Chaos Agents

Another splendid podcast...On a relatively minor point, the battle against international terrorists being much more important and so splendidly discussed, I am grateful for the mention of Joe Biden's unhinged comment about Japanese "xenophobia." I wonder who pushed his button on that one...I walk into a convenience store in our city, just outside of Tokyo, and am met at the counter by young, Japanese-speaking kids from Nepal and Vietnam who have learned all of the verbal and non-verbal skills required of service personnel in Japan, which is slowly but surely becoming a multi-ethnic society, without, we hope (!), national suicide. Tomorrow I shall attend mass at a small church, where many of the young people are Vietnamese. They tend to hang around together, and some of them do not speak Japanese well, but in the long run they will have to assimilate...Unlike Al Gore, we believe in the true meaning of e pluribus unum.

What were the books on Viet Nam that were recommended?

I'm not sure that Trump "surrendered" to the Taliban. Wanting to leave the country was not surrender. In hindsight I think the withdrawal was a mistake (and the execution a disaster). We had things under control before deciding to throw it all away. Leaving Afghanistan, however, is a judgment call for political leadership.

StChristopher (View Comment):

What were the books on Viet Nam that were recommended?

I’m not sure that Trump “surrendered” to the Taliban. Wanting to leave the country was not surrender. In hindsight I think the withdrawal was a mistake (and the execution a disaster). We had things under control before deciding to throw it all away. Leaving Afghanistan, however, is a judgment call for political leadership.

I don't think Trump would have actually left, both because it would have been giving away previously hard-won victory; the cost wasn't that high any more, and the US casualty rate was less than that of regular training in the US. The military advisors were against it, and he had the "out" that the Taliban was not following the conditions that had been set.

FJB ignored the military advice and did it anyway, and did it quickly and haphazardly, because he wanted an applause line for a speech on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

kedavis (View Comment):

I don’t think Trump would have actually left,

I agree.

I don't know what the financial issue was, but the ability to have radar suppressing jets between Iran, Russia, and China was a terrible thing to give up. I mean.

Having said that, the state department, and the military did a lot of lying about the success of the country up to that point.

Wolfsheim (View Comment):

Another splendid podcast…On a relatively minor point, the battle against international terrorists being much more important and so splendidly discussed, I am grateful for the mention of Joe Biden’s unhinged comment about Japanese “xenophobia.” I wonder who pushed his button on that one…I walk into a convenience store in our city, just outside of Tokyo, and am met at the counter by young, Japanese-speaking kids from Nepal and Vietnam who have learned all of the verbal and non-verbal skills required of service personnel in Japan, which is slowly but surely becoming a multi-ethnic society, without, we hope (!), national suicide. Tomorrow I shall attend mass at a small church, where many of the young people are Vietnamese. They tend to hang around together, and some of them do not speak Japanese well, but in the long run they will have to assimilate…Unlike Al Gore, we believe in the true meaning of e pluribus unum.

Where are you at? I live in southern Yokohama. I don't spend enough time on Ricochet, so it's my fault, but I didn't know anyone from Ricochet is in Japan.

I also see the foreign workers in the convenience stores, they're helping the labor shortfalls, although more are needed.