In the US, states and localities have rolled back eminent domain rulings, but in the ROK, what do courts and provinces do? Exactly what crimes did the US and ROK commit? Exactly where is there a ROK government who can explain to its own citizens why it decided to do what it did, and all without blaming anything else but its own military unpreparedness?

Exactly how long after US troops leave does Mrs. Sheehan believe it will take before Pyongyang agitates for a rematch, and the region is destabilized? Why stay? Because the US record on establishing client states is miserable. From Cuba (OK, it was nice) to DR, Haiti, Nicaragua, to the RP and Iraq, America is a dismal model compared to Britain. The ROK and Japan are the best work America has done, and the Marxists, Maoists, and Stalinists whom their own idols would disinherit don’t deserve a cheap victory just for being assholes for 50 years. Besides, if Japan and the ROK don’t work, China never will.

It’s that. or the US builds a wall around the Americas, arms to the teeth (and pays for it), tears out every dissenting regime in the hemisphere (and pays for it), and dares the world to interfere.

Sorry, forward deployment is cheaper, and the world buys more cheeseburgers. Sheehan’s idealism is too expensive for me.

Your brother’s service is appreciated and necessary. What Cindy She-Man is doing is prostituting her Son’s death for the democrat party. She is a piece of shat and should keep her big mouth shut, get a lip wax, and go back to California. If you can not recognize that her abuse of free speech is a cancer on the war effort, I don’t know what to tell you. Many people do not like the war; there are more constructive ways to support your anger than lashing out with harebrained protests and defaming your dead Son. Volunteer and the VA, collect signatures, there is a bevy of ideas that does not harm the country.

“She hasn’t “earned” anything except opprobrium due a person who lies and distorts facts, and dishonors the memory of her conveniently-dead son. ”

‘Conveniently-dead son’? Brendon, that is nasty. Disagree with her political views and tactics, but don’t blow off the violent death of a child. As a parent yourself, you should know better. Until recently, my brother flew missions into Iraq as a reservist. He supports the war while I have been extremely anti-war since the invasion. Had he been shot down or died otherwise, I would have had a very hard time coping with my anger over his precious life wasted.

Foreigners are not allowed political activity at all — it’s illegal for us.

Is this really true? How is freedom of speech and other rights interpreted in regards to non-citizens in Korea?

(In Japan, a Supreme Court case from the 1970s permitted political activity for all foreigners resident in Japan, who from their position of residents are assumed to hold “an equal interest in regular political affairs.”)