Newsletter No. 973
News-Analysis
April 10, 2008

 

CHANCES STILL REMAIN FOR THE YOMIURI SHINBUN TO REFLECT ON THE IRAQ DEBACLE

Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of the collapse of the Saddam Husain regime in Iraq. The Yomiuri Shinbun has thus missed yet another opportunity to reflect on their role in promoting the war. Their recent editorials seem mostly focused on how to harass and undermine the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) or to reform certain domestic agencies or to make their umpteenth call to do nothing whatsoever that might annoy their conservative American allies.

Well, some other “fifth anniversaries” are still coming up. May 1st will be the fifth anniversary of President George W. Bush strutting in his flight suit across the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln under the unforgettable banner: Mission Accomplished. July 3rd will be the fifth anniversary of President Bush’s taunt toward the developing Iraqi insurgency, “Bring’em On!” August 19th will be the fifth anniversary of the bombing of UN compound that killed Special Representative Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other people. Ten days after that will be the fifth anniversary of the massive bomb in Najaf that killed Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim and about a hundred others. November 29th will be the fifth anniversary of the slaying of Japanese diplomats Katsuhiko Oku and Masamori Inoue.

The Yomiuri may not wish to remember these things, but a lot of other people will…

FORMER PRIME MINISTER IYAD ALLAWI SPEAKS ON JAPAN-IRAQ RELATIONS

Kyodo News, however, seems to have marked the fifth anniversary of the fall of the Husain regime with an interview with former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Allawi stated: “Japan can play a very significant role politically as well as economically in stabilizing not only Iraq but also the whole of the Middle East… What we are looking to see now from friendly countries like Japan and others is a very stiff, strong, and clear attitude supporting Iraq, to salvage and help Iraqis and bring about some resolutions that should be useful for Iraq… I think the presence in Iraq of neutral countries, both physically as well as politically, such as Japan can be very useful.”

He also touched on what he felt was a key difference between Japan’s occupation experience and that of Iraq: “We have no state and no institutions… Japan never lost its institutions; never lost its symbol, the Emperor; it never went to the route of no reconciliation, but this is what happened in Iraq.”

Finally, Kyodo News briefly noted that Iyad Allawi -- who owed his own term as prime minister to a direct appointment by Paul Bremer’s Coalition Provisional Authority -- now says that US President Bush “has failed to fulfill his promise to bring democracy and freedom to the country.”

And what does that then suggest for Japanese policy of uncritically supporting the Bush Administration?