Bush's State of the Union address totally lacking in reflection on mistakes in Iraq

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

Bush's State of the Union address totally lacking in reflection on mistakes in Iraq
Akahata editorial (excerpts)

U.S. President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address called on the public to support his "new strategy" of sending more U.S. troops to Iraq.

He emphasized a policy of devoting the U.S. to military confrontation in Iraq, saying, "To win the war on terror we must take the fight to the enemy."

However, the Bush administration and the U.S. allies are to fundamentally blame for unilaterally launching the unlawful war of aggression against Iraq, exacerbating the situation, and killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and causing the deaths of more than 3,000 U.S. soldiers.

Iraq had neither possessed weapons of mass destruction nor had connection with the international terrorist network al-Qaeda, which the U.S. used as the pretext for the invasion.

In fact, it is President Bush and his policies that have brought terrorists into Iraq and created "the conditions that inspire blind hatred" by turning the entire country into a battlefield.

Without reflection on the root cause, Bush's "new strategy" is doomed to failure.

Former U.S. national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski stated in The Washington Post, "America is acting like a colonial power in Iraq ... Waging a colonial war in the post-colonial age is self-defeating. That is the fatal flaw of Bush's policy."

According to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, 52 percent of the U.S. public believe that the U.S. should withdraw its military forces from Iraq in order to avoid further U.S. military casualties, even if that means civil order is not restored there.

It is time for the United States to withdraw its troops from Iraq as demanded by the majority of both U.S. and Iraqi citizens.
- Akahata, January 25, 2007