Well, if you…………….ahhhh…….what’s the point?…..

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been half-way out the door with Korea-related items and voicing opinion on the internet altogether, and this might finally get me to shut it.

There is no hope in turning the tide in Korea’s thinking. It is too deep and too supported by pillars of the community

However, in have met a quite a few internationals who wish Koreans would remember all the wonderful things the US has done for them in the past but wish they wouldn’t dwell on all the bad things done to them by the Japanese and the dictatorships.

That having been said, the decision whether to stick a fork in the alliance, so to speak, needs to be made with a cool-headed realism, not because so-and-so said a statue of such-and-such should be pulled down or because Korean college kids say stupid things about the United States. Yes, Sen. Clinton is right when she says many South Koreans suffer from “historical amnesia,” but that’s neither here nor there. You don’t make foreign policy decisions based on your partner’s interpretation of the history of the bilateral relationship. You make them based on what’s in your national interests. Yes, anti-Americanism in Korea annoys me. But frankly, Koreans could be in the street waving American flags and whistling “God Bless America” out their assholes and I’d still be calling for U.S. troops to come home. What gets me about Sen. Clinton’s statement is she says the alliance is in trouble, but then she goes and cites “historical amnesia” on the part of Koreans. I’m sorry, but rather than talk about all the great things the U.S. has done for Korea in the past (great arguments for why the alliance WAS necessary, emphasis on the past tense), she needs to explain — both to Koreans and the U.S. public — why the U.S. alliance is so crucial to both parties in the here and NOW. Telling the Korean public it should play along with U.S. policy initiatives vis-a-vis China, for instance, because Washington saved South Korea during the Korean War and played an instrumental role in its socio-economic development is just not going to fly anymore. And to be honest, I have no idea how the U.S. public accepts Washington subsidizing South Korea’s defense when Seoul is more than capable of defending itself and the nation’s geopolitical importance is not what it was during the Cold War.

This part is wrong I believe. There really is a crisis with food labeling, food safety and food inspection in S. Korea where the entire system is about to collapse due to woefully underfunded and undermanned government department. That’s why one day they come up with a study that says one thing, but then next day they say the completely different thing - a sign of disarray and confusion that spreads and exasperates consumer doubt and fear. There was even a sudden death of one overworked civil worker handling the food crisis - he litterally dropped dead from exhaustion.

China itself is well known to extremely dangerous levels of poor food safety beyond just problems with food hygene . Babies have died because of fake milk formulas. People have died drinking fake alcohol. People have died from eating poisoned dumplings. SARS and bird flu (all directly related to livestock and meat hygene) came from China but the Chinese government kept them hushed up until it spread beyond control. And It’s not some cheap tactic to trade barrier.

I’m just repeating what the Korean media is saying with the following.
The only reason why countries like Japan and the US don’t have these kinds of problems with Chinese food imports is that these countries have very stringent food inspection, handling, quality, and safety requirements. Korea, on the other hand, do not. Not only that, Korean greed makes Korean food importers to do business only with Chinese suppliers who only look for cheapest of the cheapest Chinese products - damned the quality and damned the safety. Plus, Japanese and Americans have strict guidelines that Chinese firms must abide by. There are no such guidelines that Korea has given to Chinese firms. The outcome is the predictable and the inevitable.

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That’s the last thing I would ever assume, Baduk. I’m just trying to point out that it’s the ROK that has a problem, not the US (IMHO of course). For myself I’m not at all anxious for the US to take up arms against any Koreans north or south (I find it interesting that you didn’t distinguish in the quote above between North and South, or between “commies” and “anti-communists”).

Since your mention of Providence has got me in a Biblical mood, perhaps this quote is more to the point:

“Forsake not an old friend; for the new is not comparable to him: a new friend is as new wine; when it is old, thou shalt drink it with pleasure.”
Ecclesiasticus 9:10

The question today for the voters of the ROK:
between the US and the DPRK, who is the old friend who is the new? Quite a dilemma all right.

True enough. But then South Korea ought not to cavil about the United States taking a cold look at the United States’ national interests. Which, I might add, don’t include Korea except for the reason “just because Korea has always been a national interest of the United States.” There’s no there, there.