Posted on 11/28/2010 1:40:18 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The options for dealing with North Korea from President Obama and the Washington foreign policy establishment have ranged from mediocre to bad. Securing a region vital to the United States, and protecting the freedom won at the cost of tends of thousands of American lives, can only be achieved in the long run by ending the North Korean regime. This can be done peacefully, but only if Washington gets its head in the game with better policies and tools to help the North Korean people liberate themselves.
As with every other crisis in the two-year tenure of our president, the November 23rd North Korean assault on South Korea was met with a dithering response from a commander-in-chief who appears to be in command of little. President Obama refused to deviate from a schedule that took him to Indiana to tout his auto-industry bailout and later had him sit with Mrs. Obama for an interview by Barbara Walters. But Mr. Obama finally did weigh in by stating that “We strongly affirm our commitment to defend South Korea.”
Our democratic allies in the Pacific can be forgiven for doubting this resolve, given that the White House has focused more effort recently on passing the START treaty, which could eviscerate our missile defense and further impair our strategic deterrence, than addressing the threat at hand, with its broadening nuclear ambitions and brazen aggression. Reality is calling, but Mr. Obama refuses to answer, entranced still by his naive nuclear-free-world utopianism and instinctive liberal distrust of America standing up for itself and its allies....
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“To a man, they all believe re-unification is inevitable.”
The question is “What kind of reunification do they want?” I suspect the North Koreans have a signicantly different version of reunification than South Korea does.
I know no one in South Korea but sometimes I wonder how committed to reunification they really are. Let’s say for the sake of argument that both Koreas are reunited in a mildly bloody war.
The North Korean people as a whole are malnourished, physically and intellectually. To incorporate a completely ass-backwards nation into one that is a full fledged and prosperous democracy will be extraordinarily costly - both in terms of money, effort and psychologically.
I’d liken it to taking a Stone Age tribe from deep in the Amazon and plunking them down right in the middle of mid-town Manhattan.
In short, I just don’t see it happening.
My one year tour in Korea over 20 years ago was insufficient for me to truly grasp South Korean politics--but I am not surprised by your assertion. The ROK government is in a hard place-- caught between harliners (who I tend to agree with) and the leftist/ pacifist voters who trust their fellow Koreans more than the U.S.
The problem is, the DPRK regime lives in a different reality than the rest of the world. We essentially don't know what is really going on in Pyongyang.
One wants to hope that the leftie/hippie segment of the ROK population will wake up after a good mugging-- but I fear that they are as delusional as our own lefties. If war begins, they will blame the U.S. for it even if Obama bows to Comrade Kim at the U.N.
No doubt... It's not SO different to West Germany's re-unification with the East. It's been hugely expensive... and, is still causing problems. But, they've managed it OK thus far.
I don't claim to understand their thinking... but, apparently, there are still families on either side that find ways to communicate with each other.
In many ways, South Korea may just be the most technologically advanced country on earth. They could handle it... with a little help from the US, of course.
They are a little difficult to understand. I visit once a year, for about 2 weeks... and, I host our Korean agents here once a year... but, we've grown fairly close over the past 10 years. Close enough, to discuss politics over Soju. :-)
The South is worried... they have to be. SO many people living so close to the border. But, I think they're now so confident in their own superiority, that they think they'd easily defeat the North if war ever came. And, I think they're SO happy with the terrific system they've created, they don't want to do ANYTHING that threatens to harm it.
But... one thing is clear: They WANT to be ONE country again. In some peaceful way.
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