On Sun, 30 Nov 2003, Ulhas cited the London Review of Books
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IMHO, this is an excellent article, and if you have any interest in the subject, you should download it now while it's still free to nonsubscribers. It's quite long but it's completely worth your time.
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Lord yes, this is an awesome essay which brings to mind the weary opinions of my Korean friends. Considering the abundent examples of American stupidity and arrogance (the same thing, in the end) Mr. Cumings cites, the article could have been subtitled - *wake up and learn, you violent dumb-asses!*
DRM
Excerpts
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Donald Rumsfeld made matters worse in the spring of 2003 by demanding revisions in the basic war plan for Korea (‘Operations Plan 5030’). The strategy, according to insiders who have read the plan, is ‘to topple Kim’s regime by destabilising its military forces’, who would then overthrow him and bring about a ‘regime change’. The plan was pushed, according to an article in US News and World Report, ‘by many of the same Administration hard-liners who advocated regime change in Iraq’. Unnamed senior officials considered elements of this new plan to be ‘so aggressive that they could provoke a war’. Short of attacking or trying to bring about a military coup, Rumsfeld and Co wanted the US military to ‘stage a weeks-long surprise military exercise, designed to force North Koreans to head for bunkers and deplete valuable stores of food, water and other resources’. This is oddly reminiscent of 1950, when North Korea announced a long military exercise along the 38th parallel, mobilising some 40,000 troops. In the middle of the exercise, several divisions suddenly veered south and in three days took Seoul; only a handful of the highest officials knew that the summer exercises were the prelude to an invasion.
Half a century later comes Rumsfeld, with his provocative plans, a man who according to two eyewitnesses was surprised to learn when he joined the Pentagon that the US still had nearly 40,000 troops in Korea.
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Other Americans wondered how Koreans dared to criticise the US when North Korea was 'rattling a nuclear sword'. A Pentagon official explained: 'It's like teaching a child to ride a bike. We've been running alongside South Korea, holding onto its handlebars for 50 years. At some point you have to let go.' Another military official in Seoul said when Roh was elected: 'There is a real sense of mourning here' (on his military base). Meanwhile, American business interests warned that troop withdrawals would cause investors to 'seriously reconsider . . . their plans here'. It's amazing that this combination of irritability and condescension should seem so unremarkable both to the people who make such comments, and (often) to the reporters who quote them. A recent Gallup Poll in South Korea showed an increase in the number of those who 'disliked' the United States from 15 per cent in 1994 to 53 per cent in 2003. When they were asked if they 'liked' the US 37 per cent said yes, as against 64 per cent in 1994.
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