[Gene Eric]

Greta comments on the following piece:

Iran sanctions challenge South Korea to balance interests

By Chico Harlan

Washington Post Foreign Service

Friday, August 20, 2010

SEOUL -- South Korea, a nation that prides itself on its adaptive economy and its tight alliance with the United States, has come under pressure from the Obama administration to sacrifice the first for the sake of the second by signing on to stringent new sanctions against Iran. After much dithering, Seoul learned this week that it is running out of time to respond.

snip... snip... snip...

Link to WAPO story

[ltc8k6]

Maybe they know better that to trust Zer0 or get into any deals with him? I know I wouldn’t work with him, and I can’t blsme any country that doesn’t want to deal with the backslider...

[Gene Eric]

BTW, Greta had Bolton on tonight’s show discussing SK’s reaction to the sanctions. Neither were pleased.

[clee1]

I say FTW....

Our friends won’t help us... our Dear Reader has defacated all over our traditional allies, and our enemies are emboldened.

Time for some early-1900s isolationism.

[mylife]

To be fair, Obama has snubbed SK at every turn.

[Tzimisce]

Another crummy left wing “ally”.

We should just let the North have them.

[Rockingham]

South Korea has two motives: commercial gain; and using Iran as a precedent to develop nuclear weapons. With US power and credibility on the wane, South Korea must increasingly look to its own resources and strength as a counter against menaces from North Korea and China.

[ZULU]

Ahhhhh globalism!!! Free trade!!!

How wonderful!! (sarcasm)

The lesson behind this should be [pretty clear.
FORGET about the altruistic spread of Democracy to lower class nations whose populations can’t possibly appreciate our sacrifices and efforts

Only get involved in quick blitzkrieg like wars which utterly crush an opponent overnight.

Don’t waste resources and efforts at “nation-building” - they’ll only kick you in the butt long-term.

Avoid costly long term commitments which waste American lives and money

Only get involved in a conflict where our best interests are DIRECTLY at stake.

[Jess Kitting]

Question: What has the (Obama) policy toward Iran and North Korea done except give them more time to advance their nuclear ambitions?

Obama Stumped when asked question about North Korea

If you can stomach more Obama-speak (We...We...We...), listen to the entire thing. Very revealing. Obama blabbers on, while NK and Iran strengthen their nuclear capabilities. (This video was made several months ago. Look at how far they [Iran and NK] have advanced while "we" stand passively by.)

[wiggen]

Loyalty may very well become a forgotten commodity should the world economy continue to worsen and we are not well positioned to weather that particular storm since we owe so much to China.

[Recovering_Democrat]

My theory is that Hussein really doesn’t CARE if Iran gets nukes. He has signaled as much by his inaction, snubbing of Israel, and by continued talk of “sanctions”. Idiocy.

So South Korea may reject Hussein because they also see this truth OR they may have gotten an “under the table” green light from Hussein to go ahead and ignore public overtures.

[ASOC]

As much as I despise Jimmy Carter, he was right on one thing - pull the troops from SK.

Should have happened in 1976 - would have saved us billions....

[SunkenCiv]

The Republic of Korea, under verbal attack by a leftist stooge / blowhard / demagogue / partisan media shill? How outlandish.

• Iran sanctions -- Among U.S. allies across the world, Korea faces perhaps the biggest dilemma... Iran is Korea's biggest export market in the Middle East and joining in the sanctions will instantly affect the trade with a two-way volume of $1 billion. But Seoul, on the joint front with Washington in the hard process of denuclearizing North Korea, cannot afford to lose U.S. confidence in its support for the global nonproliferation efforts... Korea should closely watch the actions being taken by the European Union, Japan and even China so as not to fall behind the international community. Every action Seoul would take on Iranian firms, or any other foreign entity for that matter, should be based on Korea's domestic and international laws and cannot be dictated by a U.S. law such as the Iran Sanctions Act.

...not least because Korea must be aware that the U.S. (at least, under Obama) will not do a freakin' thing to stop the illegal Pyongyang regime from doing whatever it wants.