So Sorry, Rummy

The U.S. stations 40,000 troops in bases across Japan to defend its ally and guard the region's sea-lanes. An additional 37,000 American soldiers are posted in South Korea to prevent an attack from the unpredictable North. To President George W. Bush, those might seem good reasons to expect help in Iraq from two Asian friends. But last week, a day after the suicide attack in the southern Iraqi town of Nasiriyah that killed 31 people, including 18 Italians, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Japan was suspending plans to dispatch its Self-Defense Forces (S.D.F.) to Iraq by the end of...