A Can of Man
Je suis aware
Continued between a discussion between Aiki and I.
I think it's been alright but obviously there's been a lot of anti-American sentiment here. The GOOD news though is the previous president who was elected pretty much on an anti-American ticket sucked ass so anti-Americanism has dropped compared to the previous few years. Still it's not that great.
The issue a lot of Koreans have about America is that the US apparently has a lopsided advantage over trade etc. (which I am not so sure about since the US has given South Korea a lot of advantages over the years in order to help it to develop). The rest, I believe is a bunch of leftist crap brought about by the three previous presidents who were very warm to North Korea, the previous practically being a North Korean spokesman.
As relations with North Korea warmed, the blame on why the two countries were separate fell onto the United States, which was a funny thing because without US intervention, the communists would have taken the whole peninsula and in fact, not only was Korea desirable to China and Japan, but during the early 1900s, the Russians expressed interest (though not much effort) in occupying Korea as well.
What people don't realize is that if the US is kicked out, we are basically inviting any one of these neighbors to come in and really shaft us when it comes to sovereignty. In America, if the country is embroiled in an unpopular war in a foreign country, the citizenry take to the streets in protest. In China, they think that every piece of land surrounding China should belong to China. Do you know what the Chinese think about the violence in Tibet? They think it was an uprising by local Tibetans against innocent Han Chinese folks and that the Army had to intervene to keep the Han Chinese safe from hooligans. Unbelievable! But that's the kind of country China is.
As for America, Korea is an ideal ally for a few reasons.
The US mistakes Japan as a reliable and strong ally, but in reality the Japanese only go along with the US right now because they fear the American military machine. Once that is broken, the American base in Okinawa will be sent packing and the Japanese will look to be the de facto power in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Japan has the possibility of becoming too powerful for America's own good.
We don't even have to go into how a US-China relationship will turn out.
Korea however, will always have stronger countries to deal with and therefore even if the United States gave more military help to Korea, it will NOT become a threat to the United States. Japan can. China most likely will be. Korea can't. Yet, it is strong enough to make a difference in the region.
This is why I say, whether or not Koreans like the US or not is irrelevant. Korea needs the US to maintain its independence and rights and the US needs Korea if it really wants to stay in the game in Asia.
You want to sell F-22s? Sell it to Korea instead of Japan.
I think it's been alright but obviously there's been a lot of anti-American sentiment here. The GOOD news though is the previous president who was elected pretty much on an anti-American ticket sucked ass so anti-Americanism has dropped compared to the previous few years. Still it's not that great.
The issue a lot of Koreans have about America is that the US apparently has a lopsided advantage over trade etc. (which I am not so sure about since the US has given South Korea a lot of advantages over the years in order to help it to develop). The rest, I believe is a bunch of leftist crap brought about by the three previous presidents who were very warm to North Korea, the previous practically being a North Korean spokesman.
As relations with North Korea warmed, the blame on why the two countries were separate fell onto the United States, which was a funny thing because without US intervention, the communists would have taken the whole peninsula and in fact, not only was Korea desirable to China and Japan, but during the early 1900s, the Russians expressed interest (though not much effort) in occupying Korea as well.
What people don't realize is that if the US is kicked out, we are basically inviting any one of these neighbors to come in and really shaft us when it comes to sovereignty. In America, if the country is embroiled in an unpopular war in a foreign country, the citizenry take to the streets in protest. In China, they think that every piece of land surrounding China should belong to China. Do you know what the Chinese think about the violence in Tibet? They think it was an uprising by local Tibetans against innocent Han Chinese folks and that the Army had to intervene to keep the Han Chinese safe from hooligans. Unbelievable! But that's the kind of country China is.
As for America, Korea is an ideal ally for a few reasons.
The US mistakes Japan as a reliable and strong ally, but in reality the Japanese only go along with the US right now because they fear the American military machine. Once that is broken, the American base in Okinawa will be sent packing and the Japanese will look to be the de facto power in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Japan has the possibility of becoming too powerful for America's own good.
We don't even have to go into how a US-China relationship will turn out.
Korea however, will always have stronger countries to deal with and therefore even if the United States gave more military help to Korea, it will NOT become a threat to the United States. Japan can. China most likely will be. Korea can't. Yet, it is strong enough to make a difference in the region.
This is why I say, whether or not Koreans like the US or not is irrelevant. Korea needs the US to maintain its independence and rights and the US needs Korea if it really wants to stay in the game in Asia.
You want to sell F-22s? Sell it to Korea instead of Japan.