Numbers' Game

(Numbers' Game)

The strategic situation of the Pacific War in August, 1945 was the total defeat of the Japanese Empire. Its navy had been eliminated, its remaining island garrisons were isolated. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were both attacked with atomic bombs and Soviet forces were pouring into Manchuria. And yet the Japanese leadership were insisting on capitulation on their own terms.

People always forget that there was a coup by certain junior Japanese officers who were attempting to preclude any surrender by the Emperor, and that the Nation should perish, man, woman and child. Death before dishonor. The Japanese Army would de-mobilize on its own terms. Any so-called "war criminals" would be prosecuted in house. Naturally, this was not sitting well with the Allies that were insisting on the Potsdam Declaration of unconditional surrender.

Like those Japanese leaders who believed they could end the War on their own terms, certain House Republicans of the more conservative variety have disrupted House business. While some of these Members might have voted for the original bill, now it would appear that, in their mind at least, Speaker McCarthy had given too much to placate the President. The idea that the Speaker got all that was possible is not flying with groups like the Freedom Caucus.

Like rattlesnakes committing suicide. With the formal entry of former VEEP Mike Pense into the Presidential race, and his own assessment that his ex-Boss cannot win again, the defection of these Republican Congresspeople is an indication that the GOP is more fractured than San Andreas. It is clear that McCarthy mis-calculated. That he would allow such opposition to fester without adequate anticipation shows a lack in understanding hos job.

The half-a-loaf argument is a spurious one, however but it has given McCarthy a two-front war.