Stay In the Loop

If the United States is to hold a presidential summit with North Korea, there are several allies we need to consult in advance.  One of those allies is Japan. The purpose of consultation with allies ahead of a big diplomatic summit is to make sure those allies, Japan, South Korea, and others, understand the American position and goals.  Consultations remove ambiguity, and assure allies that whatever offers the US might make at the summit, the alliance will remain. It is true that the US does not always consult allies on these matters, and that may not be a bad thing depending on circumstances.  For South Korea and Japan, this is a critical matter of security. Lives are on the line. With good information, Tokyo could craft good policy for a world that is hopefully post-detente. Ideally, South Korea and Japan should be at the summit as stakeholders or at least observers.  China could get a seat for the same reason, but so far there is no talk about any parties beyond Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump, and possibility a host if the summit is held in a location other than Panmunjom, the Joint Security Area. North Korea might prefer to conduct the talks only with Kim and Trump in the hope to keep him isolated and blind.  In light of all this risks, Prime Minister of Japan Abe Shinzo may have to take some extraordinary steps of his own and seek a meeting with Kim Jong Un.

Not a Meeting of the Minds

On March 8, Kim Jong-un announced through South Korean diplomats that he wanted to talk to Donald Trump.  The offer passed through South Korea, and Trump accepted it immediately. He did not uphold any preconditions, or add new ones, or even take any steps to make sure the offer was genuine.  He just took it and ran with it. Then his staff had to spend the next two days hemming-and-hawing about whether or not an offer for a DPRK-US summit had even been made, or if Trump had actually accepted it.  From the looks of things, Trump certainly wants to do it and soon. To say this man’s “shoot from the mouth” style is serving him and us poorly again really does not illustrate anything. There is a reason the US has never held presidential summits with North Korea before.  It takes a long time to prepare a high level diplomatic meeting, and Trump no longer has the staff he needs for that. Hundreds of American diplomats and staff have quit since January 2017. The most experienced North Korea expert in the US State Department Joseph Yun retired right before the offer came in, and new people have not been applying to jobs in the State department.  Without the advice Department of States staff would give, the North Koreans will be able to manipulate Trump very easily, and so avoid giving anything up in exchange for a prestigious meeting.

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s The Vietnam War: A Review

 “You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - The most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" - but only slightly less well-known is this: "Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line!"-- Vizzini, The Princess Bride

            From 1954-1975, the United States of America was involved in a land war in Asia: the struggle for the future of Vietnam.  Vizzini’s remark gets passed around frequently, often with regard to the Vietnam War, sometimes Afghanistan and other places, because it seems to ring true.  The US lost the Vietnam War, and the locals won it.  Right?  Ken Burns and Lynn Novick remind the viewer that Vietnamese lost the war too.  It was a civil war, between two different ideologies with their own foreign allies.  Although The Vietnam War is very America-centric, the documentary strives to show us both sides of the Vietnamese perspective as well through interviews with the people who were there, and in so doing strives to be a definitive history of what the Vietnamese themselves call “the American War.” 

Good Turns At Pearl Harbor

It isn’t all bad news.  Last May, Barack Obama became the first American President to visit Hiroshima.  On December 27, 2016, Abe Shinzo became the first Japanese Prime Minister to visit Pearl Harbor.  There is a fine symmetry to these visits that illustrates the power of good, genuine gestures in the careful dance of diplomacy.

Why Do They Look White?

People often ask: why do characters in anime look white?  The answer is because you come from a majority white country, and due to the tropes of animation.  Most of the time, anime characters are not drawn to look white; they are cartoons and cartoons are meant to be cyphers.   Understanding the implied ethnicity of a cartoon character comes down to a conversation between the audience and the creator, just like all art.  Cartoons, be they western or Japanese employ a visual language known to the creator.  Visual languages are constructed through context, and the audience may miss an awful lot of the language if they do not share the creator’s context, leading to misunderstandings.  This happens to all art.  The audience brings their own context to the piece.  If you have the same context as the creator, you are likely to understand them more easily.  But we Westerners bring our own context when we watch foreign media, and vice versa.   Animation is a global medium now, and animators influence each other from opposite ends of the globe.

The Clinton Rules Remain In Effect

            This is absurd.  All evidence would seem to indicate that Hilary Clinton did not do anything wrong.  On July 6, FBI Director James Comey said there was no reason to prosecute, and went on for fifteen minutes about how Hilary is awful because Clinton.  On July 8, Comey contradicted himself in his testimony before Congress, when he admitted that none of the thousands of e-mail exchanges Hilary Clinton turned over to the FBI were actually marked classified.  Oops, my mistake.  Two were marked classified by mistake, as in they did not need to be marked at all.  So much for extremely careless. 

            But the story will not die though.  Bad stories never do, especially stories about the Clintons.  The Clintons are the most scrutinized political couple in history, ahead of only Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark.  The source of this scrutiny is always the same: Republicans carry it out with the help of a willing news media.  It does sell clicks.  We call it the Clinton Rules: the normal rules of evidence do not apply, any innuendo, rumor, or drug-fueled imagining is worthy of investigation, assume guilty until proven innocent, make damn well sure to bite and hold.  Don’t believe me?  I do not need to prove it, because the press does a fine job for me.  Jonathan Allen admitted it on Vox last year!  How many scandals have the Clintons been involved in over the last two decades?  What were the consequences?  So far, the only prosecution in all that time was Bill Clinton’s impeachment for lying about an affair.  Maybe, just maybe the Clintons keep their perch and come out of the meatgrinder unscathed repeatedly because they have never done anything else wrong.  I know what most people are thinking, because they have written it.  A lot, they have written.  The rules do not apply to the powerful!  Rich man’s Justice!  JUSTICE! JUSTICEJUSTICE!  Is it so utterly unbelievable that someone powerful is actually innocent?  I thought after someone cries wolf too much, we were supposed to start ignoring the boy. 

オバマがアジアで

大統領は、アジア5月27日の週に過ごした、とかなりが行われました。彼は最初、米国との貿易を促進するために東南アジアに行き、その過程で、彼はベトナムに対する武器禁輸を解除すると発表しました。木曜日までに彼は三重県伊勢市にあるG-7サミットのために日本に行っていたし、金曜日に広島を訪問する最初のアメリカ大統領になって、広島平和記念公園にサイド旅行をしました。武器禁輸を持ち上げると、大きいですが、広島への訪問は、容易に大きな話です。以上の劇的な1、少なくとも。そこ旅の両脚について言いたいことがたくさんあるが、彼らは大統領の政策を介して接続します。オバマ氏は、常に21世紀がされることを知恵受け入れた「アジアの世紀を;」による東アジアと南アジアの周りに生活水準の継続的な改善、および私たちの残りの部分に大陸の増加経済的重要性に。私はアメリカ合衆国の大統領としてアジアに彼の最後になると信じてこの旅行は、完璧なフィナーレになります。