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John ,
Japan's former Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, was gunned down and assassinated in a campaign event in Japan this weekend. For a country that experienced just one incident of deadly gun violence last year, nothing could be more shocking.
I have always greatly admired Japan’s people – their efficiency, their work ethic, their kindness. They’re my kind of people. Prime Minister Abe was their longest-serving postwar leader and remained influential in Japanese politics. His absence will be felt for years to come.
President Biden's statement on the passing of the former Prime Minister pretty much sums up how I felt upon hearing the news: Shocked, outraged, and deeply saddened.
Whatever one may think of Prime Minister Abe’s political leanings, I think we can all agree that no one deserves to be murdered in cold blood while peacefully participating in their country’s democratic process.
Apparently, the assassin targeted Abe because of his connections to a church that he believed destroyed his relationship with his mother. He denies having targeted the former PM for political reasons. We don’t know many other details yet, but what we do know is that he didn’t even try to run, and it appears he was acting alone.
We also know that Japan’s gun laws are working as intended. The shooter’s weapon was homemade – crudely cobbled together from wood blocks, metal tubes, and electrical tape – and all it was capable of firing was metal ball-bearings.
Sadly, that was enough to kill Prime Minister Abe at close range, but no one else was injured, and frankly, it’s unlikely anyone else could have been – guns like that can only hit a target at very close range and aren’t really meant to fire more than once in rapid succession …
… unlike the high-powered, high-capacity weapons of war commonly used in American mass shootings.
In other words, the shooter had to go to extreme lengths to hand-build a weapon with lethal firepower because he never could have gotten access to one legally – and that is why Japan, a nation of nearly 126 million people, had just a single gun death last year, compared to more than 45,000 here in the United States.
In other world news, this past week we also watched as the United Kingdom’s right-wing Prime Minister Boris Johnson was forced to resign in disgrace. His own conservative cabinet members were resigning in droves, and it left him with no choice but to step down.
I can't help but wonder what would have happened during Trump's Presidency if his cabinet also chose country over party and resigned in droves. What would Trump have done?
I guess we’ll never know … although I have my guesses, and I’m sure you do, too.
Boris Johnson was a Trump wannabe – not quite as crazy, but his policy positions sounded a lot like Trump's white-nationalist “America First” gibberish. He was a huge Brexit cheerleader, and we see how that’s been working out for them (it hasn’t).
Folks, isolationism and nationalism are outdated, fear-based policies. We live in a global economy, and when we all work together to lift each other up, everyone wins. Yes, we must take care to make sure wealthier nations don’t exploit poorer ones, and hold our trade and diplomatic partners (and ourselves) to high ethical standards, but cooperation is almost always preferable to standing alone.
Not to pile on, but I do have a bit more bad news to share with you: The war in Ukraine looks to have no end in sight.
The Russians are brutally attacking civilians with no regard whatsoever for human life. The tactics being used by the Russians violate all international codes of military conduct – they’re raping women, targeting civilians, torturing people, and it’s feared they’ve been using chemical weapons, too.
To their credit, the Ukrainians continue to fight back and defend their right to exist as a free nation. Putin, without a doubt, did not expect them to still be putting up a fight nearly 6 months later when he invaded back in February.
Meanwhile, President Biden has outmaneuvered Putin every step of the way, even laying down the foundation for Finland and Sweden to join NATO – a move that has Putin losing his mind .
This is a lot to digest, I know, but the biggest thing I want you to take away from this update is how grateful I am that President Biden is in charge right now, not the Orange Buffoon. Our allies around the world need wise U.S. leadership now more than ever, and with President Biden at the helm, that is exactly what they are getting.
Sappers clear the way, Airborne all the way!
--Richard
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