Report: Cheney to snub Japan defense minister for calling Iraq war 'mistake'

International Herald Tribune
Feb. 12, 2007

TOKYO: U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney plans to spurn meetings with Japan's defense minister next week in protest over his having called the American-led Iraq war a "mistake," a news report said Monday.

Cheney is to meet top officers in Japan's Self-Defense Forces during a visit starting Feb. 20 but has asked Japan not to schedule any talks with Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma, Kyodo News agency said.

Late last month, Kyuma told reporters the decision to invade Iraq was a "mistake" because it was based on the erroneous assumption that Saddam Hussein's government had weapons of mass destruction.

Kyuma later backtracked, saying he meant that the decision to attack Iraq should have been thought through more cautiously.

"I did not say it was a mistake, but I thought at the time (the U.S.) should have been more cautious," Kyuma said.












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