The worsening security situation in Iraq is raising serious doubts about Japan's plan to send troops for humanitarian and reconstruction aid. It looks as if the whole country is slipping into a new "war," with terrorists and guerrillas stepping up attacks on occupation troops as well as civilians. Reinforcing that perception is Wednesday's suicide-bomb attack on an Italian military police base in Nasiriya, in southern Iraq, that killed at least 18 Italians and nine Iraqis.
The dispatch plan is based on special legislation calling for assistance in the rebuilding of Iraq. The law says, in effect, that members of the Self-Defense Forces will operate only in noncombat areas. This assumption now seems increasingly unrealistic.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda acknowledged as much on Thursday, saying conditions in Iraq are not right for the SDF to engage in its planned activities. Just the day before, he had said the government's intention of sending troops by the year's end remained unchanged. A wholesale review of the plan, based on a careful analysis of the situation, is unavoidable.