I'm John Batchel. I welcome Colonel Grant Nusham, United States Marine Corps

retired author of When China

Attacks. Time Machine, Colonel. It is November 25, 1941, at the White House, a meeting called by the

President, Mr. Roosevelt, in attendance all of the principals commanding the Army, the Army air force, and the Navy at the time. Also

incredibly important voices like the sector of war. And everyone gathered around to hear a

brief about how the Japanese are on the eve of attacking, but attacking where? Attacking us,

attacking the British Empire, attacking the French

empire. The expectation was, if it was to be an attack on America, oh, by the way, where are those

six carriers in their first division, it would be the Philippines, and that the reinforcement of

the Philippines was necessary and that the Navy could handle it.

That was the assumption.

Mentioned in the briefing, I read in a new book, Scorched Earth by a young professor of history at Columbia, Mr. Chamberlain.

Of mention in the briefing was the possibility of attacking the Hawaiian Islands.

However, that was not seen as credible,

given the distance, and also that the Hawaiian Islands were extremely well defended,

and would be a hard case for the Japanese fleet at that lane. We know the answer to it is Pearl Harbor.

However, you illustrate in a recent presentation about Taiwan and the risk to Taiwan, that we're all looking at Taiwan as the vulnerability in East Asia.

Everybody speaking of Taiwan is a necessary part of the new economy of artificial intelligence with their

TSM, making the NVIDIA chips that give the advantage to the United States. Everybody's watching

Taiwan. What did you mean to convey to the people of South Asia in that remark that were over-focused. Good evening to you, Colonel.

Well, good evening, John. What I was talking about really is the very normal human nature to

focus on one thing, particularly when everyone else is focusing on it. And it is wise and

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