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| Iraq |
| Japanese Lawmakers Depart for Iraq |
| 2003-07-31 |
| A delegation of Japanese lawmakers left for Iraq on Thursday to assess whether it is safe enough for Japanese forces to aid in Iraq’s reconstruction and support peacekeepers. The legislators are going to determine if it’s safe enough for their military? Isn’t that supposed to be the other way around? The delegation, led by former Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, will travel to Jordan before arriving in Baghdad on Saturday, a parliamentary official said. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said Japan’s Self-Defense Forces would help with humanitarian assistance and reconstruction, but only if conditions in Iraq were deemed safe. Koizumi had to overcome Japan’s post-World War II aversion to militarism to win parliamentary support for the troop deployment. It would be the first dispatch of Japanese forces to a combat area since the 1940s. Polls show the Japanese public is concerned about the mission’s danger. The American public is concerned, too, but that didn’t stop us (thank goodness). Kyodo News reported that the group of lawmakers will meet L. Paul Bremer, the chief U.S. administrator for Iraq, to discuss the Japanese soldiers’ mission. The delegation also plans to visit the Baghdad airport and hospitals. Japan could send up to 1,000 soldiers to Iraq as soon as October, local media have reported. Komura’s delegation will return to Tokyo on Wednesday after stopping in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #13 "Stevey of The Triangle".Get your ass over there, boy. Maybe the uprising needs somebody to work the help desk. But bring plenty of Twinkies. They're hard to find over there. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-7-31 10:50:00 PM |
| #12 i might aid them against us Oh please please please do that. You know what, if you decide to go, I'll pay for your transportation. How about it stevey? |
| Posted by: Rafael 2003-7-31 7:09:27 PM |
| #11 Ya know...I find it fun having Stevie around. It's amusing to watch someone with mental imparement and disorganized cognitive functions trying to expess himself. That creepy incessant "ahahahahaha" shtick is kinda...creepy, in it's own unique, deranged way... |
| Posted by: Watcher 2003-7-31 6:46:39 PM |
| #10 Sevey scored some smoke. Tell you what Stevey,since you seem to have plenty of time,and party/travel money. Why don't you hop on a plane,fly on down here to Roosevelt,Az. and have a little quality time with this one-legged,46 year-old vet. |
| Posted by: raptor 2003-7-31 6:44:05 PM |
| #9 ahahaa Phil Jackson storm troopers have been dropped into the Sunni Triangle to teach American soldiers since he has patented the triangle offence with the Lakers |
| Posted by: stevey robinson 2003-7-31 6:09:36 PM |
| #8 Steve (if that IS your real name), might I take this moment to point out that the Japanese have even MORE reason to loath Islam that America does? Japan is a Shinto/Buddist nation that still venerates the Bushido code. Shinto itself is an animist religion. That makes the Japanese PAGANS in the eyes of Islam. Which means that a devout follower of Islam must either convert them or kill them. And the fact that the Emperor is still worshiped to some degree as the living decendant of the Sun Goddess Amateratsu means that a devout Muslim must kill him because he's a "false god". Needless to say, this would REALLY hack Japan off something fierce. Nope, Stevie boy, Japan isn't the nice-nice people you seem to think they are. They're polite only because they live cheek to cheek in an incredibly crowded country. Living that way AND being warriors, politeness is the only way to keep from killing each other. Read a little history, Stevie.. Japan is one of the most xenophobic yet accepting countries in the world, and damn good fighters. Ask any Marine who served in WW2. The JSDF can kick ass with the best of them, and if some idiot makes the mistake of attacking them, said idiot will get his head handed to him on a plate. (Barring, of course, the obvious danger of some idiot politician taking their guns away and telling them "no, no, naughty boys, mustn't hurt the nice muslims...") Ed Becerra |
| Posted by: Ed Becerra 2003-7-31 5:46:38 PM |
| #7 "Komura’s delegation will return to Tokyo on Wednesday after stopping in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates." ??? Dubai..Dubai..ah, yes. Lotsa gambling casinos there, IIRC. Now it makes sense, sort of like Macao-on-the-Gulf. |
| Posted by: Carl in NH 2003-7-31 3:28:32 PM |
| #6 me ,in the triangle ahahah ..i might aid them against us. I always tend to side with the oppressed against their oppressors.You it is the American way ( remember Kennedy's speech).But human life is precious and i have a way of ending GI deaths in Iraq.Hire Phil Jackson to lead the Army. Jackson, as we all know, mastered the triangle offence with Chicago bull and LA Lakers ahahahah. His triangle offence knowledge could bail us out in Iraq. ahahahahaahahaahahahahah |
| Posted by: stevey robinson 2003-7-31 2:47:18 PM |
| #5 stevey needs to get drafted...into the triangle |
| Posted by: Rafael 2003-7-31 2:05:55 PM |
| #4 Yeah, Stevie...and using epithets like "japs" is a good way to win the hearts and minds of a real, live, bred-in-the-bone warrior culture. ;) |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-7-31 2:00:55 PM |
| #3 memo to the Japs, Avoid the Triangle. It is the Americans mess to deal with, not yours. |
| Posted by: stevey robinson 2003-7-31 1:33:49 PM |
| #2 dutch troops have arrived in Iraq, and will be taking control of one province, in the relatively quiet south. The Dutch troops will be under British command. Thank you, Netherlands. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-7-31 1:24:01 PM |
| #1 It depends, I guess, on the role they have agreed to... seems a little unclear, now, exactly what they've offered the coalition. |
| Posted by: PD 2003-7-31 12:56:11 PM |