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发帖数: 29846 | 1 《60年已经足够了》：美国“不要再为繁荣而人口众多的盟国的防务花钱了，比如韩国”
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/11/29/sixty-years-is-enough/
Sixty Years Is Enough
By Doug Bandow on 11.29.10 @ 6:08AM
In recent years South Korea has begun to develop regional ambitions. Seoul
is creating a blue-water navy and deploying international peacekeeping
troops. The Republic of Korea increasingly sees itself sitting alongside the
world's most powerful nations.
Unfortunately, the ROK government appears to have neglected its most
important duty: defending its people. Last March North Korea sank a South
Korean warship. Days ago Pyongyang unleashed a deadly artillery barrage
against a South Korean island.
On both occasions all the ROK did was fulminate.
Granted, in the first case Seoul cut off what little bilateral trade
remained between the two countries and demanded an apology. In the second
instance the ROK fired back. It also changed the rules of engagement for the
future and planned to bolster its island garrisons. Still, the effect was
about the same as just talking. Pyongyang responded predictably, blaming the
South and threatening to rain destruction down upon its enemies.
Worse, as ROK President Lee Myung-bak publicly worried lest South Koreans
"let our guard down in preparation for another possible North Korean
provocation," his nation again hid behind Miss America's skirt. President
Barack Obama sent an aircraft carrier strike group to demonstrate "resolve"
and professed America's usual determination to stand by its helpless ally --
"shoulder to shoulder," as he put it.
It is a shocking situation.
Not North Korea's misbehavior. The Stalinist dictatorship has morphed into
the world's only communist monarchy. Just two men, father and son, have
ruled since the so-called Democratic People's Republic of Korea was formed
in 1948. Now "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il is attempting to pass power on to his
youngest son, "Brilliant Comrade" Kim Jong-un.
The Kim family's crimes are many: starting the Korean War, suppressing
political, civil, and religious liberties, establishing a brutal gulag
system, starving millions through imposition of an incompetent socialist
state, and maintaining a permanent state of war. Firing off some artillery
shells and killing four South Koreans is minor compared to the DPRK's other
activities.
Slightly more outrageous is China's willingness to abet the North's
aggressions. After the latest incident, Beijing did not criticize Pyongyang.
Instead, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called for all sides to show "maximum
restraint." That was a bit like urging the Germans, Soviets, and Poles to
act responsibly in September 1939 after the Nazis and Communists invaded
Poland. Still, while China's conduct is disappointing, it hardly is
surprising.
What is truly shocking is the ROK's continuing dependence on America.
The Korean War ended in 1953. Since then the South has won the intra-Korea
contest. The ROK raced past the North economically and now has upwards of 40
times the latter's GDP. South Korea has succeeded in hi-tech production,
benefits from twice the population, and possesses global diplomatic clout.
In fact, Seoul even has stolen away North Korea's allies, trading far more
with China and Russia. In contrast to 1950, the latter two countries would
not likely back Pyongyang in a fight.
Yet the DPRK possesses a bigger military. Although the North's soldiers are
ill-trained and its equipment is antiquated, the Kim government obviously
still is capable of striking with deadly effect. Why hasn't the South put
its resources to better military effect? Because it doesn't have to.
So long as America offers a security guarantee, maintains a tripwire troop
presence on the peninsula, and promises to do whatever is necessary to
protect the ROK, the South Koreans have little incentive to take over their
own defense. Granted, it's a bit humiliating to constantly beg Washington
for aid: it would be a bit like the U.S. going hat-in-hand around the world
asking for help to defend against Mexico. Still, better for Seoul to get the
gullible Americans to pay its defense bill than to have to cover the cost
itself.
Making the ROK's behavior even more outrageous has been Seoul's attempt to
buy off Pyongyang while relying on American military support. For nearly a
decade the so-called "Sunshine Policy" emphasized aid to and investment in
the North. Seoul even effectively bought a summit between the late President
Kim Dae-jung and the North's Kim Jong-il. Although the Lee government has
cut back on subsidies for the North, Seoul has not closed the Kaesong
industrial park, an important source of hard currency for Pyongyang. Nothing
changes even as North Korea kills the South's citizens. Should war break
out, some of the weapons fired at U.S. soldiers would have been effectively
paid for by America's allies in the South.
North Korea's presumed nuclear capabilities add a more dangerous dimension
to tensions on the peninsula, but America's troop presence only worsens the
problem by conveniently giving the Kim regime 27,500 nuclear hostages within
easy reach. Moreover, the best way to get Beijing's attention would be to
suggest that Washington might eventually decide to respond to the North's
provocations by standing aside if South Korea and Japan want to build
corresponding nuclear arsenals. That would give the residents of Beijing's
Zhongnanhai an incentive to clamp down on the DPRK. |
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