And speaking of Korea, that's a topic on which I agree with Pat Buchanan:
Should a clash come between China and Japan over the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, why should that involve us?
Comes the retort: American troops are in Japan to defend South Korea and Taiwan. But South Korea has a population twice that of the North, an economy 40 times as large, access to the most advanced weapons in the U.S. arsenal and a U.S. commitment to come to her defense by air and sea in any second Korean War.
And if there is a second Korean War, why should the 28,000 U.S. troops still in Korea, many on the DMZ, or Marines from Futenma have to fight and die? Is South Korea lacking for soldiers? Seoul, too, has been the site of anti-American demonstrations demanding we get out.
Why do we Americans seem more desperate to defend these countries than their people are to have us defend them? Is letting go of the world we grew up in so difficult?
Again, you are wrong. Many South Koreans want the American military to stay--the vocal protesters who want the Americans out are a small but loud minority, much akin to the tea baggers who equate Obama's healthcare reform with fascism.
ReplyDeleteImagine if someone characterized all of America based on this loud minority. That's exactly what is happening here.
The trouble is guys that as an ex colonial nation you never could stand the Europeans having their overseas colonies. So over the years whilst 'persuading' them to shed their colonies you have quietly assembled your own 'empire' - although you prefer to call them something different e.g friendly states needing support, South Korea being just one example!
ReplyDeleteThe Republic of Korea (ROK) is a small but vibrant country with its major population center (Seoul) located within the range of artillery and rockets from north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
ReplyDeleteThe Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) sits north with a stronger Army and a stronger Air Force along its border. The DPRK has a nuclear weapons capability. The ROK has none. It is all downhill from the DMZ to Seoul. The lights seen in the satellite picture can be reduced to zero by a DPRK invasion. In the long run, the ROK would prevail, provided that the People's Republic of China did not intervene.
The two nations still coexist in a state of war modified by a truce. The United Nations is in nominal but not actual control of the multi-national military forces, of which the U.S. Eighth Army and the U.S. Fifth Air Force are the major contributor.
It is the PAX US which has enabled the ROK to economically develop from an agrarian economy, reconstitute their Army and turn from a series of one party dictatorships into a democracy. They were, by the way, an important force contributor to the war in Vietnam and took heavy casualties for their effort while pacifying their controlled areas. The insurgent Viet Cong and the North Viietnamese Army had no stomach to force the issue..
The stated objective of the DPRK is to "unify" the country under their rule.
It has never been a U.S. colony.
What you do not realize is that those troops and that equipment are not there to fight and die for either Taiwan or South Korea.
ReplyDeleteThey are there to fight and die for U.S. interests, which at this time lie in sync with those of Taiwan and South Korea.
I spent a year in Korea, and we all understood that we weren't there to keep the North Koreans from attacking the south, but to keep the South Koreans from attacking the north.
ReplyDelete