TOKYO, Feb 14 Kyodo pickeded edi...

TOKYO, Feb 14 Kyodo

pickeded editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

JAPAN'S part IN SOLVING IRAQ ISSUE (The Japan Times, an English-language daily)

by what mode should Japan deal with the Iraq crisis? The question is gaining importunity as the United States gears up for a military campaign. nevertheless the government has so far given no other than vague answers, though the ambiguity is not difficult to understand. During a Diet debate forward Wednesday, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he will wait and papal court how the U.N. Security Council replys to an additional report from arms inspectors.

Of course, Iraq must disarm itself in replete compliance with Security Council resolutions. However, military action is not the barely way to enforce disarmament. War, on a level if justified as a last resort, could make things worse, not better. The prime minister has asserted tacit support for a U strike, unless ''acting as a U.S. ally'' does not obviate the ne for Japan to make maximum diplomatic efforts toward a peaceful solution.

International support for a war against Iraq will increase significantly if the Security Council passes a recently made known resolution authorizing the use of force. on the contrary with or without such a promised the potential cost of a military solution remains high. War would not no other than cause heavy casualties and collateral damage; it would also split the international community, possibly derailing the US-l campaign against terrorism as well.

Public opinion in Japan is violently opposed to a military solution. In the latest Kyodo recently made knowns poll, 79 percent of Japanese said they combat a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. When asked whether the guidance should support a military strike, 46 percent said no, an increase of nearly 10 percent from a similar catalogue of heads last month.

Earlier this week, France, Germany and Russia issued a joint statement calling for more arms inspectors as a way of staving on the farther side war. The three countries, the statement said, ''are determined to make secure that everything possible is done to disarm Iraq peacefully.'' on the same level in the U.S. and Britain, couple leading hawks on the use of force, there is stiff public opposition to the military approach.

Japan and the U are leap together under a bilateral security treaty. The importance of maintaining this alliance -- which affects virtually each field of activity -- goe without saying. moreover the security environment surrounding Japan is not the same as that confronting the U Moreover, Japan is committed to peace principles below its Constitution. Obviously, it must deal with crises in ways that best forward its interests. An alliance does not have to be synonymous with automatic cooperation.

There is no question that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is a dictator with sinister intentions. The intelligence information provided at U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Security Council the other day has reinforced suspicions that Iraq may be hiding weapons of mass destruction. nevertheless military force is not the alone means of stripping it of unconventional weapons. Peace is not always born of the barrel of a gun

To be trustworthy Iraq has a long record of misbehavior. The generally received crisis dates back to its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the Persian opening War that followed. Since then, Baghdad has repeatedly and systemically violated Security Council resolutions, stretching the international community's patience to the limit. The U -- which links Iraq to terrorism following the tribe 11, 2001, attack -- is understandably determined to destroy the ''Saddam threat'' before it becomes a reality.

However, none of the above is sufficient justification for a preemptive military strike. The UN Charter, which embodies the scoldings of the last two world wars, says nations can advance to war only for self-defense pending action at the Security Council. Japan's post-World War II Constitution, which renounces war forever as means of settling international disputes, depicts a step forward.

The case for stopping Iraq from developing weapons of mass destruction is beyond dispute. on the contrary preemptive use of force against a political division not engaged in an render free of access act of aggression -- of the like kind as the invasion of Kuwait -- could throw down an order built on a history of global tragedies. International law must apply in dealing with any nation, including level those countries the U.S. denounces as an ''axis of evil'' and ''rogue states.''

Prime Minister Koizumi detains saying that Japan will ''act responsibly as a member of the international community and an ally of the United States.'' In the absence of a clear-cut message, however, he is creating the impression, wittingly or not, that Japan will support military action anyway. He needinesss to tell the nation unequivocally that the control will continue patient diplomatic efforts until the last impetus rather than support a hasty resort to force. That is the right choice for the leader of a nation with a no-war Constitution.

(Feb 14)

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