N Korea is next

offensive is a matter of person to person. Im just saying to keep it in terms that he can better relate to.

As for me... do you want to know what to call in order to offend or not offend?
 
Back to the main topic...

Americans need to remember the Korean War, since to the South Koreans it has become "the forgotten war" -- as it has long been deemed in the U.S.

Recent South Korean behavior has been nearly as outrageous as that of the North since its Dear Leader Kim resumed flaunting his nuclear specter. And even more infuriating. That behavior began during the recent South Korean presidential campaign, when the winning candidate suggested that South Korea would not automatically back the United States in any conflict with the North.

Granted, elections tend to unhinge rational thinking. Witness the irresponsible statements by Germans, whose peace and prosperity we likewise furnished with tens of thousands of GIs for over half a century. But unlike in Berlin, the unhinged thinking persists in Seoul. South Korea’s president-elect, Roh Moo Hyun, is now concocting a plan “that asks for concessions from both U.S. President George Bush and the North Korean leader,” according to his transition chief.

As The Washington Post accurately assesses, “In the mediation plan, the South Korean government would offer to play something resembling the neutral role of a go-between.”

"There are always some people around," Winston Churchill once quipped, "who are content to remain neutral as between the fire brigade and the fire." Evidently, the “people around” the new South Korean government somehow equate their saviors and protectors with their invaders and continuing enemy. And the lunacy isn’t confined to that government. South Korean masses have staged protests against -- you guessed it! -- our government, not that of the North.

And their press has fueled the fire, with the Korean Times editorializing “Seoul will ask U.S. to guarantee the survival of N. Korea.” The last time any government would “guarantee the survival” of a communist regime was when the Soviet Union issued the Brezhnev Doctrine, after his 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. Then Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev proclaimed, in essence, once a communist regime, always a communist regime.

To suggest that George W. Bush -- who told Bob Woodward that he absolutely loathed the North Korean leader for starving and enslaving his people -- take up the mantle of the Brezhnev Doctrine is a travesty.

This week, top South Korean officials make the rounds in Washington. Before polite diplomatic discourses begin, Bush administration officials should take the South Koreans on a quiet stroll. Next to the marble wall of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington is the more haunting Korean War memorial. There, steel replicas of American fighting men stand in their winter garb, but seeming frozen to the bone, with their rifles out to meet North Korean invaders. Aside these men, poised proudly to defend from attack, is an emotion-evoking wall of all the Americans -- men and women alike -- who were willing to sacrifice their lives that South Koreans may live safe from the horrors of communist tyranny.

The new generation of South Koreans needs reminding that 33,642 Americans gave their lives in “the forgotten war.” After that stroll -- back in the cozy confines of official Washington conference rooms -- these South Koreans can likewise be reminded that our 37,000 American troops in the DMZ protecting them from invasion by the North can be withdrawn should the new Seoul government no longer want them there.

Among the most admirable moves of President Lyndon Johnson came in the mid-1960s, following Charles de Gaulle’s announcement to withdraw France from NATO’s military alliance. As Secretary of State Dean Rusk finished briefing Johnson on the logistical details of his upcoming session with de Gaulle, the president calmly ordered something like, “Finally, Dean, ask de Gaulle if he also wants us to move the cemeteries of Americans buried there.” Rusk demurred, but Johnson made him ask. Should we also withdraw the graves of Americans who sacrificed their lives for France’s liberation from the Nazis?

Johnson’s successor, George W. Bush, needs such a defining moment now. Otherwise, the lunacy of both Koreas will not be forgotten soon.
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Source...

Read, and think over it before responding... ;)
 
Lunacy of both Koreas? :rolleyes: :rofl2:

Sorry, i didn't think over it, but that sounds.......*amusing*
 
I guess I'll have to explain...It's all about 'saving face'. South Korea needs the US forces there because if we pull out, the North Koreans will subjugate South Korea, as they have sworn they would do (honor et al). The government of South Korea knows this, as the North has threatened them time and again, even to the point of sending spies and terrorists by mini-subs to wreak havoc. They are usually caught, but the threat from the North is very tangible. Now back to the 'face' part of the issue. It is not honorable, in the Korean mindset, to have to rely on someone else for your defense, so, simply by having the US and others there to defend them from their sworn enemies, we cause them to 'lose face'. Now you see where they (the writers of the earlier post) get that idea of lunacy in South Korea.
 
What i found funny is the use of words that the US has lately, things like "evil" and now "lunacy".

As for the risk of being invaded by NK, well, let them fight their own wars.
 
Luis G said:
What i found funny is the use of words that the US has lately, things like "evil" and now "lunacy".
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I'm sure you did, Luis. ;)

As for the risk of being invaded by NK, well, let them fight their own wars.
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Unfortunately, Luis, we ram-rodded the defense of the Korean Peninsula through the UN, and we are bound to keep up that defense until the North signs a peace treaty. For those who do not know, there was no peace treaty signed at the end of the Korean conflict...just an armistice. Technically, North Korea is still at war with South Korea.
 
That's a shame to hear Gato, my knowledge of the situation in there is limited. One thing i'd hate is to fight a war that isn't mine.

btw, Why did the US got in there in the first place?
 
I listened to a "Korean Expert" on NPR last night. Much of this was talked about. In an oversimplified way of stating it, the US & USSR decided to split Korea. The 38th parallel was "close enough" to the middle & it gave Seoul to the US side. Much of the reasoning is Korea itself was in conflict, about half wanted a socialist government. The other half didn't & so it goes. It was a good place for both sides to enter Asia. Well, here we sit, 45 or so years later & nothings been accomplished, except teh USSR is history.
 
Nukes from N Korea? They don't need them. There are enough bunkered siege weapons along the DMZ to completely & utterly destroy Seoul, just 38 miles south. In the event of war in that region, it'll be the US using nukes to stop the destruction of the S Korean capitol & financial center. If you see an American pullout & then somebody in Missouri says the B1's are flying west, run like hell.
 
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