Society Korea and Middle East! How does the world view them?

[weixiaobao]

wow... sound really interesting... really interesting.. I never thought about it that way... it made alot of sense and if it truth then the USA look very much like the bad guy as much as North Korea or Middle East...

 

[ITACHIWIFE]

Basically, if they do something they're damned and if they don't, they're damned.

If the U.S. does something, everyone's gonna be like, "Stupid US interfering in other countries again."
If the U.S. does nothing and they get nukes, everyone's gonna be like, "Where were you idiots when you could've done something?"

People right now are trying to screw George over for going into Iraq because it's turned into such a bad situation. The main reason I don't like the Iraq operation is because George lied about the weapons. If he'd said, "We're going into Iraq because Saddam is destroying his country, killing his people, defying international laws, and is an overall maniac that needs to be stopped", I'd have really supported him. But George isn't the sharpest pencil in the box.

So, like I said before, U.S. needs to play an active part in world affairs but they need a new leader who can convince the world that the U.S. is doing the right thing; if it's another George, God help America.

i agree with you

 

[Gold Knight]

Let's not forget that Iraq coveted oil-rich Kuwait so much that they attacked it. This was what brought on so much national attention on Saddam and his cronies in the first place. Before the Persian Gulf War in 1990, you could hardly find a single American who could locate Iraq on a map, or knew anything about it.

The reason Iraq attacked Kuwait was that they neglected their own oil and water resources so much while they were warring with Iran that they were soon dealing with national crises on a nearly everyday basis. They were SO desperate that they were trying to steal anything they could from their neighbors.

Whose fault was that? I still find it ludricious that Iraqis blame us for all that. "Why is America doing this?" was a common thing for them to say even before we went over there to stop Saddam. I guess they needed somebody to hate, I can't blame them for being envious of America, though... considering the state of misery they were in all these years as a result of their government's neglect.

Yes, I don't presume to believe that America didn't go in there without believing that it would be in the end profitable, but no government EVER does anything for any other nation without a reason. That's just Machiavellian truth.

Saddam Hussein may not have had any WMDs, but he was certainly dangerous. He himself is a WMD to his own people, and certainly posed a deadly threat to other countries as well. It was easy enough to take the cue, went in, and removed a government that was obviously corrupt. Even the Iraqis themselves spat on Saddam's broken statue when we pushed it over.

Though if the Americans had left immediately afterwards, I do believe Iraq would just have another dictator not much better than Saddam Hussein (that is, if they ever stopped warring among themselves) and they'd be trying to invade Kuwait or Iran all over again. Who was to say that Saddam didn't have more people under his command elsewhere that we hadn't caught yet, that would just bring the government back? Though I do think that we probably should just have left Iraq and maybe took up guard in Kuwait or Israel instead. We probably should have just left Iraq to its fate because they obviously didn't want our help in setting up a government for them (even if it meant that they would kill each other.)

As for Korea, I do think their government is just spouting hot air. Trying to get some of the same attention that Iraq is getting these days. But South Korea is our ally, and as such, I think that's the reason George Bush is mustering some forces just in case. When I was dating Jasmine (who's from Seoul), she definitely wasn't fond of North Korea.

But well, George Bush declared a "war on terrorism" after 9/11, and that does require a lot of operations all over the world - if the most powerful nation in the world won't do something about terrorism, who will?

I know there are many people in the world who are skeptical about 9/11 being "all that big a deal" considering so many other countries have so many similar terrorist attacks, but to us it was definitely a pretty big deal - nothing like that had ever happened to us before - and I think it did give Bush sufficient reason to fight terrorism on a nationwide basis. And he did it with nearly 100% of America's support - at least in the beginning (though a lot of Americans wouldn't admit it right now.)

I doubt VERY much that if 9/11 had not ever happened, we would be in Iraq right now.

 

[deathshadow25]

I was watching this really interesting sprcial on CNN(it was on) it was called the War Within. It was really captivating and I found that the siuation was more delecate than I had thought. In Britain Muslim Communities are now treated with hostility and are called terrorists. I found it sad to watch that sort of behavior, It's disgusting basing opinions on people on what you see.

I for one question the government, and someone asked me what I would think if in America we gethered all Muslims and put them in a heavily surveilenced area. I told him it was a disgusting proposittion, and anyone who thought it was a good idea was just as stupid as our president. In World War II America did that, they gathered all Japanese citizens and took everything of value from them. When the war was over and the prisoners were released, they were all left with nothing they had no homes to return to, no more businesses that they owned, everything was gone. Thats what what I told that person and he fought back with his own opinions, which I shot down with a simple

'what if the roles were reversed and you were the muslim?'
he said 'well I wouldn't protest'
I called him a liar and asked him if he ever knew what it felt like to have the whole world against you, then he shut up.

I understand the war on terrorism, but what i don't understand is the persecution of people who are completely innocent and while I'm an American I will not let that happen.

 

[Gold Knight]

Yeah, I don't like that either. Innocent until proven guilty, after all. All these men were guilty of was that they belonged to the same ethnicity/country/religion, which somewhat constitutes as racism too.

Let's just be happy that we ARE all moving on to an age where we're a lot more sensitive to whatever our government and countries do.

 

[boyakist4649]

Back to Korea.

It is interesting to see that Japan (for a period of time, as well as a little bit now) considered Korea a fad. Fuyu no Sonata being what may have started it.

Although it's interesting to read about the material being spread through the S.Korean media as well as Japanese news sites reporting about them. Some residual anti-Japanese sentiment amongst these materials.

I don't know the validity of these accusations, however through personal interactions with Companies like Samsung and LG (lucky goldstar) R&D departments, their business philosophy seems to be quite a bit different from the rest of Asia/N.America.

 

[theshizzle]

If someone got rid off that leader of North Korea, they could unite the Koreas as 1.

 

[Do Kesubei]

If someone got rid off that leader of North Korea, they could unite the Koreas as 1.

Depends on who that someone is. If the US somehow got control of NK, it would most likely be handed over to S.Korea at some point, but not for free. And don't forget the numerous land mines in the DMZ - it would take some time find and get rid of all of them.

 

[walkie]

But well, George Bush declared a "war on terrorism" after 9/11, and that does require a lot of operations all over the world - if the most powerful nation in the world won't do something about terrorism, who will?

yes thats a good point but some americans missing something...there is a difference between invading a country and actions against terrorism.

as for turkey, a country fought against terrorism for a long time, we know that killing terrorists or battles against them is not enough, actially that kind of actions are only 10% or less than what really must be done. against terror the real fight is against brain washing and economical stuff, because terror gets money with selling guns, drugs, women and human organs..war only brings more money to terrorists.

i understand how usa media talks, "we are bringing democracy, this is against terrorism" and sayings like this...but lets be honest, what does invasion of iraq to do with terrorism? saddam was no longer a thread since the first gulf war, everybody knows that. thats why all europe and NATO said "no to war" but usa and england didnt care....

 

[segua]

From all this mess that the U.S. has put herself into, the ones who deserve the most pity should be the citizens of the U.S.

Ever heard this quote by Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety?" The people of the U.S. has basically handed their freedom over to an administration that promised safety. I'll ask another question. Why would a person easily hand over their freedom? I found my answer awhile back and it dealt with the responsibilities of freedom. Basically, to be free, you have to be responsible. Responsible? Responsible for what? Why being responsible for your actions of course.

Anyway, back to the topic. If you guys have not notice yet, there is a big struggle for securing natural resources at the moment which I believe will lead into a greater struggle and eventually a big war will break out if not world war three. The U.S. has made its move to capitalize this opportunity by seizing Iraq and done other things since the 9/11 incident by over-playing terrorism and duping her citizenry.

As to why not North Korea, North Korea is insignificant, or so in my opinion, and wouldn't offer any real benefits. Of course when the time is right, I imagine that the U.S. will set up some sort of clandestine force there to try to overthrow the ruling regime and installed their own puppet figure.

On a side note: with the plans for reunification between North and South Korea, I wonder how the Koreans feel if the U.S. would launch an offensive against the North. More importantly, how would current Sectary-General Ban Ki Moon feel about it? (I know that Ban Ki Moon seems to show favor to the U.S.)

I'm confident that Iran will be the U.S. next target and they will use "nuclear wmd" as an excuse to invade. There has even been reports of U.S. clandestine movements inside of Iran. Yet, invading Iran will not be simple due to the religious affiliation that Iran shares with neighboring countries unlike Iraq. (Even though the people in that whole entire region my tout Islam, there is clearly a schism.) Also, if the U.S. does invade Iran, the Moslem world might make it seem like a religious war which would spell disaster. Not only would the U.S. has to deal with the military and the militants but also with the people. This would definitely drag most if not all of the Middle East into the conflict. Considering that the Middle East has energy ties (through oil) to other countries in the world, it would be devastating if the countries part of OPEC used this to their leverage to gain support in this war.

 

[Vampire_Fanatic]

The Mid-East is real close to annihilating itself in nuclear war, as for Korea, I think we should be more lenient on North Korea, and a little less supportive on the South side to be fair....