US asks Japan to extend Iraq mission as marines die in Fallujah

[maddezmom]

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The United States has reportedly asked Japan to extend its humanitarian mission in Iraq, as President George W. Bush's campaign to stir more support was undermined by a suicide bomber who killed at least two US marines.

Although Tokyo had not yet responded to the US request, a senior Japanese official was quoted by Kyodo News Saturday as saying an extension would be "inevitable" if US-led forces stayed in Iraq beyond December, when 600 Japanese troops were due to leave.

~snip~
"Japan will not do things only because other countries ask us. We will make a decision independently," Hosoda told a political meeting Saturday.

An extension would boost Bush's public relations campaign to raise support for the US-led war in Iraq, which was hit by the attack against US troops near Fallujah, a volatile Sunni-dominated city west of Baghdad.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050625/ts_afp/iraq_050625091937

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[whistle]

2. Hey, it's Bush's War and the coalition allies are telling shrub....

...they don't wish to support his lies and deceptions any longer. I hope this wakes up more Americans to what is really going on.

[bahrbearian]

3. " If you Help US, we'll get Bolton to put you on the UN Security Council"

[LynnTheDem]

4. Yeah come on Japan Govt, keep IGNORING the majority of your own citizens!

Gotta IGNORE your own people in order to "spread democracy"!

[leesa]

5. Marines are dying in Iraq? WTF?

[IndianaGreen]

6. If it was up to the Japanese people, their troops would be home by now

Bourgeois democracy has been exposed as the sham that it is. All of the countries that sent troops to Iraq, except for gullible America, did so despite massive opposition from their people. A real democratic government would have never sent troops to war against the popular will, particularly a war of aggression that another country carried out.

[maddezmom]

7. updated headline:Iraq looks to Japan, Turkey, US while 29 die at home

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi interests focused on Japan, Turkey and the United States, but in the end, international issues were upstaged by ongoing violence that killed 29 and wounded dozens more.

The US asked Japan Saturday to extend its humanitarian mission in Iraq, while President Jalal Talabani urged Ankara to set its doubts aside and help Kurds in war-torn Iraq.

~snip~

Iraqi deaths also climbed higher, with at least 29 people killed in Samarra, near Ramadi and in the Triangle of Death.

The biggest toll was in Samarra, north of the capital, where at least 11 people died and 20 were wounded in two attacks on the home of a senior Iraqi police commando.

~snip~
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050625/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_050625150739

[Moderator]

8. kick

[NNN0LHI]

9. US Demands Japan Extend the Period of Its Troops in Iraq

http://www.zaman.com/?bl=hotnews&alt=&trh=20050626&hn=21063

A Japanese newspaper reports that the US has asked Japan to extend the duty period of the Japanese soldiers in Iraq.

According to the Asahi Simbun newspaper, US State Department demanded the Japanese Foreign Ministry at the beginning of June to extend the working period of the Japanese soldiers in Iraq whose period will be completed by the end of the month.

The news indicated that Japanese ministry officials had negotiated the issue, but they could not reach a definite decision due to the security conditions in Iraq.

[Miss Chybil]

10. How can "asked" in one sentence be "demanded" in the next?

Not that I wouldn't put it past the State Department, but it just doesn't make a lot of sense the way it's written.

[bpilgrim]

14. Japan has been under our thumb for decades now...

though i can't imagine Koizumi ever saying no but i know lots of japanese have been fed up with a Japan that CAN't SAY NO to the U.S. for a while now...

THE JAPAN THAT CAN SAY NO

The New U.S.-Japan Relations Card

by
Akio Morita(Sony Co-Founder)
Shintaro Ishihara(Governor & author)

Published in Japan by Kobunsha Publishing Ltd.

center(the cover sheet then says:)
Kappa-Holmes

Translator's Note: The material written by Mr. Morita is very straightforward; however, Mr. Ishihara tends to ramble, change from one subject to another without much transition, and uses a great deal of sayings and proverbs which when directly translated to English make no sense. What has been translated is the closest equivalent in English we could get.

THE NECESSITY FOR PRESENT DAY JAPANESE TO REFORM THEIR CONSCIOUSNESS (Ishihara)

Japanese People Have Become Top Heavy
<...>

If we take Japan's vast trade surpluses as one type of crisis situation, then this points to the necessity of changing Japan's economic and industrial structure. While leaving undetermined for the moment whether or not the conclusions of the Maekawa Report were valid, it is true that the "comprehensive and vast" industries are tending to recede and the lean and mean knowledge-intensive types are coming into their own. When the term "comprehensive and vast" (jukochodai) is applied to human beings, it is a form of praise, while the opposite, "light and small" would be to berate the same. However, when these terms are applied to the industrial structure, their meaning has come to change.

What matters, however, is whether or not this is good. Should we all be at ease, not that we are not dirtying our hands and sweating in order to make things with our own hands? Certainly know-how comes about from one type of mental activity, and coming up with it is a work worthy of respect. Looking at history, however, in cases where the whole society of the country was using their brains instead of their hands, not one has lasted to prosper today. In some sense, it may be true that the Japanese people are being forced into a new historical experience, but can we go on now, as we are, thinking we are the chosen people?

When looking at the actions of the Japanese people these days, I recall that these seem similar to ET, the extra-terrestrial, in the Speilburg films. I feel that it may well be the Japanese people will evolve into something like ET with pronounced eyes and noses and a big head making them top-heavy, over an abnormally thin body and slender arms and legs.

Therefore, it was impossible for Japan to get more than a few gold medals at the Seoul Olympics, which many Japanese read as being abnormal. While it may be that this is a sign that a new people has arisen to make contributions in other areas, it seems more natural to me that our descendants would be able to continue to sweat and work to keep the country strong.

more...
http://www.centurychina.com/wiihist/japsayno/japsayno.1.html

more evidence of Japan's furstration with the STATUS-QUO...

TOKYO ASSEMBLY RACE
Poll indicates DPJ poised for gains

With one week to go before the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election, a new poll shows support for the opposition Democratic Party of Japan among voters in the capital is up 10 percentage points from four years ago.

Support for the Liberal Democratic Party meanwhile is down slightly, according to the Kyodo News survey released Sunday.

The poll also shows that support for Gov. Shintaro Ishihara (above co-author) remains strong at 75.7 percent but is down 5.6 percentage points from 2001, when the last metropolitan assembly election was held.

source...
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050627a1.htm

see also...

Ishihara ready to rock the vote

06/25/2005
The Asahi Shimbun
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200506250144.html

peace

[NNN0LHI]

15. "Japan has been under our thumb for decades now..." is an understatement

Japan has been occupied by the US military since the end of WW II. The Japanese government does what they are told to do. And I don't see this situation changing anytime soon either.

Don

[Pirate Smile]

11. "Demand" - WTF?

:wtf:

[Spazito]

12. Hmmm, they did the same to Britain when poodle Blair was

visiting. This certainly re-inforces the facts that there is BIG trouble in Iraq, not that DUers need that re-inforcement but the public at large do.

[uppityperson]

13. Making more friends across the globe, heeeere's Mr.bush! and rummy

UN in, "coalition" out.