XCOM: Enemy In just Overview: Of MECs And Guys

[Crista Atilano]

Japan Could Have Afghanistan Role™

Article content OTTAWA -As Canada and the Netherlands consider withdrawing their combat troops from the dangerous terrain of southern Afghanistan, the search is on to find countries that might add boots on the ground.

Article content At a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Holland last month, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the organization's secretary general, said nine nations have offered to add troops to the 41,000-strong international force but the total number of new soldiers is expected to be small. None of the big players have yet committed new forces -- a move that would allow Canada to withdraw troops when the current mandate runs out in February, 2009, without leaving behind a power vacuum.

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The British say they will add to their forces in Helmand province, as they draw down troops in Iraq, but one top general said any new soldiers will be needed in their own zone. The Germans and Italians have refused to add to their troop numbers or deploy in the more violent south because of "caveats" that prevent them from taking on a combat role.

Article content Hopes are being invested in the French, who have made positive noises about a larger military role in Afghanistan by adding to their existing force of 1,100.

But there is one country with the capacity to shoulder much of the burden in Afghanistan that is consistently overlooked-- Japan. Sources in Ottawa say Japanese officials are working toward an expanded role for the country's Self-Defence Force in the future.

It is understandable that Japan's potential has been neglected. Under a pacifist constitution drawn up at the end of the Second World War aimed at ending its militaristic traditions, Japan is constrained from using its military forces overseas.

What's more, the former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, resigned this fall after a parliamentary stalemate over a Japanese naval mission in the Indian Ocean to refuel warships taking part in military operations in Afghanistan.

Article content The new government of Yasuo Fukuda is similarly hampered by an opposition party that controls the upper house of parliament. Mr. Fukuda was unable to renew the law that authorized the refuelling mission and the ships were forced to limp home. None of this suggests a country about to embark on a more muscular foreign policy in Afghanistan.

Yet, since Junichiro Koizumi approved a plan allowing Japanese ground troops to participate in a multilateral force in Iraq in 2004, Article 9 of the Japanese constitution (which renounces war and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes) has been under pressure. Mr. Abe was also a strong proponent of expanding the role of the military and rewriting the constitution.

Article content North Korea's missile tests and the buildup of Chinese forces have pushed Japan toward the United States and into a more involved role in military operations around the world. Japan's goal is a more permanent seat on the UN Security Council and it has offered up its effort in Iraq and Afghanistan as evidence of its willingness to take part in the war on terror (Japan has supplied more than $1.2-billion in aid to Afghanistan in the past five years).

Capacity is not a problem -- the Japanese defence force has 240,000 troops and its $44-billion budget is the world's fifth-largest. It has 1,000 tanks; is currently buying 50 F-22 fighter bombers from the United States; recently launched a new aircraft carrier for helicopters; and is scheduled to receive midair refueling tankers this year. That's a lot of self-defence. Progress toward the deployment of ground troops with a mandate to defend themselves. Others will have to wait until the current parliamentary impasse has been resolved. But even the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which opposed the refuelling operation on the grounds it was unconstitutional, has proposed an expanded role for Japan in Afghanistan.

This would include pushing for an emergency UN peace mission, where personnel from the Japanese army would be dispatched to Afghanistan as "civilians" to disarm illegal groups and reform the security sector.

Crucially, the DPJ says these "civilians" would be allowed to protect themselves and others under their control -- a black and white sneakers for dancing departure from the remit of the 600-strong Japanese force in Iraq, which didn't fire a shot in two years and relied on British troops for protection.

Article content Most Japanese seem to recognize that this situation is no longer tenable -- public opinion was solidly behind the refuelling mission. Mr. Fukuda is due in Washington today on his diplomatic debut to meet President George W. Bush. He will not be able to commit to the deployment of combat troops as part of a multinational force. But the fact that all political parties agree on some form of more robust engagement, suggests that Japan is emerging from 60 years of post-war anti-militarism to acknowledge that living in peace sometimes requires the necessity of going to war.

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