Will SDF remain to engage in combat under U.S. command over MNF? -- Akahata editorial, June 10

Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro made it clear to U.S. President George W. Bush that the Japanese Self-Defense Forces deployed in Iraq will take part in the multinational force.

In the Japan-U.S. summit talks, the U.S. president said that Japan is an important ally. The Japanese prime minister responded to this by pledging SDF participation in the MNF, referring to the Iraq question in connection with the Japan-U.S. alliance in the global context.

With this, Koizumi has taken a further step toward taking part in the war of aggression as a continuation of the May 2003 summit talks in which Japan confirmed the Japan-U.S. alliance as a military alliance on a global scale and promised to dispatch the SDF to Iraq.

U.S. to command whole MNF

The U.S.-led occupation forces will change its name to the MNF.

The U.S. forces are fighting every day against Iraqi militias. The renamed MNF will continue to carry out mop-up operations and other military actions under U.S. command.

United Nations Security Council resolution 1546 states that the MNF will be "under unified command" and that in carrying out actions, it will take note of the U.S. Secretary of State's letter making it clear that MNF action will include combat operations against Iraqi militias.

The SDF will not be able to take part in these MNF missions without violating the Constitution that strictly prohibits the threat or use of force, whether a U.N. resolution is in place or not.

Such an action also contradicts what the government has said: It is unconstitutional for the SDF to take part in a U.N. force carrying out activities with objectives and missions that involve the use of force.

The vice minister of the Defense Agency said, "The SDF will not come under the command of the U.S. forces or of other countries, and the Cabinet Legislation Bureau director general said, "The participation will be restricted to missions that do not involve the use of force." These arguments are nonsensical.

Deploying the armed SDF in another country's territory so that it will act independently of Japanese command is an act of aggression in violation of the country's sovereign rights.

Given the multinational force being tasked to engage in mop-up operations ostensively to "maintain public order", any SDF action as part of the multinational force will mean taking part in activities using force under U.S. command.

In the first place, the Iraq War is a war of aggression the U.S. Bush Administration launched against Iraq as the first application of its preemptive attack strategy. This is why the Iraqi people are resisting the occupation forces, adding to the intensity of the war.

In this regard, we must take a hard look at the danger that if the SDF participate in the multinational force, Japan may get bogged down in a quagmire along with the U.S. forces.

It is particularly serious for the prime minister to say that the SDF will participate in the multinational force in the interest of the Japan-U.S. military alliance.

This statement will pave the way for Japan to take another dangerous step toward remaking Japan into a troop dispatching nation that takes part in U.S.-led wars around the world. This is a path for Japan's isolation from the international community because it will close the way for Japan's peaceful co-existence with the peoples of the world under the constitutional principles of peace.

Koizumi's new promise clearly overrides the previous government statements on this question. It will drive Japan into a decisively wrong direction. The Diet must make a thorough investigation into the matter together with other promises the prime minister has made to the U.S.

SDF must withdraw

Peoples of Iraq and other Arab countries as well as the rest of the world are opposing the atrocious U.S. war and calling for the immediate withdrawal of the U.S.-led occupation forces from Iraq.

If the SDF continue to stay in Iraq and extend further support to the U.S. forces, it will renege on the wishes of the world's people. Note that the SDF presence in Iraq itself has been harming and destroying the friendship between Japan and Arab's nations and peoples.

There is no alternative for the SDF but to immediately withdraw from Iraq.

This is the only way that will lead to the earliest possible end to the lawless war. This is the sole way toward establishing a genuine peace and friendship between the entire peoples of the world based on the U.N. Charter. (end)