2010/08/24
--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 23
EDITORIAL: U.S. pullout from Iraq.
米軍のイラク撤兵―重い教訓に向き合うとき
U.S. President Barack Obama has set the end of 2011 as the deadline for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq. The midterm goal of the plan is to end combat operations in the country by Aug. 31. In line with the schedule, the last U.S. combat unit left Iraq to move into neighboring Kuwait last week.
米国のオバマ大統領は２０１１年末までに、イラク駐留米軍の完全撤退をめざす。中間目標は、今月末までの戦闘任務終了だ。この方針に沿い、戦闘部隊が隣国クウェートに撤兵した。
The number of U.S. troops remaining in Iraq will be reduced to 50,000, about one-third of the peak level, at the end of this month. Their main mission will be training Iraqi security forces that will take over the role of the U.S. troops.
米軍は今月末、ピーク時の約３分の１の５万人に減り、後を引き継ぐイラク治安部隊の訓練が主な任務となる。
The death toll of American troops in Iraq has surpassed 4,400, while estimates put the number of Iraqi civilians killed at more than 100,000.
すでに、イラクでの米軍の死者は４４００人を超え、イラクの民間人の死者は１０万人以上とも言われる。
Answering to an embedded foreign journalist, a U.S. soldier who has left Iraq said the best thing would be for no one to get hurt anymore. The U.S. forces have just done their duties, but many of them probably have mixed feelings, wondering if they fought a just war.
イラクを離れた兵士が外国の従軍記者に答えた。「何がいいかって？ 第一に、もう誰も傷つかないこと」。この戦争は正しかったのか。任務とはいえ、兵士たちにも複雑な思いが去来したのではないだろうか。
Immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States, many countries and people around the world supported U.S. plans for a war against terrorism. But the U.S. government's push to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein bitterly divided the world and provoked deep anger within the Islamic world. As a result, terrorism has spread widely both within and outside Iraq.
同時多発テロが起きた時、多くの国々、人々がテロに立ち向かう米国を後押しした。だが、強引にサダム・フセイン政権打倒に突き進む米国のやり方は世界を分裂させ、イスラム世界の反発も強めることになり、むしろテロはイラク内外に拡散した。
What was the meaning of the Iraq war? It is time for both the United States, which started the war, and Japan, which supported the U.S. action, to ask themselves some serious questions about what they did.
この戦争は何だったのか。開戦した米国も、戦争を支持した日本も、深く自問自答すべきときだ。
A 'preventive war'
■「予防戦争」の深い傷
Let us look back.
少し振り返ってみよう。
Suspicions arose that Iraq had a secret cache of weapons of mass destruction. If these weapons found their way into the hands of terrorists, the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush argued, they would pose a serious security threat.
The Bush administration used these concerns as justification for starting the war against Iraq despite a lack of definite evidence to support these claims.
イラクが大量破壊兵器を隠し持っている疑いがある。テロ組織に渡ると大きな脅威になる。それが、時のブッシュ米大統領が戦端を開く「大義」だったが、決定的な証拠を欠いていた。
The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq started with willing allies, such as Britain and Italy, flying in the face of opposition from Germany, France and other countries. The U.N. Security Council did not issue a resolution that clearly sanctioned the use of armed forces against Iraq.
それでも、独仏などの反対を押し切り、英伊などとの有志連合で攻撃を始めた。武力行使を明確に容認する国連安保理決議はないままだった。
A "preventive war" to nip a potential threat in the bud by a country solely on its own judgment violates the U.N. Charter, which permits a country's use of force only for self-defense against an imminent security threat to the country or when the Security Council has passed a resolution to approve military action.
脅威の芽を独断的に先に摘みとる「予防戦争」は、差し迫った脅威への自衛と国連安保理決議に基づく武力行使しか認めない国連憲章に反する。
The international community struggled to persuade the United States to restrain itself from heading into a preventive war. Before the Iraq war began, a French diplomat said it was a U.S. problem, not an Iraq problem.
「予防戦争」へと進む米国にどう自制を促すか。国際社会は腐心した。仏外交官は開戦前に語っていた。「これはイラク問題ではなく米国問題だ」
The U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell warned the president that invading Iraq would be very costly for both the United States and the world. He pointed out that occupying Iraq would mean the United States would have to own the hopes, aspirations and problems of all Iraqi people. Still, Bush decided to start the attack, true to his pledge to combat terrorism by all possible measures.
米国務長官だったパウエル氏は大統領に、イラク侵攻は米国にも世界にも「高くつく」と直言したという。占領すればイラク国民の希望も問題も、すべて引き受けなければならない、と。それでも大統領は開戦に動いた。「あらゆる手段でテロを根絶する」というブッシュ流を持ち込んだ戦争、それがイラク戦争であった。
Lack of support
The U.S. administration was apparently driven by the shock of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It was, however, difficult for Washington to win support from people in Iraq or the international community for a fight against terrorism when it was actually an attempt to use force to upset an anti-U.S. regime without offering any clear rationale.
同時多発テロの衝撃に突き動かされたのだろう。だが、いくら米国の意に沿わない国でも、あいまいな根拠に基づいて武力行使で政権転覆するやり方では、イラクの人心も国際世論も「対テロ」での結束は困難だ。
But the Bush administration couldn't understand this obvious truth.
そんな自明のことにさえ理解が及ばなかった。
The search after the collapse of the Saddam regime found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, making the war even more questionable.
侵攻後に調べてみると大量破壊兵器などなく、戦争への疑問はさらに拡大した。
The U.S. billed the overthrow of Saddam as part of its fight against terrorism and continued operations to eliminate the remnants and supporters of the regime. This provoked strong anti-American sentiment and a wave of terrorist attacks in Iraq. The U.S. invasion gave extremist groups like al-Qaida a justification for jihad in Iraq, setting off an endless chain of violence.
米国が政権打倒を「対テロ戦争」と同一視し、旧政権の残党や支持勢力の根絶作戦を続けたことはイラク内で強い反米意識とテロを誘発した。アルカイダなど過激派にイラクでの聖戦実施という「大義」を与え、暴力の連鎖をまねく事態ともなった。
■軍事力過信への戒め
Iraq remains deeply mired in political turmoil. Parliamentary elections in March have triggered a political standoff between religious groups, failing to establish a new government and leaving the country in a political vacuum.
イラクは今も混乱の中にある。３月の国民議会選挙後も宗派対立などで新政権ができず、政治空白が続く。
Meanwhile, the United States under President Obama, who harshly criticized Bush over the Iraq war, has dramatically changed its policy. Now, Washington is trying to rebuild war-devastated Iraq through efforts supported by the United Nations and the international community.
ブッシュ路線を批判してきたオバマ氏が大統領となった米国は大きく方針を転換した。今は、国連や国際社会を説得してイラク再建を目指している。
As the country that destroyed Iraq and created chaos in the country through its preventive war, the United States has a grave responsibility.
それは、「予防戦争」でイラクを壊し乱した米国の、国家としての重い責任でもある。
President Obama, however, has called the conflict in Afghanistan a "necessary war" and has tripled the number of U.S. troops deployed in the country since he took office.
そのオバマ大統領が、アフガニスタンについては「必要な戦争」と呼び、就任後、駐留米軍を３倍に増やした。
But the United States has failed to win the hearts of the people in Afghanistan even though it has overthrown a regime linked to al-Qaida.
The current situation in Afghanistan, where the United States is struggling badly in its efforts to help rebuild the nation and eliminate terrorism, is reminiscent of Washington's plight in Iraq.
だが、アルカイダとつながった政権を打倒しても人心をつかめず、国の復興・再建やテロ対策が難航している現状は、イラクでの苦悩を想起させる。
David Miliband, a former British foreign secretary, has cited overconfidence in military power as one of the mistakes made in the war against terrorism. Expanding the war front, which inevitably leads to a larger number of war victims, doesn't help increase allies for efforts to prevent terrorism. The United States should keep this lesson in mind for its operations in Afghanistan as well.
英国のミリバンド前外相は、「対テロ戦争」の過ちのひとつに軍事力への過信をあげる。戦火と犠牲者の拡大は、テロを防ぐ味方を必ずしも増やせない。この教訓を米国はアフガニスタンでも強く認識しておいて欲しい。
Japan supported the U.S.-led war against Iraq and dispatched Self-Defense Forces troops to what the government described as a "noncombat zone" in the country. It was a move to demonstrate its solid commitment to its alliance with the United States. But how should we judge the Japanese government's decision to back a war that was started on the basis of inaccurate information?
日本はイラク戦争を支持し、イラクの「非戦闘地域」に自衛隊を派遣した。同盟国・米国に寄り添う動きだった。不確かな情報に基づく戦争を支持したことをどう総括するのか。
"There is obviously no way for me to know at this moment which parts (of Iraq) are combat areas and which are noncombat zones," then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said during a Diet session. Didn't the government make a wrong choice when it decided to send SDF troops to Iraq when it had no accurate information, as Koizumi's remarks indicated?
「どこが戦闘地域で、どこが非戦闘地域か、いまこの私に聞かれたって、わかるわけない」（小泉純一郎首相の国会答弁）といった状態での自衛隊派遣は、誤った選択ではなかったのか。
Review decision-making process
■日本の意思決定検証を
The North Korea problem influenced the policy decisions of the ruling party and the government concerning Iraq.
与党・政府内では、イラク問題の背後で北朝鮮問題が見え隠れした。
A senior lawmaker of then ruling Liberal Democratic Party said, "Can we afford to allow Japan's alliance with the United States to be damaged by walking away (from the Iraq war) when Japan is facing a threat from North Korea?"
「北朝鮮問題があるのに、（イラクから）いち抜けたと言って日米同盟が悪くなっていいのか」（自民党幹部）との声も聞こえた。
But how was the Iraq war actually linked to the North Korea problem in policy debate within the Koizumi administration?
実際のところ、政権の中でイラクと北朝鮮の問題をどのように関連づけていたのか。
At that time, as chief of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, Naoto Kan, the current prime minister, argued that sending SDF troops to Iraq, most parts of which were combat areas, was unconstitutional. The current DPJ-led government must now make clear what it has learned from the episode.
菅直人首相は、民主党代表として、大半が戦闘地域のイラクへの自衛隊派遣は違憲状態だと指摘していた。民主党政権はこの歴史から何を学びとるのか、今こそ明確に示す必要がある。
Government decisions about war must be rigorously scrutinized. Otherwise, the experience will leave no useful lesson for the governance of the nation, especially for its diplomatic and national security policies.
戦争に関する国家の意思、判断は、厳しい検証を受けなければならない。さもなくば、今後の国家運営、とりわけ外交と安全保障政策に何の教訓も残さないことになる。
The time has come for the Diet to take a fresh and hard look at the process in which Japan made its decisions concerning the Iraq war through such efforts as intensive debate at an Upper House fact-finding committee.
参議院の調査会で集中的に審議するなど、国会でイラク戦争をめぐる意思決定の検証作業をすべきである。
