 Shii: U.S. has lost major justification for going to war The United States Iraq Survey Group (ISG) headed by Charles Duelfer, special adviser to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), on October 6 published a report concluding that Iraq had not developed or stockpiled weapons of mass destruction (WMD) at the time when the U.S. started the war against Iraq in March 2003. In a published comment on October 7, Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Shii Kazuo stated as follows: This means that the allegation about the "WMDs in Iraq", used by the U.S. Bush administration as the major pretext for attacking Iraq, has turned out to be groundless. When the United States started the Iraq war, Prime Minister Koizumi swallowed the Bush administration's explanation and concluded that Iraq had WMDs, using it as the pretext for Japan's support for the Iraq war. The ISG report has revealed that these allegations were false. Prime Minister Koizumi must accept full political responsibility for supporting the war of aggression based on false information. Now that the grounds for the Iraq war are completely lost, the JCP demands an immediate withdrawal of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces from Iraq. (end) |