From: jfe@alchemy.tn.cornell.edu (Brian Chung)
Subject: Re: <Why I was in army) Re: Service in Korea
Organization: Alchemy International
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 21:02:15 GMT

In article <1992Nov18.190136.28498@news.duc.auburn.edu> kim@magneto.physics.auburn.edu (Han-jung Kim) writes:
>>
>I have dedicated my life of 2.5 year in the korean army and at that time
>I was ready to die for defending the south korean if the north
>would have invaded the south.
>
>Somebody must join into the army, otherwise the south does not have 
>the resistant force against the north. 

	Oh, ptooie, I knew someone was going to say this sooner or later.
Come on, let's be realistic here.  What is the chance of North Korea 
invading South Korea when one side has the backing of a Really Big Country(tm)
and the other one doesn't?  What is the chance of North Korea invading
South Korea when one side cannot even feed its own people?  Welcome to
the 90s, bud, but this Threat From the North(tm) nonsense is as dead as
communism.

>
>So far it is known that the sum of the military power of USA an Korea has
>been balanced with that of the north korea alone. 
>
>If this balance is broken, the war is inevitable.

	This rhetoric may have worked until few years ago.  But now, it
just rings hollow.  Numerical advantage isn't the only factor in deciding
to go to war.  And I'm sure the North Koreans are a lot smarter than that.

>
>Nobody want the fighting at all, however the peace is only the result based 
>upon the superiority of the military power.

	A typical Realpolitick argument.  It has its merits and faults.
But I won't discuss that since it will take too long.  E-mail me, if you
want to.

>
>Korea is not as rich as US  so that she can not offer the money to all
>the korean military personnels and that is the main reason why
>korea must draft the men by law. 

	Korea doesn't need to maintain such a huge standing army any longer.
This is the main point of my argument.            
>tHerefore,  if you can (korean-korean only) avoid the duty legally, do it, and
>serve the country with the better quality of production.
>if that is caused by only the selfishness for your convenience, just be silent.

	Be silent?  Jeesh, what, did you buy out the entire Usenet or 
something?                                
>
>if you are a korean-american, you are not qualified to comment about the
>korean army system, where you like it or not. That is not you business. .

	No, but they have the right to give their opinions on this matter.
Whether you choose to listen to them or not is your choice, but whether
they choose to speak their mind or not isn't.  So if you don't like 
someone's idea, just use your kill file.  But don't tell others to shut
up.  I'll refraining from going on about this Right of Free Speech thing...

>
>In the history of mankind, the war has been inevitable.
>
>This is the reality.
>
>So militaray and military men are inevitable also.
>Although it is no happy at all.........
>
	I'm getting sick of this military jingoism.  War is not inevitable.
Mankind can and does do better.  War of ideology has no place in this world
with the death of communism.  War of trade and ethnicity is the next
thing to be eliminated.                  

-- 
T. H. Brian Chung                      | Happiness is...              
Internet: jfe@alchemy.tn.cornell.edu   | "Tea, Earl Grey, hot."
Bitnet: jfe@cornella                   | 210 Lake St. Apt. 11-A 
DECnet: CESR10::THC                    | Ithaca, NY 14850  Tel: 607-272-1543 
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