Don�ft Dispatch the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq

     Hillary Rodham Clinton, a member of the United States Senate, visited Baghdad on
November 28, 2003, and she made a comment on the war in Iraq, stating that Iraq
should be under the guidance of the UN. However, U.S. President George W. Bush
suddenly went and stayed there for two hours and a half on November 27, just one day
before Clinton�fs visit to Baghdad. He celebrated Thanksgiving Day eating turkey with
about six hundred military officers, and said, �gWe will stay here until we fulfill our mission.�h
     What a coincidence it is for Bush and Clinton to visit Baghdad only by one day�fs
difference! If Clinton�fs visit had officially been announced, Bush�fs visit would have
overshadowed hers. However, this may be a shrewd guess. Even if Bush�fs visit to Iraq
had nothing to do with Clinton�fs, Bush�fs act may have shown his opportunism. On the
day when Bush visited Baghdad, the writer thought of the same type of Japanese politician,
whose name is Junichiro Koizumi. He suddenly visited North�@Korea on September 17,
2002 and concluded a treaty with North Korea, �gNiccho-Pyongyang-Sengen�h (�gthe
Pyongyang Declaration of Japan and the Democratic People�fs Republic of Korea�h).
Koizumi likes an original performance. Just when the writer imagined it might be possible
for that same Koizumi to visit Iraq, a Japanese weekly �gShukan-Shincho�h�@(the Dec. 4
edition) scoped Koizumi�fs plan for a visit to Iraq next January. If this plan is true, how
absurd Koizumi is! It is impossible that the writer�fs expectation and �gShukan- Shincho�h�fs
report could be put into practice.
     The most important problem concerning Iraq is that the Japanese Self-Defense Forces
should not be dispatched to Iraq. According to the Asahi (November 30, 2003), 436 U.S.
soldiers have been killed since the outbreak of war. The chain of slaughter should be stopped
somewhere and sometime. Prime Minister Koizumi always says that he will dispatch the Self-
Defense Forces�h at a suitable time, but he seems to have already decided to dispatch the
Self-Defense Forces. The Defense Army in Kagawa Prefecture made a manual for the mass
media, which says a member of the Self-Defense Forces should answer �gNo problem�h if he
was asked about the dispatching the Self-Defense Forces. These facts show that both the
government and the Self-Defense Forces have confirmed the dispatching the Self-Defense
Forces. A certain leading newspaper in France reported on December 2that a Nobel Prize
Winner, Kenzaburo Ohe, was angry with Koizumi�fs policy in which the Self-Defense Forces
would be dispatched. The problem is neither the time nor way, but it is whether Japan will
dispatch the Self-Defense Forces. It is a problem of a choice between two things: dispatching
 or not dispatching. Of course, the answer is that Japan should not dispatch the Self-Defense
Forces.

Copyright (C) 2003 by Edmond N. Beard