U.S. faces bigger issues than hitting Iraq-Japan Times

In America, a military attack against Iraq to remove President Saddam Hussein from power seems to be a foregone conclusion. U.S. newspaper reports have been rife with various battle plans proposed by the generals.

However, U.S. President George W. Bush's single-minded pursuit of victory against the "terrorists" who perpetrated the infamous Sept. 11 attacks has its dangers. It would be particularly risky if top priority is given to attacking Iraq while more urgent problems, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the recovery of U.S. economic vigor and the precarious state of Latin American economies, are put aside. Bush would be better advised to spend the rest of this year attending to these more urgent issues.

The world is more interdependent than Americans are prepared to accept. Any immediate attack would undermine innumerable delicate balances that exist among divergent forces and interests in the world. It is good, therefore, that the decision to go ahead seems to have temporarily been postponed until some time next year. Taking advantage of this respite, it would be worthwhile to tell our American friends how the average Japanese views a prospective U.S. military strike against Hussein.

First, most Japanese are not convinced that Iraq is providing direct support to the al-Qaeda terrorist group. So far, the Japanese government seems to be giving Bush the benefit of the doubt. But when the attack comes and begins to directly affect Japan -- for example, in the form of a U.S. request for Japanese financial or military support -- crucial differences in opinion between Japan and America will come to the fore. In Japan, war on Iraq will not be considered in the same light as the Persian Gulf War. The Japanese government will find itself unable to persuade the nation to support unilateral American action against Iraq.

Second, even if Hussein is removed one way or another, the postwar rebuilding of a peaceful Iraq will not be easy. Many Japanese are reminded of what the Americans did to Japan during the Occupation after Japan's defeat in 1945. A considerable number of Japanese, both young and old, still resent the systematic demolition of old Japanese values and the planting of American systems under the Occupation.