Iraq: Bush comparisons with Japan wide of the mark

sify: ..Japan formally surrendered on September 2, 1945 on board the USS Missouri, ending a global conflict that left 50 million people dead and opening an era in which Tokyo is one of the closest US allies, even sending troops to Iraq.

But experts say there are major differences between Japan and Iraq ranging from their contrasting cultures to the way in which the United States carried out its occupations.

Washington worked closely with many of the Japanese leaders and bureaucrats who had fought bitterly against the American "devils." Emperor Hirohito was allowed to keep the throne after renouncing his divinity.

"The current process of nation-building in Iraq is led by former political exiles under the Saddam Hussein regime, which makes it like a revolution," said Keiko Sakai, a Middle East specialist at the Institute of Developing Economies, a think-tank supported by the Japanese government.

"Post-war Iraq doesn't have a neutral administrative body, as the former bureaucrats - most of them related to the Baath party - were purged," she said, referring to Saddam's party.

"The current administration is a regime driven by ideology and former exiles," she said. Read more