My quote of the day is from a piece by New York Times reporter Howard French, “Bush and New Korean Leader to Take Up Thorny Issues”: “‘There is a real sense of mourning here,’ one American military official said today, reacting to the election result.”
No wonder the military are in mourning, the Bush administration managed to get the wrong Korean politician elected, a man who once wanted all American troops off the peninsula. This turns out to be another thing that “unilaterialism” can mean, as Jim Lobe makes clear in a piece assessing the administration’s effect on various elections worldwide (taken from the Tompaine.com website). Soon, left and liberal candidates in other countries may be courting the Bush administration for endorsements of every sort — for their opponents.
In an Asia Times online article, “Roh win underscores US-Korea rift,” reporter Tim Shorrock also deals with the disappointment of the administration and makes a salient comparison. Militarily and politically, South Korea has been to the United States what East Berlin once was to the Soviet Union, a satellite of empire. What happens if the satellite begins to stray? (By the way, for a little background on this comparison, I recommend Chalmers Johnson’s book Blowback.) Tom
Shorrock writes in part: “It was no secret in Washington that the Bush administration was hoping for Lee to win the election But in the days leading up to the election, the administration and supporters of its policy toward North Korea made sure that South Korean voters understood that the United States intends to take a strong stand towards Pyongyang no matter who is in the Blue House.
Clearly without a major shift in US attitudes and policy toward Korea and a corresponding effort by South Koreans the United States and South Korea could soon be as estranged as the Soviet Union’s former satellites in East Germany, Poland and Hungary were from their Cold War master. And at a time when US officials and some conservatives in Japan are openly contemplating the possibility of armed conflict with North Korea unless it ends its nuclear program, that possibility could be very dangerous indeed.”
To read more Shorrock click here
Korea: Another Big Election Defeat For Bush
By Jim Lobe
December 20, 2002
Tompaine.com
Clearly without a major shift in US attitudes and policy toward Korea and a corresponding effort by South Koreans the United States and South Korea could soon be as estranged as the Soviet Union’s former satellites in East Germany, Poland and Hungary were from their Cold War master. And at a time when US officials and some conservatives in Japan are openly contemplating the possibility of armed conflict with North Korea unless it ends its nuclear program, that possibility could be very dangerous indeed.”
To read more Shorrock click here
Korea: Another Big Election Defeat For Bush
By Jim Lobe
December 20, 2002
Tompaine.comRunning against President George W. Bush and his belligerent foreign policy may be risky in the United States, but it looks more and more like a sure winner abroad.
That appears to be the lesson of this week’s stunning victory by governing party candidate Roh Moo-hyun in South Korea’s presidential election, the latest in a series of national votes in key countries around the world in which the voting public repudiated candidates most closely identified with current U.S. foreign policy.
South Korea now joins Germany and Pakistan as key countries in Washington’s fight against the “axis of evil” — countries whose voters elected candidates who were most outspokenly critical of the Washington’s “war on terrorism.”
Jim Lobe writes for Inter Press Service, an international newswire, and for Foreign Policy in Focus, a joint project of the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies and the New Mexico-based Interhemispheric Resource Center.
To read more Lobe click here