Seoul Should Put Up, or Shut Up
Blogger D. Whitlock at Dead Armadillos opines on the South Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan. J.D. is an Air Force Health Information Management worker at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.
I have toured the Korean clinic here at Bagram Airfield and had coffee with their commander. I have been to South Korea and think the world of the South Koreans. Every morning at 0615 I hear the South Korean national anthem playing, because their camp is right next to ours. I am glad they are here helping the Afghans with their medical and engineering missions.
But unless other countries step up to the plate to help fight the Taliban, or at the very least continue their support missions, then the world will increasingly just see the big bad U.S. hyperpower, in the aftermath of Iraq, throwing its weight around. Again.
Afghanistan is not Iraq. Al Qaeda really will follow us back home if we don’t whack them here. The Taliban really will export their rabid Islamofascism to wherever they can from wherever they can.
So, South Korea, if you’re going to talk tough, back it up. Continue your support mission in Afghanistan. You can afford it.
J.D. highlights the cowardice and the hypocrisy Seoul is displaying during this crisis. On one hand, Seoul wants the Taliban to take South Korea seriously enough not to harm its citizens held hostage. On the other hand, it cannot convince South Korean citizens (a phrase that seemingly has no meaning for leftists bent on unifying the two Korean states) to increase both the number of its military forces in Afghanistan and change their mission to something other than combat support.
Is it any wonder the Taliban would choose to kidnap such a group of aid workers as the South Korean Presbyterian group? There's no better way to create further divisions within their opponent's alliance against them, and garner press coverage, by which to convince locals of their political legitimacy.
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