Apartheid Ends An Alliance

Andrew Petty at the Korea Herald has written a story on the latest outrage of anti-American bigotry in Korea. I was actually quoted for the story, but it took Owen Rathbone to find it (minor correction–I left the Army several months ago). Read his whole post, along with his kind words about President Reagan. And be sure to read the story he posted about earlier examples of Korea’s xenophobic blood libels. Haven’t I heard that one somewhere else? Or was it here? Perhaps it’s not fair to judge nations by medievel superstitions. What is fair is asking how far nations have progressed since.

Many Koreans do not understand that discrimination against American soldiers has already spawned an earthquake in American opinion about Korea, one that has mainly affected American conservatives, who are the most likely to send their children to the military and support the defense of Korea. Koreans may find false comfort that they do not see demonstrations, boycotts, or other visible signs of an anti-Korean backlash. They won’t. Conservatives seldom demonstrate or riot, and they do their boycotting quietly. They act on their opinions by writing their members of Congress. And Congress knows. I should know; I told them. Since moving to Washington, I exchanged personal e-mails with Tom Daschle, lobbied Sen Richard Lugar, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee face-to-face, and lobbied Dennis Halpin, the senior foreign policy aide to Rep Henry Hyde, Chairman of the House International Relations Committee. Because I know that several other soldiers and ex-soldiers have done the same, I presume that I am not aware of the many others who have also called, written, e-mailed, or visited. Did any of this matter? Mr. Halpin’s response to my question, before a room full of prominent Korean Americans, was a very direct warning: “The United States does not need Korea.”

Indeed.