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| Axis of Evil |
| Anti-U.S. Tone Marks South Korea Election |
| 2002-12-18 |
| Anti-U.S. sentiment emerged as a key issue ahead of South Korea's presidential election Thursday, with the front-runner losing the support of an important backer over a So do lots of us. Matter of fact, we can leave any time now. Won't bother me a bit, and it'll make lots of South Koreans happy. For awhile. But a To whit: "If the United States and North Korea start a war, we could get embroiled," Kim quoted Roh as saying. If that ain't the dumbest damned... Kim said Chung, a former presidential candidate who dropped out of the race to support Roh, believes there is no reason for the United States to start a war with North Korea. ... piece of drivel I've ever heard, I've never heard one. The only reason the U.S. would ever become involved in a war with NKor, short of NKor pointing its patented not-quite-yet-nuclear missiles directly at the U.S. of A., would be to keep it from overrunning South Korea. Like it did last time. You know, that time that the SKors have forgotten about by now? North Korea has often accused the United States of plotting an invasion, but Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday echoed earlier comments by Bush that Washington has no plans to invade the North. Except for its attempts at developing a nuke arsenal and its proximity to SKor, NKor is beneath our notice. Think of it as Botswana, only with kimchi when the CARE packages are rolling in. Since our "friendship" with SKor seems to have unraveled, that makes NKor even less important. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #6 People old enough to remember the war overwhelmingly support the conservative, pro-American Lee. It's the soft coddled generation(s) since then -- classic Clinton voters! -- who are for the anti-American appeasers. Unfortunately the 9/11 that would wake them up would be a lot bloodier than ours. We'll soon see who's more numerous. |
| Posted by: someone 2002-12-19 04:34:56 |
| #5 Two things that people should remember when debating anything concerning N Korea: 1st, when China says jump, N Korea jumps. 2nd, N Korea is what happens when you elect the Natural Law Party as government (sorry :) |
| Posted by: RW 2002-12-19 04:19:19 |
| #4 I have been living here in SKorea for a while now and I must say your actually giving them more credit than they deserve. These freaking people sound like there going to war, and thats just their conversation with the bagger at the food market. The only thing I wondering about the north is just how many baby milk factories will appear when it starts raining red white and blue on pyonyang |
| Posted by: Rick 2002-12-18 22:48:08 |
| #3 There's another possible trigger for US-NKor war -- NKor supplies nuclear weapons to Iraq/Saudi Arabia/Iran/Al Quaeda/Syria/etc. I don't doubt the US has warned NKor that this would be a casus belli. The stopping of the Scud ship was at least a warning to the NKors that we're watching and maybe also a check to see what was in the ship - if it was only Scuds, or something worse. |
| Posted by: paj 2002-12-18 20:48:13 |
| #2 I dont put much stake in the North Korean Army. Last time up the turnpike, they had the advantage in manpower, available arms and surprise, and despite getting caught by surprise, we marched them all the way back to the Yalu in pretty short order. It wasnt until the Chinese stepped in that we go into a serious amount of trouble. Problem with having a million men under arms is you have to feed, clothe and arm all of them and/or have secure supply lines to feed,house, and clothe them. In both cases, the North Koreans have very little to offer. They can barely feed themselves when they are not under the stress of war, they certainly do not have air superiority, and arent likely to have it anytime soon. They cant control the seas and cant count on the support of the chinese communists this time around. Best they can do is extort japan and south korea with they threat of "possible action". Truth of the matter is the only reason they are still standing up is we have propped them up. With President Bush cutting oil and food supplies those days seem to be over. Steven Den Beste posted a great picture of NKor at night from space that I think tells the tale better than anything |
| Posted by: Frank Martin 2002-12-18 17:35:03 |
| #1 How far into North Korea would 37,000 Us troops get? Against the million man army we'd, perhaps, get a few feet past the DMZ. The 37,000 troops are there to show commitment, and to die if North Korea invades, ensuring US action. There is just not enough to do anything else. Everyone knows that except Skorean politicians, students and Nkorean knuckleheads. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2002-12-18 15:09:08 |