The disarmament treaties kept the Japanese from bankrupting themselves building obsolescent battleships. They were planning on building 2 a year, maybe more, before the treaties. That would have left them with a huge fleet, and no money, by 1930. Whether that would have been a good or a bad thing is unknown.

On the war, it seems to me that no one has yet devised a substitute for taking and holding the enemy’s country. That’s what COIN is, taking and holding what’s important to the enemy. This is easy to see if you look at reality from the ground, from informants who are in Afghanistan and can see firsthand the results of a strategy that does not occupy the enemy’s physical space.

Only people removed by ignorance and distance can let abstract ideas of technology and UAVs and movie spies convince them that this is an effective way to win the war.