re: #199 A hollow voice says,1st round on points. Onward!

Japan was and is a unified society, with a more or less single culture and millennia of shared history. And they wanted to be part of the world community, such as it is. Iraq and Afghanistan were cobbled together from parts at hand by foreigners who knew little about them. What worked for Japan was never going to work for either of them.

I was an Anthro major in college. It freaked me out how little curiosity the Bushies had about Iraq. American arrogance from “the end of history” of Francis Fukuyama through the Bush years was astounding. “Of course everyone envies us and wants to be like us if only they weren’t under the yoke of authoritarian rulers.” As a major we were sold on the idea that anthropologists provide valuable insight that is sought after by government officials making difficult decisions (one of the touchstones was Ruth Benedict’s The Chrysanthemum and the Sword). That seems to have not happened in recent Republican administrations.