Traitors in our midst, fomenting war in our own backyard.
Posted on 11/26/2010 8:45:17 AM PST by Kaslin
This writer was 11 years old when the shocking news came on June 25, 1950, that North Korean armies had crossed the DMZ.
Within days, Seoul had fallen. Routed U.S. and Republic of Korea troops were retreating toward an enclave in the southeast corner of the peninsula that came to be known as the Pusan perimeter.
In September came Gen. MacArthur's masterstroke: the Marine landing at Inchon behind enemy lines, the cut-off and collapse of the North Korean Army, recapture of Seoul and the march to the Yalu.
"Home by Christmas!" we were all saying.
Then came the mass intervention of a million "volunteers" of the People's Liberation Army that had, in October 1949, won the civil war against our Nationalist Chinese allies. Suddenly, the U.S. Army and Marines were in headlong retreat south. Seoul fell a second time.
There followed a war of attrition, the firing of MacArthur, the repudiation of Harry Truman and his "no-win war," the election of Ike and, in June 1953, an armistice along the DMZ where the war began.
Fifty-seven years after that armistice, a U.S. carrier task force is steaming toward the Yellow Sea in a show of force after the North fired 80 shells into a South Korean village.
We will stand by our Korean allies, says President Obama. And with our security treaty and 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, many on the DMZ, we can do no other. But why, 60 years after the first Korean War, should Americans be the first to die in a second Korean War?
Unlike 1950, South Korea is not an impoverished ex-colony of Japan. She is the largest of all the "Asian tigers," a nation with twice the population and 40 times the economy of the North.
Seoul just hosted the G-20. And there is no Maoist China or Stalinist Soviet Union equipping Pyongyang's armies. The planes, guns, tanks and ships of the South are far superior in quality.
Why, then, are we still in South Korea? Why is this quarrel our quarrel? Why is this war, should it come, America's war?
High among the reasons we fought in Korea was Japan, then a nation rising from the ashes after half its cities had been reduced to rubble. But, for 50 years now, Japan has had the second largest economy and is among the most advanced nations on earth.
Why cannot Japan defend herself? Why does this remain our responsibility, 65 years after MacArthur took the surrender in Tokyo Bay?
The Soviet Empire, against which we defended Japan, no longer exists, nor does the Soviet Union. Russia holds the southern Kurils, taken as spoils from World War II, but represents no threat. Indeed, Tokyo is helping develop Russia's resources in Siberia.
Why, when the Cold War has been over for 20 years, do all these Cold War alliances still exist?
Obama has just returned from a Lisbon summit of NATO, an alliance formed in 1949 to defend Western Europe from Soviet tank armies on the other side of the Iron Curtain that threatened to roll to the Channel. Today, that Red Army no longer exists, the captive nations are free, and Russia's president was in Lisbon as an honored guest of NATO.
Yet we still have tens of thousands of U.S. troops in the same bases they were in when Gen. Eisenhower became supreme allied commander more than 60 years ago.
Across Europe, our NATO allies are slashing defense to maintain social safety nets. But Uncle Sam, he soldiers on.
We borrow from Europe to defend Europe. We borrow from Japan and China to defend Japan from China. We borrow from the Gulf Arabs to defend the Gulf Arabs.
To broker peace in Palestine, Obama began his presidency with a demand that Israel halt all new construction of settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Today, as his price for a one-time-only 90-day freeze on new construction on the West Bank, but not East Jerusalem, "Bibi" Netanyahu is demanding 20 F-35 strike fighters, a U.S. commitment to a Security Council veto of any Palestinian declaration of independence, and assurances the U.S. will support a permanent Israeli presence on the Jordan river. And the Israelis want it all in writing.
This, from a client state upon which we have lavished a hundred billion dollars in military aid and defended diplomatically for decades.
How to explain why America behaves as she does?
From 1941 to 1989, she played a great heroic role as defender of freedom, sacrificing and serving mankind, a role of which we can be forever proud. But having won that epochal struggle against the evil empire, we found ourselves in a world for which we were unprepared. Now, like an aging athlete, we keep trying to relive the glory days when all the world looked with awe upon us.
We can't let go, because we don't know what else to do. We live in yesterday -- and our rivals look to tomorrow.
The stimulus package alone cost more than 8 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It also cost more than a decade of peacetime military spending abroad.
Compared to what we spend on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security fraud annually, our peacetime projection of global power overseas is an exceptionally good investment.
The vacuum they leave will be instantly filled by Russian Fascists or Muslim Fascists.
The wealth and resources they leave behind will become a weapon aimed at our hearts.
The US can no longer run around holding everybody’s hand like they are some welfare basket case that needs to forever suck on the US tax payer’s and US military’s teat.
The US currently pays 25% of NATO's budget and constitutes about 30% of the NATO alliance by population.
The number one sucker on the teat of the US taxpayer is the US non-taxpayer - or almost 50% of the US population.
“Compared to what we spend on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security fraud annually, our peacetime projection of global power overseas is an exceptionally good investment.”
I have no argument with that, but the politicians will not cut Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security.
Neither will they cut out earmarks. They’ll just rename it and keep spending away, Democrats and Republicans alike.
The Tea Partiers may make a dent, but I fear it will only be temporary.
So with no other real spending cuts, the Defense budget will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Note that I am not saying that we should not spend on Defense! I am saying that it will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Indeed.
And what have we gotten?
A 45K chevy volt with no place to plug it in and a $25 dollar Dr’s appointment to get a prescription for aspirin.
Social programs make the Military look downright efficient.
Truth be told, we could not wallow in the extravagance of social programs without the military affording us the leisure of it.
“Why cannot Japan defend herself?
Because S. Korea, N. Korea, China, the Philippines, etc. would have an absolute cow if Japan fully rearmed to defend itself.
Our presence there, and in Korea, is for the same reason we keep a presence in Germany, to keep everyone calmed down...”
Not to mention the terms of surrender that we imposed on them (rightly) at the end of WWII that prevent them from re-arming fully and carrying out overseas military ops, etc.
We’re in Korea partly for Korea and even more for Japan. We made that part of the situation, so we have to honor our commitments.
When someone asks why we’re still in Germany, I think they have a point and wonder how much money we could save by bringing those troops home. When they ask why we still have military forces ready to enagage a country WE ARE STILL AT WAR WITH, I wonder whether they forgot to take their meds.
It costs the same to pay a troop in ramstien or in Fort hood
pat buchanan is a moron.....footnote in history, his father was injured in WW2....he fell out of a deathcamp watchtower
People do forget that NK and Iraq have been on going wars
Oh, and then there's this:
From 1941 to 1989, she played a great heroic role as defender of freedom, sacrificing and serving mankind, a role of which we can be forever proud. But having won that epochal struggle against the evil empire, we found ourselves in a world for which we were unprepared. Now, like an aging athlete, we keep trying to relive the glory days when all the world looked with awe upon us. We can't let go, because we don't know what else to do. We live in yesterday -- and our rivals look to tomorrow.
In Pat's world, "tomorrow" is a Korean Peninsula run by Juche Fruit and a Middle East where the Israelis aren't allowed to defend themselves from those nice Palestinians and their brigades of florists. It's a world where standing with a fellow democracy is giving them the store.
We tried this crap in the Thirties. No sale.
Traitors in our midst, fomenting war in our own backyard.
True that.
But I think the guam buildup is a result of those grumblings in japan. Better have a base to fall back to.
We are not broke and borrowing from China because we have bases overseas. We are broke and bowrrowing from China because of entitlements and other liberal policies.
The Chicoms are allover the pacific.
The more forward bases we have the better.
Just to dissuade them.
Pat Buchannan used to be an anticommunist. Now he is fixated on neoconservatives and Cold War hawks. Pathetic.
Exactly. Economics 101 says spending on the military (especially on overseas military bases) does not contribute to our debt or deficit.
The deficit and debt are caused solely by entitlements (non-military) and spending on things Liberals like.
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