THE NORTH KOREA PROBLEM

Have you noticed that most of the websites for newspapers, television stations, and cable channels carry a daily poll, which solicits your response to a question of the day? Of course, these are not scientific, but like all polls the response can be very interesting, but it is also very important to carefully read the questions, because all too frequently the respondent’s answer can be erroneous.

In my local newspaper a couple of days ago the question was, “IS NORTH KOREA PLANNING TO EVENTUALLY INVADE SOUTH KOREA?” Wow that is a very serious and interesting question, and the poll results reported astounded me, to say the least. 60% of the paper’s readers said yes, and 40% said no.

I wonder if 60% really thought North Korea was PLANNING an invasion or did 60% think there would BE an invasion. There is a huge difference here and I just wonder how many people understand the significance of the difference.

Having served in Korea during the War, which some people called a Police Action, I can report factually and objectively that it was not a Police Action, but an all out god awful War that resulted in the loss of over 46,000 American lives and over one million South Korean lives. I do not believe that anyone will really ever know just how many North Korean or Chinese lives were lost, but the number was horrific.

Over fifty-five years have passed since the cessation of hostilities in Korea and that situation remains a hot-button issue. America still has thousands of our troops stationed on the DMZ and throughout South Korea, Japan, Okinawa, and Guam. With the passage of time, America still does not fully understand the long term goals of the North Koreans or just does not want to think about a bad situation, but the North Koreans are not normal, rational thinking individuals.

Administration after administration has failed to resolve this festering boil on our foreign policy agenda, but it eventually will come to a devastating head. The huge difference between our position and theirs is that they have millions of people on their side of the line and if they lose a few million that is of little consequence to their leadership, because that is just a few million less to feed. We value life totally different than the Far East and Middle Eastern mindset, and we just never seem to recognize that simple fact.

Some of our opposition is the result of religious misinterpretations, and a deep hatred of the American way of life. American support of long-standing friends is being used to further divide possible resolutions of historical tensions.

Your Commander believes that the North Korean situation is just as volatile, if not more, than the Iranian, Iraqi or Afghanistan situations. President Obama has a full plate as far as foreign affairs are concerned, and he is placing our National Security position in jeopardy with the dramatically increased national debt structure. I hate War and anything to do with it, but War is tragically on the American horizon from more than one direction, and we best be ready to defend our sacred land from the incursion of very evil forces to our south, east and west. Appeasement will only delay the inevitable confrontation, so we must be extremely prudent in how we conduct our foreign affairs in the near term.

More than ever America needs the wisdom of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman, or Ronald Regan, and not British Neville Chamberlain pacifism. I find it interesting that many of our very best leaders did not go to Ivy League schools, with the exception of Teddy Roosevelt who attended both Harvard and Columbia. Conversely several of our poorly regarded leadership did attend elite Ivy League institutions. The world is currently paying a heavy penalty for the actions of our leaders at the end of World Wars I and II. The narrow, long-range visions of Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill are at the foundation of today’s turmoil.

If you cannot see the organized squeeze play taking place between North Korea, China, Russia, several Middle East countries, and the South American opposition forces against the United States then you’re just damn naïve or blind.

COMMANDER GRANGER