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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| For Young Koreans, U.S. ’Main Enemy’ |
| 2004-06-30 |
| A recent survey showed that the Korean people’s anti-communism has decreased while anti-Americanism has notably increased. Prof. Koh Sang-doo of Yonsei University cited the joint questionnaire report on Korea’s policy toward North Korea and the U.S., which is produced by Research & Research and Gallup Korea in coming up with the above analysis. In 2004, Research & Research carried out a survey to find out which country is the key enemy of Korea. And according to Koh, people aged between 20s to 40s picked the U.S. (57.9 percent in their 20s, 46.8 percent in their 30s and 36.3 percent in their 40s) as Korea’s biggest enemy, but people over 50 said North Korea (52.5 percent) is the key enemy. All generations agreed that National Security Law must be reformed (72.4 percent in their 20s to 30s, 70.2 percent in their 40s and 49.8 percent in those over 50s). In addition, Gallup Korea ran a survey in 2001 and 2003 to investigate what people thought about the possibility of North Korea invading the South, and that there was no big change in the reply for people over the age of 30 (30.6 percent to 31.1 percent in their 30s, 32.6 percent to 32.0 percent in their 40s and 26.8 percent to 30.5 percent in those over 50), but there was a significant decrease in younger generations (52.3 percent to 30.9 percent in their 20s). "The Korean people’s structure of consciousness has become very flexible so that it cannot be identified with the concept of anti-communism and many Koreans treat the U.S. as the number one enemy, which tells us that anti-Americanism is notably increasing," added Prof. Koh. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #14 We're the enemy? I mean, disliking -- even hating -- us is one thing, but enemy? Lunacy. |
| Posted by: someone 2004-07-01 12:26:44 AM |
| #13 Gents, would love nothing more then to bring our lads home from SKor, but since they're a big trading partner - I'm doubtful at best it would ever happen. We have 37k troops there right now, I'd drop it down to about a 3k regiment and move them to pusan for easy charter out when the Nkors start pummeling Seoul. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-06-30 10:31:04 PM |
| #12 Good point, ed! We have similar problems here, all right. It will take a generation or two to un-f**k the damage done by the liberals since the 60s. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-06-30 9:47:51 PM |
| #11 This is the chauvinistic, narcissistic behavior you get when parents (Korean and US gov.) coddle and spoil their children. Get out and leave them to their fate. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-06-30 9:43:31 PM |
| #10 yank: They should have moved the capital of South Korea south, south, south after the war and before South Korea really industrialized and let Seoul be a provincial town. Its foolish to have your only real city within artillery range of the DMZ. During the Cold War, the West Germans moved their capital to Bonn, which is about as far west as you can get without ending up in Belgium. Since the Korean War ended, the South Koreans have been milking the mutual defense treaty for all it's worth. We just have to start being smarter about the things we ask for in exchange for keeping them under America's nuclear umbrella. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-06-30 5:14:28 PM |
| #9 It does make it far easier to walk away when the benifactors of our assistance turn against us. They should have moved the capital of South Korea south, south, south after the war and before South Korea really industrialized and let Seoul be a provincial town. Its foolish to have your only real city within artillery range of the DMZ. |
| Posted by: yank 2004-06-30 3:42:28 PM |
| #8 It's more or less mandatory for young Koreans to spend two years in the military with a follow-on reserve commitment. The rapidly increasing standard of living and the concomitant appearance of hedonism amongst the young has sparked sort of a Korean variant of the 60's peace movement that resents and protests the obligation. America represents a reality they reject, so they protest against us as well. Unfortunately for them, it's not a perfect world and it's unlikely to get better after we leave. So, young Koreans of flexible consciousness, call us after the war is over and we may help you put the pieces back together, and then again, we, also having a structure of consciousness that has become very flexible, may not. |
| Posted by: RWV 2004-06-30 2:30:28 PM |
| #7 It's a cultural problem. There is no word in the Korean language for "idiotarian", and now you see the results. |
| Posted by: Chris W. 2004-06-30 1:09:15 PM |
| #6 A recent survey showed that the Korean people’s anti-communism has decreased while anti-Americanism has notably increased. All the more reason to remove our personnel and equipment from Korea and leave them to their fate, whatever it might be. If it's something good, great. If not, well......tough. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-06-30 12:24:23 PM |
| #5 Why do we insist on pretending that countries are our friend when the population of those countries hate us? Pull out of Korea and tell Kim we won't interfere as it's not our business. I'll enjoy the fireworks while eating a bag of popcorn. |
| Posted by: Damn_Proud_American 2004-06-30 12:23:53 PM |
| #4 This is the natural result of our foreign policy. The US has traditionally been the Bad Cop to the regional allies good cop. Those that were around when the policy began understand clearly (those over 50 in this case) and those that are younger and less educated in the world tend to see the Bad Cop as beligerant. Same thing with Europe more or less. The routine seems to have a lifespan of a few decades, after that we need to get the good cop to stand on their own. In both cases we failed to do that and defended them long after they were capable of defending themselves, leading them to become fat, drunk and stupid which is no way to go through life. |
| Posted by: yank 2004-06-30 12:03:42 PM |
| #3 Amen BigEd. Let them play with the North then and pull our boys out. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth when the North overruns their stupid asses. |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2004-06-30 12:00:01 PM |
| #2 Best way to keep a kid from smoking is to give him a cigarette. If they want to see what it's like, remove our troops and let them go play with Kimmie Dung-hill. |
| Posted by: BH 2004-06-30 11:44:13 AM |
| #1 Wait 'til Lil' Kimmie puts them on a rice patty collective at the point of a gun. Quite instructive about who the enemy really is. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-06-30 11:30:08 AM |