April 9, 2004
THE SPANISH DISEASE:
Abductees' kin want SDF out immediately (The Japan Times, April 10, 2004 )
Relatives of the three Japanese civilians held captive in Iraq by apparent terrorists asked the government Friday to withdraw the Ground Self-Defense Force troops from Iraq in line with the kidnappers' demand. [...]Naoko Imai, 51-year-old mother of Noriaki Imai, told a news conference: "Please do not give up on the three who went to Iraq to help people. We have only two days left."
The video from the kidnappers broadcast Thursday contains a threat that the three will be burned alive unless Japan decides to withdraw the GSDF from Iraq.
"They have no hope of survival unless the SDF troops are withdrawn," she said.
"I wish my son would somehow come back safely," said Imai's 54-year-old father, Takashi. "I urged the foreign minister to pull the GSDF from Iraq, but she only told us that she would relay the request" to the prime minister.
Shuichi Takato, the 33-year-old brother of Nahoko Takato, expressed irritation with the government. Kawaguchi "would not reply to our question why the SDF pullout will not be among the options to be taken and still say they are doing their utmost."
You have to wonder if absent the United States the Islamicists might win. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 9, 2004 6:39 PM
Can you blame them? The government has to do what's right, but we can have empathy for the parents.
May those inhuman islamic bastards burn in hell in lard. Actions and threats like this cancel out Geneva conventions etc. Take no prisoners. They can't be rehabilitated.
We could always threaten to release Sadaam.
Posted by: genecis at April 9, 2004 7:13 PMAbsent the US these idiots would have to fight for themselves. And they would, with vastly greater barbarity and incompetence, (see Chechnia).
Posted by: Amos at April 9, 2004 7:32 PMThese aren't military or officials, either. At least one is a peace activist who went there to try to find evidence that depleted uranium was dangerous. They opposed the war to start with. As such, none of this is surprising.
Posted by: John Thacker at April 9, 2004 8:34 PMThese so called ~peace activists~ have gotten so used to dealing with and opposing civilized people that they are completely ignorant of barbarism and how it operates. How else can you explain having more concern over the possibility of cancer decades in the future than with fresh mass graves or lynchings and now hostage taking as a tactic of war.
I don't think one really has to wonder.
Posted by: jsmith at April 9, 2004 10:55 PMEven a US Liberal Democrat wouldn't whine for a nation to surrender to a couple of ninth century imbeciles that figured out how to use a cigarette lighter. Are the modern Japanese pussies? Talk about a fall, from Samurais piloting Mitsubishi Zeros to what? Bending over for illiterate scumbag Arabs armed with Zippos and gasoline. Anyone remember the first day of the 21st century? It wasn't Sepetmber 11, 2001. It was March 20, 1995 -- the day of the sarin nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway. You'd think they'd understand more than anyone that when it comes to nihilist mass-murdering, death-worshipping maniacs, nip it in the bud.
Posted by: J. Saltero at April 10, 2004 12:33 AMI was thinking of that yesterday, genecis, when Orrin was again suggesting we just pull out and assume the Arabs will, magically, act civilized for the first time in history.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at April 10, 2004 3:52 AM"You have to wonder if absent the United States the Islamicists might win."
Did that thought just pop into your head today?
They might even win with the US present. Because the US cannot fight with the necessary use of force for reasons of political correctness.
The savages will wipe out the West while we debate over humanitarian niceties.
Posted by: Peter at April 10, 2004 5:46 AMPeter:
An American doesn't easily imagine a world absent the United States.
Posted by: oj at April 10, 2004 8:39 AMWould any US President nuke Mecca within 24 hours of another attack in the US?
Posted by: jim hamlen at April 10, 2004 8:53 AMNo. He wouldn't nuke Paris either.
Posted by: oj at April 10, 2004 9:05 AMAt least the Japanese government is standing tough for the moment. Maybe they will remember what it was like to have a backbone. Why don't the journalists talk to the parents of Iraqi children who are trying to make a civilized democracy work there and see if they want the Japaneze government to give in to these scumbags?
Posted by: Robert Duquette at April 11, 2004 8:29 AM