Government officials expressed satisfaction Friday over the successful conclusion of the Self-Defense Forces missions in and near Iraq, but some experts complained that the pullout was long overdue.

"There were at least three previous opportunities for the Air Self-Defense Force to withdraw from Iraq," said Tetsuo Maeda, a military journalist and author of several books on the SDF.

The ASDF could have joined the Ground Self-Defense Force in 2006 or departed when the Nagoya High Court ruled in July 2007 that the dispatch was unconstitutional, he said.