First anniversary of Iraq War -- Akahata editorial, March 13 (abridged)

March 20 is the first anniversary of the U.S. attack on Iraq.

During the past year, it has become clearer that the U.S. war on Iraq was a war of aggression without any "justification".

Even the chief U.S. weapons inspector has stated that the U.S. allegation about the "threat of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction" was false. As Iraq has got bogged down in a quagmire, the U.S. occupation is nothing less than rule by the aggressor.

Defend rules for peace

In international politics, it is now clear that the call for the "defense of the United Nations Charter" represents the majority international opinion.

Nearly 70 percent of the world's nations, including France, Germany, and Russia, which are part of the G8 Group, non-aligned nations, Islamic nations, and China, have expressed their opposition to the war and are championing the defense of the U.N. Charter. They are also demanding that the United Nations should be in the center of humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Iraq.

It is 10 months since U.S. President George W. Bush declared that the Iraq war was over. However, international anti-war opinion and actions against the war are persistent.

March 20 is a Day of Global Action. It was called for last year by U.S. peace organizations. In January, this call was relaunched by participants in the World Social Forum in Munbai, India, which was attended by more than 100,000 people from more than 130 countries.

In Japan, preparations are underway for the day of one-million people's action throughout the country, including a rally at Shiba Park in Tokyo under the slogan: "No SDF dispatch to Iraq! Occupation forces must withdraw from Iraq! Stop adverse revision of the Constitution! Defend Article 9!"

Various peace campaigns against the outrageous U.S. actions are expanding their solidarity and common action in opposition to U.S. unilateralism.

In Japan, popular movements since the end of WWII have established the principles of joint action: action on points of agreement; equality; and exclusion of obstructionists. These principles have been reaffirmed through recent joint actions organized by the Central Action Committee for Abrogation of the Security Treaty, the People's Movement for Cuts in Military Expenditure and Improvement of Living Conditions, Welfare and Education, and the Liaison Council of 20 Trade Unions Related to Ground, Sea, and Air Transport, as well as public figures, including artists, religious leaders, and scholars.

This has been an important lesson for the recent international movement.

The World Social Forum, which was started to oppose the negative effects of neo-liberal globalization led by the U.S. and to call for a fair international economic order, has adopted the peace movement as a major task since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. It played positive roles in realizing the anti-Iraq war demonstration in Florence with 1 million people participating (November, 2002, in Italy) and the international day of action reportedly participated in by 15 million people (February 15, 2003).

Efforts to defend unity

Diversity is often referred to as a source of strength. The anti-war movement has promoted its cooperation with various movements and become one of the important forces to oppose U.S. unilateralism, working to create a peaceful 21st-century world.

It is also important that efforts to maintain the unity as well as such diversity have achieved an even larger scale of anti-war movements.

Concerted actions in Europe have successfully excluded "ultra leftists" in defiance of the common ground for peace in opposition to the Iraq War.

This represents a significant development of the European movements and this lesson should be shared by the movements in countries of other nations.

The movement in Japan with its Article 9 of the Constitution has a greater role to play in this effort. (end)