Posted on 04/08/2004 8:50:49 AM PDT by utvolsfan13
Just flashed on Fox News Channel.
My old man told me that in Vietnam the ROK's were the MP's you didn't mess with.
Eight Koreans, three Japanese, two Arab Israelis kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq
By JASON KEYSER
The Associated Press
4/8/04 12:13 PMBAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi insurgents kidnapped eight South Koreans, three Japanese and two Arab Israelis, and captors armed with automatic rifles and swords threatened in a video released Thursday to burn the Japanese alive if Tokyo does not withdraw from the U.S.-led coalition within three days.
Two South Korean TV stations reported from Iraq early Friday that the South Koreans -- Christian missionaires -- had been released, but the Foreign Ministry in Seoul could not confirm that.
So does that mean American troops can come home and stop protecting them now?:P
The Koreans are quite brave soldiers, marines, airmen ans sailors. as fine as any in the world. I would not let a group of leftists in the Korean media, quasi socialist political movements or a pack of young college age kids lead you to get the wrong impression of Korea. Shall we judge America solely by the Democrats, CBS and MoveOn?
Our presence there has broader implications as well for Japan and Taiwan. A great deal that one hears out of the media about the place is either fear mongering or conjecture.
We bear some responsibility for there situation, not all but some. Are we not obliged to keep our commitment to them?
It was horrific. Hundreds of thousands more South Korean citizens were killed. It is estimated that over one million North Korean soldiers were killed and an unknown (but very high) number of North Korean citizens.
The Korean number seems quite suspect to me also but I do not have any explanation off hand. I will say the the Korean memorial in downtown New York lists Korean casualties in the 50K range. Could this be casualties on both side? That might make sense. I was only talking about S. Korea. But you are right in the main, it was much worse that Vietnam if one considers how short the war was.
THe returning Vets were not treated uch better than the ones from Vietnam. It is called "the forgotten war" for good reason.
We lost over 54,000 Americans as a result of that war...to me, they are all casualties of war.
I do not doubt the S. Korean figures. When you consider that the capitol, a very densely populated city, was completely overrun and changed hands four or more times, with their soldiers fighting to hold it...it is not difficult to imagine. Look at how many men we lost in the 1860's when Americans fought Americans without the modern implements of war.
Having traveled to that part of the world and worked with and talked to many Koreans regarding the same...I do not doubt those numbers.
It was indeed a horrific war...and we as a people have not paid the homeage to those who fought there that we ought to have, and have therefore not really learned the lessons that they spilt their blood to teach us (IMHO).
What is so sad is that it did not have to end the way it did (or actually, the way it didn't). We had thoroughly beaten the N. Koreans and had it within our power to uterrly halt the Chinese...before they came across...and the planning was in place and ready to be implemented. But our President at the time made an international decision as opposed to an American decision. It costs us another 20,000+ American lives, the hard won victory, North Korea, a stable Asia...and it led to Vietnam and the ultimate build-up of Red China. I believe Red China would have fallen and gone back over to the Nationalists had we made that move. I have not forgotten, and find it almost impossible to forgive Truman to this day because I had uncles and in-laws who fought there, saw it all, and have passed the truth on to me.
Ah...but hindsight is 20-20 and we are in fact left with the conditions we now have. It is for us and the upcoming generations to wade through those conditions, as we are now doing.
Thanks for the reasoned and interesting dialog.
No those deaths were all over the world, not in Korea. The downgraded figure for US casualties include accidents, so the KIA is even lower. The other 20,000 or so were in other countries all together and not directly a part of that war. We had troops all over the world back then. The DoD made a big deal out of apologizing for this last year. Honestly, you have you fact wrong here. At least about US casualties. As I said I have no real data about Korea's casualties, yu could well be right about that.
Believe me, I am that last person in the world to ever play down the contributions of our vets, this just happens to be wrong data.
While any death of our personnel is tragic, it was very misleading to have, for so many years, mentioned the 54,000+ figure in conjunction with the Korean War IMHO.
I am glad the record has been set straight, and that I have now learned of it, albeit at a late date.
Even with the 17,000 less deaths, it was a horrific struggle over the space of 2 1/2 -3 years. Much more intense than anything we have seen since. Even more intense than WW II when you consider the relative small surface area involved.
Again, thanks and best Fregards to you and yours.
First thing that popped into my head when I read this this article.
When I was in Nam, at Bien Hoa Air Base, I once saw about 30 VC prisoners, bound and blind folded. I wondered why they looked so scared, until I realized the South Koreans had them.
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