The Forgotten War

On my travels along the Eastern Seaboard in the early months of talk about invading Iraq, I came across an aging man in the hills of Maryland whom I expected to be right conservative. I got a nice surprise when he struck up a short conversation, saying, "I sure hope that asshole doesn't get us into another war." He told me that he'd served in Korea and bitterly complained that nobody even mentions that war. As if it never happened, he said.

And, since it never ended, it really does seem as though it's been forgotten. But not by Korean victims of US war policy. And not by South Korea. Bush got into a verbal tussle with South Korean leader Roh at the APEC summit in Australia when Roh asked him to make a declaration to end the war in Korea. Bush replied that the war would be declared at an end when North Korea gave up its nuclear weapons (and nuclear weapons programs). Roh said he didn't hear what he was expecting in that response, and Bush repeated it. Roh asked him to be a little clearer, and Bush repeated it. Obviously, Roh was politely trying to get the answer he asked for, but the White House has chosen to blame it on the interpreter, who they say must not have translated Bush's remarks clearly. Because, why wouldn't Roh just roll over, take that answer, and go home quietly if he actually understood it? We wouldn't have you thinking the little unimportant man might stand up to the POTUS.

Bush wants Roh to go back and talk to North Korea's leader Kim to pressure him into giving up those nukes. (Maybe if he does, he can at least get another entertaining joke.)

Is taking North Korea off the list of terrorist supporting countries a ploy to force it to give up its nukes? How about allowing Ethiopia to make a secret arms deal with North Korea?

Finishing off the summit, Bush took aim at Vladimir Putin.

"We'll continue to work with nations like Russia to advance our shared interests while encouraging Russia's leaders to respect the checks and balances that are essential to democracy," Bush said in a speech to business leaders at the summit.

  Yahoo

Pot. Kettle.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

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