Ingrates in Inchon

According to Peter Brookes, the rising anti-Americanism in South Korea has led the forces of radicalism to want to destroy the statue of Douglas MacArthur standing at Inchon. For those who may not recall, MacArthur was the commanding general who liberated Korea first from the Japanese during World War II, then led the United Nations forces to defend South Korea from the invading Communists under Kim Il Sung, the despot of North Korea. Had that defense not occurred, and had 37000 US forces not given their lives to protect South Korea, the entire Korean peninsula would today be ruled by Kim Jong Il. Would these anti-American protestors prefer to live like the North, as opposed to their current comfortable lifestyles?

I am always amazed by protestors like this. They wish to throw the United States out, claiming that we are the Great Satan or some other disparaging epithet. Do these people really believe that life without the protection of the United States would be somehow preferable? Have they ever done anything to protect their way of life? And have they thought out the ultimate logic of their anti-Americanism? I remember during the Cold War that the constant song of the Left was that the US and the USSR were simply two sides of the same coin. Do these new radicals claim that in regards to China? But yet they forget that we Americans have fought and died in Europe, the South Pacific, Europe, North Africa, Korea, Vietnam, Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq to protect people from enskavement. In many of these places, there was nothing at stake for the United States, yet we sent our precious soldiers to protect people who certainly had no love for us- see the still-ongoing events in Kosovo and the Middle East. Not to mention that it was Western willpower that finally ended the slave trade- a trade that Europeans did not begin, and in which they were not the main participants.

I would be the first to admit that the United States is not perfect. But has there ever been a more benevolent superpower during its heyday? Only Great Britain comes close in that regard- no one else can even be considered. Do these anti-Americans forget the horrific results of Muslim imperial expansionism? Have they mislaid the memory of the Chinese Empire's depradations on the rest of Asia? Would prefer a modern-day version of Genghis Khan, or perchance Tamerlane? And I further wonder, with whom do these protestors wish to replace us? The Communist Chinese? I don't recall that we slaughter our own citizens (Tianenmen Square, 1989)and jail dissidents on purely political charges the way the Chinese Communists do. If we did, neither Cindy Sheehan nor Jane Fonda would be at liberty. Yet both of these traitors are still openly shilling their repulsive opinions despite their clear breach of our own treason laws. Nor do we outlaw groups like the Falung Gong. Heck, we even let Muslims terrorist wanabes run their little mosques in the open, despite their constant attempts to kill us!

It has been written that power abhors a vacuum. If we were to withdraw, some other country would try to seize our empty place, and I doubt they would like the consequences from the likely applicants. They might want to consider that, for a change, instead of mouthing their mindless anti-American chants. But then that would require thought- something of which I doubt they are capable.