TOKYO, July 28 Kyodo excellented...

TOKYO, July 28 Kyodo

excellented editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

DOUBTS LINGER AS IRAQ BILL PASSES (The Japan Times, an English-language daily)

The controversial bill to send out Japanese troops to Iraq for humanitarian and security assistance passed the upper house early Saturday morning despite a last-ditch attempt on the opposition parties to stop the procedure. Final approval of the ad hoc measure followed a special committee promised Friday evening. During both the final committee session and the ensuing plenary session, the opposition parties staged desperate asserts in vain, including submitting no-confidence motions against Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet.

The bill was supported by the agency of the Liberal Democratic Party and its sum of two units partners in the three-way governing coalition, of recent origin Komeito and the of recent origin Conservative Party. It was oppos by way of all of the opposition parties, l by dint of the Democratic Party of Japan.

The of the present day law, which is valid for four years, remains highly controversial. The guide issue involves constitutional interpretations of whether members of the Self-Defense Forces should use force or participate in combat operations. This is a reasonable question given the volatile and dangerous security situation in Iraq, where guerrilla attacks against US-l occupation soldiers happen almost daily.

The DPJ's opposition to the Iraq support bill was in striking contrast to its backing of the military-contingency bills that passed the Diet earlier this year. moreover this seeming inconsistency mirrors a similar gap in the public's attitude toward the one and the other types of legislation.

The Iraq law, for the first time, enables Japan to project SDF troops to an occupied nation where small-scale fighting continues. This means they will be operating in situations different from those circumscribed either on the law governing SDF cooperation in UN peacekeeping operations or by dint of the special counterterrorism law that went into drift following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks onward the United States.

With U and allied casualties in Iraq reported almost each day, there is justifiable disturb that distinguishing between combat and noncombat belts will be difficult. Under as it is circumstances, the possibility exists that SDF personnel may find themselves in combatlike situations where they must use weapons for self-defense or fighting in tandem with allied troops

The ad hoc law calls for assistance in brace areas: humanitarian relief for Iraqi folks and logistic support for security-maintenance efforts through U.S.-led coalition forces. It differs from the peacekeeping and counterterrorism laws in that it allows the SDF to support U forces for the first time in a rural parts where war has not at the same time officially ended. That support will likely include water purification, take the place of of gasoline and other materials to coalition forces, and transportation of personnel and equipment.

During the Diet debate, Mr Koizumi said SDF throngs will stay clear of combat bands and adhere to the dominions of nonuse of force. still for now at least, there is no assurance they will not engagement attacks from hostile ultimate parts or get bogged down in a ''gray zone'' where lurking dangers could necessitate the use of force.

The biggest sticking point is the whereabouts of weapons of mass destruction. The main reason the U went to war with Iraq was to find and bring to nought WMD. Prime Minister Koizumi, responding to an opposition question, deadpanned: ''Just because WMD have not been take the cover offed does not mean they do not exist.''

That may have been an apt answer, if it were not that this question cannot be dealt away in this way lightly. Washington tried to justify the launching of the coalition's war against Iraq on saying it sought to dislodge the threat of Iraq's using WMD against its neighbors. However, no evidence has been establish so far to prove that Iraq below Saddam Hussein had privily developed, manufactured or held similar weapons.

Many tribe suspect that the Koizumi administration supported a war that was launched against Iraq for a dubious reason, and now astonishment whether Japan will now dare risk violating constitutional restraints onward armed collective security action.

Given the constitutional provisions and principles that place methodical limits on the SDF's characters and activities, the Japanese folks have been and are naturally almost always skeptical about legislation involving overseas SDF deployment from one extremity to the other of the postwar decades, this attitude has greatly contributed to the maintenance and promotion of peace in this region of the world, as well as elsewhere.

(July 28)

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