Ground Self-Defense Force troops are lagging behind in providing relief and reconstruction assistance in southern Iraq, an influential local weekly said in an editorial Saturday.
The criticism marks a turnaround from the weekly's earlier positive coverage of the GSDF's operations, apparently reflecting a gradual shift among the public from optimism to impatience.
The editorial comes with Japan in the process of completing its dispatch of 550 ground troops to Samawah. The third and final group of the core GSDF unit, consisting of about 120 troops, is now in Kuwait and is expected to travel overland soon to Iraq.
The editorial noted that many people are angry at officials of Al-Muthanna Province, of which Samawah is the capital, over their promises that the GSDF deployment would resolve all problems, especially unemployment, like a "magic wand."