Posted on 08/25/2005 5:23:21 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
The leader of Japan's main opposition party says that victory in next month's election means Japanese troops, which are being protected by Australian forces, will be pulled out of Iraq.
Some 600 Japanese troops are based in the southern Iraqi city of Samawa, which is under the control of Australian soldiers stationed in Al Muthanna province.
Katsuya Okada, president of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), railed against Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's decision to extend the historic deployment of Japanese forces.
"If we win the election, that means Japanese nationals wish to withdraw from Iraq, as we have promised it to voters. I will explain it to President Bush," Mr Okada told reporters.
"The Self-Defence Force is doing nothing in Iraq. The most important mission of the SDF, supplying water to local communities, is over," he said.
"They are remaining in Iraq only for the political consideration of the Japan-US relationship."
"We're not saying we should yield to terrorism (by withdrawing the SDF), but we must take into consideration the reality that Japan is in a situation where it's at risk (of becoming a terrorist target). I'm concerned about this, especially since Japan is vulnerable," Mr Okada said.
Mr Koizumi has said the non-combat mission may be extended as long as the Iraqi people want them there.
Japanese troops, barred by Japan's post-war pacifist constitution from using force except in the strictest definition of self-defence, have suffered no casualties and have not fired a shot.
The deployment, Japan's first since World War II in a country at war, is seen as a way for Tokyo to play a greater role in world affairs.
Mr Okada said he wants to talk with Mr Bush about the realignment of the US troops stationed in Japan, another of his party's election pledges.
"I don't think the Futenma Air Base can remain in Okinawa," he said.
Okinawa, which accounts for less than one per cent of Japan's land mass, remains the base of 65 per cent of the 40,500 US troops in the country, with other communities reluctant to host them.
The United States has agreed to move Futenma but the proposed new location - on reclaimed land off Okinawa - has also been controversial.
The election for the House of Representatives is due on September 11.
Should the DPJ secure a majority in the lower house, Mr Okada admitted that the DPJ would face difficulty in the House of Councillors over bill passages given that it does not have a majority in the upper house.
What is it with leftists worldwide? Iraq is progressing nicely at this point, the only enemy there are terrorsists of the worst kind blowing up civilians and trying to sabotage democracy. And the liberals everywhere cannot try fast enough to abandon iraq to the terrorists. It truly is a sick ideology.
He will be singing a different tune when the Chicoms take those disputed natural gas fields, and whatever else they feel like.
This guy is a disgrace: running scared for political purposes. The terrorists must love him!
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Wow, when I first read this, I thought this guy was from the EU !!!!! He should move to Spain !!!!
No matter how hard the SDP of Japan tries, the fact is that it will almost certainly lose. I would raise an eyebrow if the governing Liberal Democrats coalition loses.
This is the face of the Japanese Left. Japan is the only Asian country (along with Taiwan) with significant post-modernism in its blood.
This is the face of the Japanese Left.
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Well if this is the face of liberalism in Japan, then they may have a hard time handling North Korea all by themselves!!!
But thankfully their chance of governance is nil. They tried it once in 1994 but it was a grand coalition with the default Liberal Democratic Party. Today the LDP heads a coalition competing against the SDP.
Japan's political system is a bit like Canads's: a party keeps winning the election. Unlike the Liberal Party of Canada which is centre-left in nature, Japan's dominant party, the Liberal Democrats, is centre-right.
He might as well send a red flag to Osama himself. He's advertising publicly for a Japanese reenactment of the Madrid bombings. There's no doubt that Al Qaeda's aware of this and would like to exploit the seam, but we don't know if they have the capability to put an operation together there yet.
We may well be about to find out.
This was my concern when Ozuma announced his resignation. I immediately knew the election would be an referencedum on Iraq. Now it is true that the Japanese are NOT candy asses like the Spanish.
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