iraq

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How can the war that has killed 30,000 Iraqis be justified?
Akahata editorial

U.S. President George W. Bush in his speech on December 14 said, "my decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision," while admitting that "much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. On December 12, he acknowledged for the first time that the death toll among Iraqis has reached 30,000. More than 2,100 U.S. soldiers have died. How can he say that the war that claimed so many lives is "right," after the reason for going to war has turned out to be wrong? His speech represents a rogue's rhetoric that any government that it dislikes must be attacked.

Starting war by cutting short U.N. inspections

Just before starting the Iraq War, President Bush on March 19, 2003 justified the U.S. invasion of Iraq by denouncing the Hussein regime of Iraq as "an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder."

However, even at that time this arbitrary U.S. argument was not accepted by the international community. The war was started while the U.N. inspectors were still in Iraq to verify whether Iraq maintained WMDs or not. The inspectors were to announce a conclusion in a few months, but the Bush administration forced the inspections to be cut short in order to start the war without waiting for the inspectors to announce their results.

Launching preemptive war on another country by denouncing it as a "threat" is clearly an act of aggression that the U.N. Charter strictly prohibits. Article 39 of the U.N. Charter provides that only the U.N. Security Council is authorized to take measures against "any threat to the peace."

The U.S. Bush administration won Britain and Spain over its side to get a U.N. Security Council resolution approved in the attempt to justify a U.S. military attack against Iraq, but the resolution did not win unanimous support. No U.N. resolution exists that authorizes U.S. military attack against Iraq.

Trying to justify the Iraq War, Bush stresses that "the fight against terrorists" is most essential. However, he failed to show any evidence of the Hussein regime's involvement in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Bush must be held responsible for the war of aggression he started by using false pretexts.

Hillary Rodham Clinton in the U.S. Senate stated, "Based on the information that we have today, Congress never would have been asked to give the president authority to use force against Iraq." In the light of facts it was wrong that the Congress authorized the president to prosecute the war.

Koizumi is accomplice

Asked by reporters to comment, Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro said, "Japan's judgment was in line with the U.N. Security Council resolutions and if Iraq had proved it had no weapons of mass destruction, the war wouldn't have occurred."

No UN resolution, however, can justify the war of aggression against Iraq. Koizumi must remember that when Bush started the war, Koizumi was emphasizing, "The question is how we should face threats from Iraq's WMD." On what grounds did he conclude that Iraq had WMDs? He just swallowed Bush's allegations. Now that Bush acknowledged that he was wrong, Koizumi's argument in support of the war has proved groundless.

The Japanese prime minister must be held responsible for supporting the lawless war that destroyed the international peace.
-Akahata, December 17, 2005