Edited for brevity
The anti-American demonstrations here have suddenly gone poof. U.S. soldiers are walking the streets of Seoul again without looking over their shoulders. The official line from the South Korean government is: Yankees stay here.
I love it when a plan comes together...
Opposition to U.S. troops in South Korea that seemed to be boiling over has quieted dramatically in recent weeks, because of new threats from North Korea and a suggestion from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that U.S. troops may be cut and repositioned. Resentment toward the U.S. government, however, has hardly disappeared.
| It's just that now they can call us names for taking our toys and going home... |
Outside the heavily guarded gate of the main U.S. military compound in Seoul, protesters sit daily with a loudspeaker blasting the English words "[Expletive] America!" over the camp. In a fourth-floor walkup office crammed with grim photos of Iraqi and Afghani civilians and other casualties of American wars, Park Jun Hyoung, a 34-year-old activist, explains, "We don't think of Americans as protectors. We think of them as occupiers."
| No problem. I really don't think we should stay where we're not wanted — or come back if they suddenly decide they need us... |
But the mainstream South Korean public seemed sobered by Rumsfeld's remarks last week that the Pentagon might reduce its force of 37,000 troops and move some of them away from the front lines at the Demilitarized Zone, the frontier with North Korea. The Korean critics "went up to the cliff, peered over, and then pulled back," said Scott Snyder, the head in Seoul of the Asia Foundation, a private, nongovernmental, grant-making organization.
| No, they went to the edge of the cliff, had a good look, jumped, and now they're unhappy at the prospect of hitting bottom. Next time the NKors decide to "reunify" the country, maybe France will help them out. |
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