ASDF unit leaves for Kuwait to the sound of cheers, jeers

[Hachiko]

KOMAKI, Aichi Pref. (Kyodo) The first unit of the main Air Self-Defense Force contingent left for Kuwait on Thursday afternoon.

A total of 110 ASDF members left Komaki Air Base in Aichi Prefecture on a government jet in the third wave of Japan's controversial deployment of noncombat service members to help rebuild Iraq.

Japan Times

[Uncle Frank]

None of them have to return to their homeland in a box !!

Frank the Cat

[Eisuke]

Yes I hope the best for the SDF in Iraq. For the rest I think it's good that they are going to help in rebuilding Iraq.

[Hachiko]

Two members of a Ground Self-Defense Force advance team to Iraq arrived back in Tokyo on Friday and reported to the government that the southern part of the country is safe enough for deployment of the main GSDF troop body.

Japan Times

[Mashu]

I love the ugly UN hats.

[Sukotto]

I wish they wouln't send troops. It only gives support to Bush's (& to a lesser extent Blair's) illegal war and illegal occupation. I realize the Japanese government is probably under great diplomatic pressure from the US, but last I read I thought the Japanese people did not support the war.

Even if you are against the war, I suggest being against the occupation is the right thing as well and that coalition forces (the US & uk) should leave today. Furthermore, nor is it the UN's obligation to "democratize" Iraq. This sounds earily like colonialism of old when the British
justified their crimes to themselves when they
said their colonialism was for the native's own
good and they were there to "civilize" the local
"savages".

People have lived in that part of the world for
thousands of years. There's no reason to think
they are incapable of self-rule. I recently read
that Iraq had been known as the Germany of
the middle east because of their industrial know
how. They have plenty of engineers and doctors
and can rebuild their country on their own.

That's not to say the US, and perhaps others do
not owe the Iraqi people retribution for what they
did to their country. ie. Illegal targeting of civilian infrastructure, sanctions the killed some 1 million+ people, this war 8-10 thousand civilian casualities plus some 20,000 civlian wounded.

I've included a link to a debate on the subject that I think is interesting and hopefully adds
to the debate here or outside cyberspace.

Tariq Ali vs. Christopher Hitchens on the Occupation of Iraq: Postponed Liberation or Recolonisation?
http://www.democracynow.org/article..../12/04/1523254