate.
If Japan dispatches the SDF to Iraq, Japan also will be dragged into the hell, far from just a single matter of helping the U.S. in opening the hell's gate.
Let's increase public opposition to dispatching SDF troops to Iraq and achieve a major JCP advance in the general election. This is the surest way to avert the outrageous plan to dispatch the SDF to Iraq. (end)