Senator John Kyle wants to block the START treaty and R. Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin says that North Korea is our ally.
See http://kyl.senate.gov/...
and see Sen McCaskill ! http://www.politico.com/...
We all have seen the statement by Sarah Palin about North Korea being our ally
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
The real issue, however, is what are the D's going to do and even the few remaining sensible R's ?
First lets start with Senator Lugar, long known as an expert on Russia and foreign policy, even though he has knuckled under to Senator Mitch McConnell on the demand for Republican Party discipline on votes that in the past, a Republican Senator like Senator Lugar would not have considered voting for, and which he would have considered it insulting to be expected to vote for, in times past.
He still touts his bipartisan work on foreign affairs issues on his official web site. See: http://lugar.senate.gov/...
So how do we get to Secretary of State Dean Acheson?
For those of you who want a refresher, here is the bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Specifically note the following in the wiki bio:
Acheson's speech on January 12, 1950, before the National Press Club [13] seemed to say that South Korea was beyond the American defense line and that American support for the new Syngman Rhee government in South Korea would be limited. Critics later charged that Acheson's ambiguity provided Joseph Stalin and Kim Il-sung with reason to believe the US would not intervene if they invaded the South. However, evidence from Korean and Soviet archives demonstrates that Stalin and Kim's decisions were not influenced by Acheson's speech.[14]
On December 30, 1949, the National Security Council under President Harry Truman issued a policy paper called NSC 48/2 that set out the policy of "containment" and specifically as to Russian and the Far East listed the areas in and out of the chain of states to be protected by the US. It left out Korea.
On January 12, 1950, Secretary of State Acheson gave a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, DC stressing the importance of defending Japan and described a "defensive perimeter" that "runs along the Aleutians to Japan and then goes to the Ryukyus----and from the Ryukyus to the Phillipine Islands." This discussion of the "defensive perimeter" from Alasia to Okinawa is discussed in detail in Joseh C. Goulden's book, Korea, (1982) and the above edited quote is on page 30.
Acheson was accused of inviting the attack on South Korea by Republicans even though General Douglas MacArthur had made virtually the same statement as discussed by Goulden. These Republicans were the same Republicans who had defeated a House vote on aid to Korea by one vote in January 1950, but ignored that vote when it came to attacking President Truman and Secretary of State Acheson in subsequent hearings for "abandoning" the Koreans.
Secretary Acheson, himself, in his autobiography, Present at the Creation, (1969), discussed his January 12, 1950, speech in Chapter 39, pages 354-358. He focuses on his view that the speech was really about Japan and the defense line drawn to protect it rather than on the defense of Korea. He has his own view of the 193 to 194 defeat of the Korean funding bill of President Truman, but acknowledges that it was a bitter and unexpected blow that "seems to me to have been our own fault." (p 358)
The point of this history review is that the stupid statement of Sarah Palin about North Korea being our ally and the flip flop of Senator Kyle on START that stabs his Republican Senator colleague and foreign relations expert, Senator Lugar, in the back, provides the Democrats with an opportunity to discuss, in all its real and true seriousness, the impact of the nutter (Palin) and right wing(Kyle) antics, on our country.
When we are sending an aircraft carrier group to dangerous waters of Korea, Sarah Palin's dumb statements and the political antics of Senator Kyle need serious treatment by the Democrats.
Secretary of State Acheson spent much of the rest his life explaining how his short speech did not give the green light to the start of the Korean War. The actual role of the US in leaving Korea at the end of WWII and the rise of the political leaders in both North and South Korea are complex matters long forgotten by most of the public and apparently by virtually all of the talking heads that pass for newscasters and commentators these days. They don't even book guests with backgrounds in the era or Korea. Armchair generals and politicians with no knowledge are on the shows talking politics, but not the historic facts of the era.
Now is the time to address and review that history. Most of us now wish there had been a public review of the history of Iraq and Afghanistan rather than just the political posturing and drum beating that went on before we invaded both.
Now is the time to point out that Palin is a total idiot and pound her at every opportunity and pound her defenders too about her knowledge or lack of it on Korea. She is vulnerable on a very serious issue and one involving not just politics and money, but lives of Koreans and Americans.
The same is true as to Senator Kyle. His flip flop and stab in the back of the most knowledgeable Republican on the subject, Senator Lugar, and the total lack of real knowledge of the START treaty and implications of its delay and defeat in the public discussion needs to be thoroughly aired by D's.
The debate as to the impact of NSC 48/2 and the January 12, 1950 speech of Secretary of State Acheson have filled many articles, large sections of books and many PhD dissertations, but has done nothing to restore the lives of the thousands on both sides who died in the Korean War. You will not find a plaque or wall monument at the Korean War Memorial in Washington, DC, that discusses these paper or speech, but they are relevant not just to the origins of the Korean War, but also to decisions facing the country today.
Before we start into many years of a Second Korean War, we need to understand the history of the start of the first one!
Letting the Palin and Kyle nonsense and political posturing that may lead to more loss of life on the Korean Peninsula continue to be discussed as TV chatter and funny "gaffs" or political theater needs to end.
The mistakes of Acheson and MacArthur and the House Republicans in 1950 should not be allowed to lead us to another disaster.
Palin and Kyle are fools and political hacks, but the topic of Korea is one that needs serious study, understanding and discussion.
The R's are on the wrong side of the facts, history and politics. We should not let them escape. It is more than politics in an event, it may well soon be lives of American troops as well as those of Korea and thousands of civilians on that peninsula.