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Feb 20 03  Opinion |  North Korea Revisited: WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?
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REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won
| by John H. Lee(JHL)
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On the TV newsmagazine, Sixty Minutes, recently, a German doctor had smuggled out pictures of literally how North Korea continues to do harm to its own citizens. Starvation is the rule rather than the exception-graphic examples of starving children were sad beyond belief.
As a foreign policy, we could not be more dumb. Here's a typical example: while we are under a Korean nuclear threat even to the boast of hitting San Francisco. South Korea's giant conglomerate, Hyundai, is investing millions of dollars in North Korea; not for starving children, however. The government, through Hyundai, gave North Korea 200 million.
Hyundai continues its gifts by building two golf courses, a ski lift, and renovating 250 rooms in a couple of grand hotels. Nicer places for Kim Jong-Il to entertain, I guess. They are building railways, power plants, communications networks and an airport- not to mention a gym, seating over twelve thousand. |
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REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
| If there has ever been a time for a revised foreign policy in South Korea, it is now. The: "Americans not welcome" signs are everywhere. Harassment of Americans on the streets of almost every South Korean city is a common occurrence.
This is an interesting little morality play. Recently, over 700 civic groups across South Korea held antiwar rallies, protesting a possible American-led war on Iraq's government and demanding a peaceful resolution to the tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Sounds like Berkeley.
It is time to get the hell out of Korea. We've been there since 1953. Please! Most young South Koreans ignore their history. In reality, the Communist North would have wiped them out without our intervention. We shed our life's blood for them.
Our reward: The "Americans not welcome" sentiment recently elected the present South Korean government.
There are presently about 37,000 US troops in Korea costing the American taxpayer over 3 billion dollars. A fact, often overlooked, we are no longer needed not to mention wanted.
South Korea has an excellent military: tough, well equipped, and superbly trained. With a temperature hovering around zero, I often watched in utter amazement as they tested themselves by walking and running barefoot in the snow.
So why are the Americans still guarding the DMZ. The most logical answer, other than our stupidity, is that the American 2nd Infantry Division is a sacrificial lamb if the North chose to come across.
More than a million North Korean soldiers are a stone's throw from the Americans at the DMZ.
North Korea is in possession of 12,000 artillery pieces, standing at dress right dress to rain down on American soldiers 300,000-500,000 rounds within the first hours of a conflict.
Seoul is thirty-five miles from ground zero. We should be less worried about North Korea's nuclear capability, dubious at best; and more worried about 20,000 Americans killed immediately. Think World Trade Center massacre multiplied by the thousands. |
| |  REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
| Let's Get the Flock Out Of North Korea
by JHL-January 21, 2003
In 1981, I was walking through a park in Seoul with some Korean friends when we were confronted by an angry mob of students spewing forth various epithets against Americans. In those days, we attributed it to radical students. No longer.
Recently, when a military court acquitted two American soldiers of negligent homicide in a traffic accident that killed two Korean girls, it was war. Signs appeared everywhere: "Americans not welcome." Harassment of Americans on the streets of almost every South Korean city is a common occurrence.
Most young South Koreans ignore their history. In reality, the Communist North would have wiped them out without our intervention. We shed our life's blood for them. Our reward: The "Americans not welcome" sentiment recently elected the present South Korean government. There are presently about 37,000 US troops in Korea costing the American taxpayer over 3 billion dollars. A fact, often overlooked, we are no longer needed.
South Korea has an excellent military: tough, well equipped and superbly trained. With a temperature hovering around zero, I often watched in utter amazement as they tested themselves by walking and running barefoot in the snow.
So why are the Americans still guarding the DMZ. The most logical answer, other than our stupidity, is that the American 2nd Infantry Division is a sacrificial lamb if the North chose to come across.
More than a million North Korean soldiers are a stone's throw from the Americans at the DMZ. North Korea is in possession of 12,000 artillery pieces (and now producing uranium for nuclear weapons) standing at dress right dress to rain down on American soldiers 300,000-500,000 rounds within the first hours of a conflict.
Seoul is thirty-five miles from ground zero.We should not only be worried about North Korean Nukes but also worried about 20,000 Americans killed immediately.
Think World Trade Center massacre multiplied by the thousands. |
|  | A powerful, emotion packed trip through the mind of a Vietnam Vet disabled with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder.)
As with too many other young men, he was sent to an unpopular war and experienced multiple traumas Even though more than thirty years have passed, the realities of the war remain.
Even with the best counseling and medications the war is only kept at bay. There is no cure.
At best there is only coping. The war will never be far away. It invades his days and nights. His poetic journal is sometimes dark. It is the reality of his war.This is not a book about the war. There are many books that depict the battles and heroes. This is about what happens when the war is over and society has forgotten.
There are still thousands of veterans who are fighting the war every day. Through is poetry, Greg uncovers the effects of trauma on those who have served their country.
With many wars on the horizon, it is important for everyone to understand what happens when the war is over and the dead are buried.
For many, the war never ends. Find out more about Gregory Helle and his book by checking out his website at http:\\www.awalkinhell.com
Give us a clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for-because unless you stand for something, we shall all for anything.
Peter Marshall
CHANGE: Successful change often requires a process, not something we consider when the New Year sweeps us up in hopes of getting it right next year.
A process of being changed in the inner nature is best defined in transformation.
Unlike resolutions which are often demands and rules we place on ourselves, ie, eat healthier, start working out, lose 10 lbs, get financial house in order
--- Transformations arise from within.
Boomer Parents Raising Children.(Book Suggestions)
 Author Robert Bly in his book, The Sibling Society, has a philosophical view on what got us to where we are. “as liberation movements proliferated during the 1960s and 70s, children joined the list of the oppressed, put there by advocates who asserted that children were little people who had been deprived of a voice in their own destiny.”
In this view, adult rules and boundaries were unnecessary infringements on the child’s liberty. In other words, parents suddenly couldn't just say, “get in the car.” What right did a parent have to tell a child what to do? PLEASE! It may sound OK in some parenting class to say to a child, what do you think is the answer? OK, if the child comes up with the “right” one but what if they don’t. SCENARIO: Parent—it is a school night, what time to you think you should go to bed? Child. I don’t think that there should be a set time, when I am ready, I’ll go. OK! WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
 Oakland, CA shrink, Diane Ehrensaft, someone I’ve quoted before and author of the book, Spoiling Childhood--How Well Meaning Parents Are Giving Children too Much—BUT NOT WHAT THEY NEED. She’s pretty hard-core and says, “baby boomers are a generation of self involved, self-indulgent parents, who go to extremes in pursuit of their own personal happiness and professional fulfillment." The flip side of the coin, however, is that my experience tells me this generation of parents are unbelievably committed to doing the best for their kids and raising them right. What happens often is that parents go overboard in providing and indulging: the motives are good, just not smart. |
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Disclaimer; Airborne Press 1984-2003, Inc.