This is John Batchel. Colleague Grant Newsham, United States Marine Corps retired colonel, author of When China Attacks,

apprises the imminent Japanese Self-Defense Force White Paper for 2025 and finds that it is not what it appears to be,

not even the sum of its parts.

Is Grant explaining that and anticipating disappointment?

Japan is a vital part of the U.S. thinking about dealing with an aggressive China.

Grant Newsom, more of this tonight.

Well, they can at least say, look, we're taking care of defense.

Look at all this stuff.

Look at all the things we're doing.

And you read it and you're impressed.

But if you don't really understand how it all works or doesn't work,

you don't realize that it is not even the sum of its parts, even now.

And it's better than it was five, ten years ago, but it's still not even near where it needs to be. But it does sort of present the illusion that defense is being taken seriously and that everything's sort of all set and good to go.