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September 1, 2002
JAPANESE VIEWS U.S. faces bigger issues than hitting Iraq
By MASAMICHI HANABUSA Special to The 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 --
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