Whinging Koreans the Price of Dependency: Doug Bandow

by Robert Koehler on August 11, 2007

Read the essay on your own. Here’s just a sample:

Ending America’s security guarantee and troop deployment would leave the ROK’s future in its hands. The South could decide whether to intervene in a nation like Afghanistan without worrying lest a negative decision trigger Washington’s displeasure.

Seoul also wouldn’t expect any particular consideration when it came to policy in other lands. American officials who didn’t back an Afghan prisoner exchange for an Italian journalist wouldn’t be expected to change their position for South Korean church workers.

And South Koreans would be forced to confront the fact that their relative impotence in this or similar situations has nothing to do with America. It is frustrating for any people to stand by and see their fellow citizens kidnapped and murdered.

But the Korean government made a sovereign decision to send troops to Afghanistan and Iraq; the 23 Korean Christians made personal decisions to travel to Afghanistan. The Korean public should hold its politicians and fellow citizens, not the U.S. government, responsible for their actions.

(HT to Western Confucian)

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

1 hoju_saram August 11, 2007 at 1:08 pm: A good article, except for a few points.

But there’s no need for Washington to defend the South any longer.

No need except the perceived future threat of China. Defending SK is just part of a bigger picture of containing the next big thing.
2 Richardson August 11, 2007 at 11:05 pm: Bandow omits a lot;
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HI09Dg02.html

Throwing away such regional influence would be a mistake for America.
3 colontos August 12, 2007 at 5:36 am: Question: what in sam hill is “whinging”?

I challenge you to locate that word in any dictionary.

Probably what you were looking for is “whining.”
4 Paul H. August 12, 2007 at 6:36 am: I’ve seen it before, your question stimulated me to look it up.

It’s evidently mainly British usage.

pronunciation: hwnj, wnj
INTRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: whinged, whing·ing, whing·es
Chiefly British To complain or protest, especially in an annoying or persistent manner.
ETYMOLOGY: Dialectal alteration of Middle English whinsen, from Old English hwinsian

http://www.bartleby.net/61/97/W0119750.html
5 colontos August 13, 2007 at 5:24 am: Hm, I stand corrected.

I had thought it was another of those ubiquitous internet mistakes, like the confusion between “lose” and “loose.”

My bad; I’ll be sure to hit the dictionary before making an ass of myself next time.
6 lirelou August 13, 2007 at 8:51 am: Good article, though the site title turned me off. Smacks of singing Kumbaya by the river while fascist tanks rolled over Europe and undesirables were sent off to the ovens.
But: Alliances, like everything else in the world, have life spans. The useful lifespan of this alliance ended years ago, yet we hold on. We should be proactive, and leave, thereby freeing up more troops for Iraq and reducing the Korean drain on our tax dollars.