Posted on 07/08/2005 8:14:09 AM PDT by Paul Ross
SEOUL President Roh Moo Hyun declared Thursday that under no circumstances would South Korea allow the United States to resort to a military attack against North Korea.
President George W. Bush insists that he wants to resolve the nuclear crisis through diplomacy, but he has not officially ruled out a military option, which he has called a "last choice."
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Time for all our troops in S. Korea to start packing their bags.
As long as no NKoreans move south and "ick" up the place. You wouldn't not *believe* the xenophobia of Koreans. I'm looking forward to all the squealing and whining when the refugees multiply...
I can blame them. Similar comments from the American SECDEF, arguably triggered the Korean war in the first place. There is a danger that when you talk like a weakling, people will believe you and act accordingly.
I know we keep saving and feeding them and it is not something I think we should do.
They should starve and be forced to change.
Thanks for the ping!
Penny for your thoughts?
KIMCHEE!
That's all I've gotta say for now!
Yeah well, Yaki Mandu (sp?) to you, too.
IMHO...and MY opinion only...doing that would be the LAST tihing the ROK Government should do.
Especially if they don't want to see even more of our troops leave the pennisula.
Japan may rethink allowing more of an American presence when we continually see stories like this one:
China steps up patriotism campaign(victory celebration turns into anti-Japanese event)
Asahi Shimbun ^ | 07/08/05 | YUSAKU YAMANE
07/08/2005
By YUSAKU YAMANE, The Asahi Shimbun
BEIJING-Strong anti-Japan sentiment in China has prompted Beijing to change course and embark on a wide-scale patriotism campaign for events marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Chinese Communist Party sources said during the planning stages at the beginning of the year that most of the events would be focused on the victory over fascism, much in line with the tone of similar events in the West.
However, worsening relations with Japan, triggered in part by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine, have led to increased anti-Japanese sentiment among the Chinese population.
Various events are now being planned around China to provide an outlet for such sentiment.
"Out of consideration for public sentiment, the government has been forced to embark on a large-scale patriotism campaign," a researcher at a government think tank in Beijing said.
But at the same time, China's leaders have to carefully gauge emotions to prevent a repeat of the violent anti-Japanese protests that occurred in April.
During those incidents, the Japanese Embassy in Beijing as well as consulates-general around China were pelted with rocks and bottles by protesters opposed to Japan's bid of becoming a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
The first in the series of events marking milestones in China's war with Japan came Thursday.
A museum built on the site of the Marco Polo Bridge has been renovated at a cost of 50 million yuan (about 650 million yen) and was reopened to the public on Thursday.
Located about 30 kilometers southwest of central Beijing, the museum now commemorates the Chinese people's battle against Japan.
On July 7, 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident broke out, triggering Japan's war with China that lasted until 1945. Japanese troops on a night patrol were fired upon. Believing Chinese forces were behind the shooting, Japanese troops began attacking those forces the following day.
A special exhibition at the museum titled "The Great Victory" marks the 60th anniversary of the end of the war and features 800 historical documents, 600 photographs and 40 tables and charts.
Models are also on display depicting the site of the Liu Tiao Hu Incident, which triggered the Manchurian Incident, as well as a laboratory of the Imperial Japanese Army's Unit 731, infamous for its biological experiments in China.
In addition, the renovated museum displays a calligraphy piece by former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama that says, "Facing up to history, I pray for Japan-China friendship and for eternal peace."
The Chinese leadership is planning similar exhibitions and events through the summer as other commemorative dates come up.
The climax is expected to arrive during a ceremony Sept. 3 marking both the victory over Japan as well as the defeat of fascism. Communist Party leaders are expected to attend that ceremony. The date is one day after Japan signed documents surrendering to the Allied forces.(IHT/Asahi: July 8,2005)
A stupid thing to say. It leaves no room for negotiation.
I think that Japan will join the nuclear family soon.
Did you know that it's illegal to say bad things about NK in SK? Not even the defectors can! Stupid Sunshine Policy of theirs.
I'm sick of SK bashing us; let them become part of Kimmy Land for all I care.
"FYI, we have had no more than 250 US troops deployed along the DMZ for decades. The ROKs handle it all. But don't let the facts get in your way."
I don't care if they are walking a fence line there or stationed further south and sitting behind a desk over there (As my son currently is). Time to bring them home and let SK fend for itself.
He is. They elected him.
Granted we are also there for our own reasons, but we need to be there by the host-nation's popular choice. Otherwise we appear to be hypocrites. If we do like they are implying, and leave them high and dry, then maybe the populace will shake off the anti-American appeasement harpies that are chomping on their necks....and btw:
If we get back-channel communications that we should stay while they duplicitously continue to publicly excoriate us...then we should say...sorry, Charlie... No dice. Either Make your plea in public, or don't waste our time...we 'ain't listening. We are tired of being the whipping boy for the haters public posturing.
you know what I meant...
are they not using a coalition government over there in South Korea?
Did Bill Clinton EVER speak for more than 47% of Americans?
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I appreciate your personal investment but would still have to disagree. There are so many negative conclusions to be draw from our standing down in Korea that it would be beyond imprudent to do so. Here's just a few:
We made a commitment. The world (especially the ME) is looking to see if we'll cut and run anywhere, especially from a hot spot.
There is no place else in the PACRIM to replace the facilities we might need against more than NK.
A pullout of forces just to then deploy them to Iraq would be irrefutably argued as indicative that we are spread too thin.
The issue is much larger than the peninsula.
Bill Clinton is a good comparison to Roh, but an important difference is that Clinton had at least some unity of opposition before and after the Dole debacle. And the opposition had an agenda. That is not the case in Korea.
To my knowledge, URI runs the place entirely--not a coalition government. Roh's party took a majority of the seats in their National Assembly and was NOT removed after impeachment, so as I understand it, he got a bit of PR bounce as a result. Plus, the parties that are in opposition are either in disarray (the GNP is still squabbling over who'll be its face) or even farther left than Roh. The major opposition party, the GNP, is still mired in corruption and focused on returning the old guard to politics. And Roh took 49% of the vote, while the lefties took a couple of percentage points, too. Don't think that the majority of Korea is "with us." A strong minority is out of self-preservation, but the country's young-uns are vocally not so, and the elders who know better seem to be fading from the scene.
In my experience, the 386er voting bloc actually is what the Boomers spuriously say Gen X is--largely a bunch of whining leftists. That's not to say that it's entirely their fault, because we're the idiots who showed Korea the model of education, with tenured libs running their system, and education being far more influential in a Confucian system than the American system. And 386er activism is really what got the dictatorship out, so the results aren't all bad. Roh actually does make reform noise, occasionally, and moving the Korean capitol from Seoul is a good idea militarily and governmentally. That said, the 386ers are like brats who got a piece of cake after they whined, and now expect the rest of the cake--and they think America stole it from them, because their teachers told them so.
Until the GNP manages to get its head out of its ass, or the Korean universities are de-liberaled, I think that country's in trouble.
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