In the Korea Times, Mike Breen puts on a clinic on Korean anti-American rhetoric. One of the funniest things I’ve read in a while. Here’s just a sample:
Rational argument is one thing. But getting the emotional part of anti-Americanism right is extremely difficult for a normal person. The basis for the complaint against the U.S. in Korea is a conviction of powerlessness. If Korea is the victim, then America is the corrupt policeman, the school bully, the drunken soldier. All we can do is moan from a safe space. To win hearts and minds, the anti-American must convince the audience that somehow Mr. R is insulting the Korean people. How can we get there?
As we know, President Roh Moo-hyun already claims that North Korea is not a threat. Perhaps by repeating Mr. Roh’s claim, Mr. Rumsfeld is making fun of him? He is a fan of Winston Churchill, the wittiest political leader in the history of the English language. Maybe the whole thing is a joke. One of the photos in the newspapers showed two American soldiers in Alaska with Mr. Rumsfeld. Both were laughing. Soldiers do not laugh when their superiors are there unless they are under orders. One of the laughing soldiers had a shaved head like an English football hooligan, which is a fashion in advanced countries. Such bald-headed mockery by the lower classes against Korea is unacceptable. Even Koreans who do not support Mr. Roh should feel anger at this insult.
Are we warming to our theme or what?
Read the rest on your own pronto.
4 Comments
Touché Mr. Breen.
Bald-headed mockery is not to be tollerated in any country, especially in consideration of recent Korean history and the countless numbers of citizens that have suffered under such deliberate jibes.
Didn’t Rummy say a couple of years ago something like he understood how Koreans felt about Yongsan, that it was like having a foreign army occupy Central Park? Maybe he just likes to f*ck with Koreans’ minds. Or he’s a really sensitive guy.
I’d imagine this sort of satire is lost on the likes of Roh anyway.
Man, that strawman was beaten black and blue.
Amusing sure, but “brilliant?” Mr Breen’s article wryly conjugates the possible connotations implicit in Rumsfeld’s comment. If you want brilliance though, I suggest you look across the page in Friday’s Korea Times to the article by Hart Seely titled, “Pentagon Poet Has Lost Meter.” Now that’s funny.
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Too Cute An Imposture…
Obfuscation is misdirection, as Mike Breen demonstrates in his ironic tour-de-force. It’s hard, though, to square his U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with that other US Defense Secretary who delivered the insulting “sermon” at the American Le…