Kentucky Conservative

Archive for November 24th, 2010

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I served in the Republic of South Korea in 1989-90 as an infantry squad leader on the DMZ and speak from personal experience gained there. It is a hard place to live with a harder row to hoe in front of it.

I am deeply distressed at the current events of this week on that peninsula. I had heard the horrific stories of that war from my father, who fought there, but never really understood them until I stood in his footprints decades later.

Seeing it first hand and walking that rough terrain made that certain kind of hell quite real to me. The Punch Bowl, the Iron Triangle, Heartbreak Ridge. I visited and saw them all from the perspective of a warrior.

I know it would be a terrible place to fight a war and it was to those who fought it. They have my deepest admiration. As do the American service members who stand there today as a vanguard against further aggressions.

The criminal activity of the North that occurred this week is reprehensible. It shows the true colors and lack of moral responsibility of that totalitarian entity.

I have to wonder if this is an omen of what we expect to see going forward with its new leader. From all indications, the insanity of his father and grandfather have been passed down genetically and we have another madman to deal with.

I have a personal affinity for the South Korean people. You would be hard pressed to find a finer group of human beings in the world. They are warm, friendly and fiercely loyal to their friends.

But they are not whole and that is killing their souls.

Few South Korean families do not have extended family north of the 38th parallel. Relatives they have never even met, but the bond of blood is still strong between them. Families have been torn apart by the madness of men and it is time for it to stop.

I was not impressed with the South Korean government, no more than I am with our own current helmsmen. Both countries need statesmen when apparently either has neither. And China is the wild card in the mix.

I hope the best for our troops in the field and pray they are not withered away by the testosterone contests of little men who would not make a rifleman on their best day. It seems so easy for cowards to send men into the breach they will not visit themselves. But that is the history of aristocracy, no?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/11/23/nkorea.skorea.military.fire/index.html?hpt=T1