Here’s my second missive of hope for the day: As most of you undoubtedly noted, Roh Moo Hyun won the Korean presidency by a slim margin yesterday against a far more conservative candidate and on a “sunshine” platform re: North Korea. That slender margin was undoubtedly provided by the Bush administration and the Pentagon. Diplomatic and military imperiousness plays remarkably poorly in the rest of the world (as Colonel Daniel Smith’s piece below, taken off the Foreign Policy in Focus website, makes all too clear).
The administration’s drive to drive President Kim Dae-jung’s sunshine policy in Korea underground, and the acquittal by a US military court of two American soldiers whose vehicle ran over a young Korean girl, sparked the largest and deepest anti-American demonstrations in years. As we garrison the earth, our bases become festering sores for local peoples. (Note, for instance, that another military rape case is making waves in Okinawa.) Martin Woollacott, a veteran reporter for the British Guardian offers below a good rundown on events in Korea. But the implications of Roh’s victory are hardly Korea-limited.
After all, this is the second unwelcome administration the Bushites have inadvertently managed to elect. Gerhardt Schroeder’s Social Democratic Party squeaked by in Germany on a vehemently anti-Iraq war policy. My hopeful question is: Can the Bush administration single-handedly turn back what seemed to be a global electoral right-wing tide? Or put another way, there is hope out there beyond our shores. Tom
At least Korea is united over one thing – anger at the US
There is a new desire for freedom on both sides of the 38th parallel
By Martin Woollacott
December 20, 2002
The GuardianThe division of Korea, predicted the South Korean radical and dissenter Paek Ki-wan, would make his country “a nail stuck in the flow of history”. That obstructive quality, the way in which Korea constantly pulls us back to the struggles of half a century ago, has certainly been evident in recent months. It seems that the two Koreas cannot, will not or have not been allowed by the powers to settle issues which in other countries and regions are now only memories.
The North Koreans in October worried the world by revealing that their work on nuclear weapons, supposedly suspended, in fact has never stopped, while, in the south, presidential elections have been dominated by the connected questions of relations with the north and with the US. The most serious demonstrations against the American military presence in South Korea for many years marked the final days of campaigning.
To read more Woollacott click here
The division of Korea, predicted the South Korean radical and dissenter Paek Ki-wan, would make his country “a nail stuck in the flow of history”. That obstructive quality, the way in which Korea constantly pulls us back to the struggles of half a century ago, has certainly been evident in recent months. It seems that the two Koreas cannot, will not or have not been allowed by the powers to settle issues which in other countries and regions are now only memories.
The North Koreans in October worried the world by revealing that their work on nuclear weapons, supposedly suspended, in fact has never stopped, while, in the south, presidential elections have been dominated by the connected questions of relations with the north and with the US. The most serious demonstrations against the American military presence in South Korea for many years marked the final days of campaigning.
To read more Woollacott click here
Looking Internally: Polls and Real Life
By Colonel Daniel Smith, USA (Ret.)
December 17, 2002
The Project Against the Present Danger
Foreign Policy in FocusIn the small Persian Gulf state of Qatar, the U.S. Central Command has just completed a week-long computer simulation called “Internal Look.” The exercise, designed to test command, control, and communication links, has been dubbed by some as a dry run for an invasion of Iraq early next year.
Meanwhile, civilian Pentagon and State Department officials are traversing the world trying to drum up support for a possible war with Iraq. Other than Britain and Australia, no country has embraced Washington’s call to arms. Nor are they likely to do so, especially before receiving evaluations from the UN and the International Atomic Energy Agency of Iraq’s 12,000 page internal accounting of its chemical, biological, nuclear, and missile programs.
One major reason for this hesitancy, one that the Bush administration seems intent on ignoring, is that ordinary men and women in other countries are openly opposed to the U.S. policy.
Daniel Smith, a West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran, is senior fellow on Military Affairs at the Friends (Quaker) Committee on National Legislation.