Someone in the Japanese government finally suggested that the US invasion of Iraq was perhaps less than brilliant. This has apparently angered the Bush administration. When Dick Cheney comes this month, he will not be meeting with Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma because Kyuma criticized the US actions in Iraq. He also criticized American plans for the relocation of an air station in Okinawa.

Everyone else on earth has been saying similar things about the US and Iraq for quite a while. Since Bush suffered the big loss in the election last year, even Japan has been finding a little courage to criticize. Among the Japanese public, it has always been very hard to find anyone who supported the US invasion of Iraq or Japan's support of it. Americans have been misled if they believe that the average Japanese supported that war. It was only the government.