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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

JCP criticizes government for supporting Iraq war

At the House of Representatives Special Committee meeting on Iraq on December 19, Japanese Communist Party representative Akamine Seiken asked the government if it still supports the Iraq war even after U.S. President George W. Bush admitted that his decision to go to war in Iraq was based on faulty intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction.

In response to Akamine, Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe Shinzo insisted that Iraq failed to fulfill its responsibility to prove to the international community that it had dismantled its weapons of mass destruction. "The situation was enough to make us believe that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction," he said.

Referring to Bush's remark that around 30,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the war, Akamine said, "How is it possible for the government to continue to justify the Iraq war even though the rationale for invading Iraq has collapsed?"

Akamine also said, "It has been proven that the decision to dispatch the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq was groundless," and urged the government to immediately withdraw the SDF from Iraq.
- Akahata, December 20, 2005