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RayW
Premium
join:2001-09-01
Layton, UT
clubs:
 ·XMission
| reply to Time4aNAP
Re: Again?
said by Time4aNAP  :The Korean war has never ended, although it's been a long time since a shot has been fired in anger over there. Both parties seem content to stand at the frontier and give each-other the skunk eye for the last 50 years. It's probably the longest Mexican standoff in history. America cut bait and ran in Korea also. If you ever get a chance, go to the Korean War Memorial in Seoul (it is within walking distance of the Yongsan South Post facility aka 'Dragon Hill' if you are in half way decent shape and is a KOREAN monument and not a US propaganda monument, so do not go if you can not take criticism of the US), it has a totally different view of what America did at the 'end' of the Korean war than what we are taught over in the US, and displays the letters that were sent from Washington DC to prove it. That shows US public opinion forced the 'end' of the Korean war before it was completed leaving a country divided and shooting at each other (and each thinking the other is evil).
No, the US has not been able to stay the course since WWII, we get involved, then cut and run when things get tough or take longer than expected and leave a mess behind. Interesting how the media portrays one view over here, and the people over there see something totally different.
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Time4aNAP
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join:2007-04-09
Des Plaines, IL
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| said by RayW :America cut bait and ran in Korea also. Nope. There are still US troops at Panmunjeom, as well as many other parts of South Korea.
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Un···th_Korea
If you ever get a chance, go to the Korean War Memorial in Seoul... Thanks, but I'm already familiar with the history.
One place that I would like to visit one day (if it still exists) is an orphanage that was founded by my mother's first husband, who was a Marine pilot. He was killed in action when his F9F ran out of fuel and crashed into the side of a mountain in 1953. Although the orphanage is located in what is now North Korea, my mother was granted special permission by the Communists to cross into North Korea to search for it. She was pleased to find that it was still in operation some 30 years later, and still bore his name. I'd sure like to see it around after another 30 years, and let its residents know that they're not forgotten.
No, the US has not been able to stay the course since WWII, we get involved, then cut and run when things get tough or take longer than expected and leave a mess behind. Interesting how the media portrays one view over here, and the people over there see something totally different. All three Cold War superpowers have a fair share of the blame for the proxy wars and puppet governments that they initiated, and to the innocents who were the primary casualties. The tragedy of the Korean War was that none of the Allies had any real plans for what to do with Korea after the Japanese were vanquished during WWII. The country was divvied up between the Americans and the Soviets, using a map from a magazine! I can't say whether Korea as a whole is better or worse off than if US forces simply withdrew and let the Soviets become the custodians for all of Korea. But IMO we owed them more than what we gave them.
Vietnam was a tragedy because the US had been ignoring Ho Chi Minh ever since the end of WWI. Ho spent half of his adult life trying to earn the Americans' support for Vietnamese nationhood, most notably helping the Flying Tigers and other American forces, prior to and during WWII. But when it came time for America to make good on its agreement with France that French colonies abroad should be liberated after the Allies liberated France, the newly-bellicose American people saw Vietnam as an opportunity to make up for the unsatisfying Korean cease-fire. And as a country, we have failed to learn anything from that grave mistake.
I have a personal policy that if I happen to over-commit myself, I always honor the first promise that I made, and do what it takes to make it up for the latter broken promise(s). I do this as a rule, and spend no time calculating which scenario might mitigate my losses. If I screw up, I'm in no moral position to be thinking of myself first. If America had followed this simple rule, a lot of needless suffering would have been avoided. | |
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