ROKs Won’t Go to Iraq

Owen at RathbonePress is on board with my view that South Korea isn’t going to send troops to Iraq. Previously, I stated that we could make much better use of the Second Infantry Division (now serving in Korea) than 3,000 South Koreans assigned to the most peaceful part of Iraq. Now, some evidence is emerging that Rummy agrees with that. A South Korean friend and I recently bet 10,000 won on this. I should have said British pounds.

Which brings me to Dennis Halpin, a senior aide to Rep. Henry Hyde, Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, a former diplomat in China and Korea, and the husband of a Korean woman. Mr. Halpin gave a speech at a Pentagon City restaurant on April 27th, the night before the rally at the Capitol, before a group of prominent Korean-Americans. I went along to hear him and meet up with Adrian Hong. I stood up and asked him about the growing anti-Americanism in South Korea, including hate attacks and the “Jim Crow” treatment. After finding about four other blunt and direct ways to say that the American public had become disgusted with South Korea’s behavior, Mr. Halpin ended with this: “The United States does not need South Korea. Shocked silence filled the room. It was as if they were all suddenly immersed in cold Jell-O.

After the speech, I attracted a small mob of concerned South Korean businessmen and ex-diplomats, all of them trying to undo with a few words the bitterness (amid much beauty, to be fair) of my years in Korea. I sincerely appreciated their sentiments, but what struck me most was how clueless they were that Americans are very angry at South Korea.

If any American President ever asks Congress or the public to support another military rescue of South Korea, I officially predict here, in April 2004, that Michael Moore, Ted Kennedy, and Charles Rangel (who already knows) will be beating us over the head with the racism our troops face in South Korea. Then, they’ll be Private Snuffy’s advocates and defenders, but that will have to wait for the moment when it serves their agenda.