You obviously have never been to the French suburbs.

I lived in the US for a while and let me tell you how much racism I encountered so you Americans crying about anti-US sentiment is a joke at best.

My guess is that the Dems will take a quietly “conservative” stance toward any talk of US troop withdrawl from Korea, to compensate for a risk of looking “weak” on defense in general, while they try to figure out as a party just how hard to push for a withdrawl strategy from Iraq.

Too bad, as we (the US) long ago met the conditions for a ground troop withdrawl from Korea –that is to say, the very same conditions that the current US administration has imposed on itself for an Iraq withdrawal! (Ie, the achievement of a stable democratic government).

————————————————————–

Problem in Iraq is that too many American kids are getting blown up for OIL. I think people are catching on to Bush’s cruddy little
incursion to help out his oil buddies. That bastard’s going to rot in Hell. That crap had nothing to do with terrorism.

Anyway, I was just trying to explain to Robert that Republican Party maybe finished in the US. I see Democrats setting the foreign policy agenda from now on.

What I would say is that the N. Korean problem is overblown. As long as the two Koreas are divided, there will be nothing but finger pointing going on and lot of those fingers are pointing US’s way these days. I think it’s best if US can keep a low profile.

I believe US is thinking of reducing the numbers down to 20,000 forces and moving those forces a bit south. Rest of the forces can move to Guam. I believe flexibility is what US wants anyway.

The Aircraft Carrier Forces are also interested in relocating to Guam. I know

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap.....a_Iraq.php

But the Nork nuclear test and previous ballistic missile test have brought the issue of Korea to the forefront too for the US public lately. As an interested Korea observer here in CONUS, I fully agree with Last that the US public in general does not yet comprehend the depth of anti-American sentiment in ROK.

I’m not sure what the new Dem House and Senate leadership will have to say about Korea, but it’ll be interesting to see what (if anything) they may say about it over the next few days.

My guess is that the Dems will take a quietly “conservative” stance toward any talk of US troop withdrawl from Korea, to compensate for a risk of looking “weak” on defense in general, while they try to figure out as a party just how hard to push for a withdrawl strategy from Iraq.

Too bad, as we (the US) long ago met the conditions for a ground troop withdrawl from Korea –that is to say, the very same conditions that the current US administration has imposed on itself for an Iraq withdrawal! (Ie, the achievement of a stable democratic government).

As far as I can tell, this is an original observation on my part. That is to say, I have yet to see any commentator on TV or in the media make it — or any politician from either US major party.

Too bad, we need to bring them out and back to US territory. Unlike the newspaper commentator, I think we can certainly support ROK (and Japan) defense from offshore, with only air and naval forces — to the extent ROK still wants it.

May it soon happen.

BTW, Robert, ref: your number #13 — it’s “per se”. One of those common “straight Latin” phrases that has made it into colloquial English (like “quid pro quo”).

Main Entry: per se
Function: adverb
Pronunciation: (”)p&r-’sA also per-’sA or (”)p&r-’se
Etymology: Latin
: by, of, or in itself or oneself or themselves : as such : INTRINSICALLY

What U.S. immigration policy has to do with U.S. security commitments to South Korea, I’m not entirely certain.

http://www.freerepublic.com/fo.....omment?q=1

I predict Democratic President in ‘08.

I think it’s about time we start asking S. Koreans what they want rather than what we want. It’s obvious American foreign policy is 50 years too late. This is no longer a Cold War issue. The world is changing. China is not our enemy, it’s much more complicated than that now.

If South Korea’s foreign policy no longer intersect with US there isn’t much we can do. They need to learn to figure out their problems on their own. They’ll probably screw up as much as we have in IRAQ but it’s their problem not ours, but telling them “to do this or else,” type of mentality don’t wash anymore.

America has serious problems of our own. I seriously doubt we will be able to solve them.

As for the rest–it’s the current S.K. government’s misuse (or non-use) of the alliance with the U.S. for Korea’s own best interests that is frustrating to see, and S.K. doesn’t need to be “punished” or boycotted because it isn’t “grateful,” it just needs some real leadership that recognizes what’s at stake.