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| Iraq |
| Japan considers complete exit from Iraq by September |
| 2005-11-12 |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 There are so many considerations for Japan. First of all is their rather odd "we leave Iraq" groupthink, which is hard to explain in western terms. The troops stay there until the groupthink says otherwise. The second is that their military forces face a bizarre return, their country not quite knowing how to greet them: heroes, ignored, or what? And that figures into their military restructuring right now. The third is the civilian apparatus to leave behind. This could be anything from a trade centered diplomatic mission to a large Japanese enclave. What matters only peripherally is the insurgency. The Japanese forces return with huge amounts of military-useful information, though theirs was not a combat mission. They also have lots of insider information for economic cooperation and investment. Many will see Iraq reconstruction as an investment, and will want to know if it was a good one. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-11-12 09:30 |