Pat Buchanan Quotes
Why should Americans on the DMZ be among the first to die in a second Korean War? Should the North attack the South, could we not honor our treaty obligations with air and naval power offshore?
Buchanan, Patrick J. Syndicated Column. Creators Syndicate, 5 Sept. 2017.
After the Second World War Japanese industry had mostly not yet been rebuilt from the destruction of the allied bombing. The automobile industry, which before the war had aspirations of worldwide competition had been reduced to one company making less than 1000 cars a year and not many more trucks. However, when the Korean War broke out, there was a need for many military vehicles to support the allied war effort. Japan being so close and having very low labor rates had the opportunity to supply many of the needed vehicles. This allowed Nissan, Toyota and Datsun to get on their industrial feet, and from there to become world leaders. Hence, for Japan, the war was a gift from the Gods.
The Korean War armistice left a vulnerable border between North and South Korea and approximately 40,000 American troops were necessary for decades thereafter to protect the border.
ground troops fighting in Iraq & Syria in addition to air power Quote A was made in June of 2014. Quote B, 3 months later in September. In June there are rumors that the Obama administration might commit more military assets to the situation in Iraq and Syria and Graham was afraid that the President might be considering ground troops. Three months later, President Obama announced a policy of making a serious military commitment to the area, but stated that he would not be using ground troops. Graham then criticized the President for NOT deploying ground troops reversing his previous position. This is a marvelous example of the hyper partisanship and the virulent anti-Obama action by the Republicans. Actually, Graham was better than most of the Republicans. He was always polite. He criticized the President’s policies and actions even if he had to twist around to do it. Many of his colleagues made vicious personal attacks on the President and kept spreading rumors that he was not a Christian but a Muslim who was not born in America and was indoctrinated in Islam as a boy. Graham’s flip flop was explained by him as a change that was made necessary by the rise and military aggression of ISIS which he also blamed on the President for not committing more resources to the Syrian insurgents.
See Charles de Gaulle {138034} on the ephemeral nature of treaties.
This intelligence analysis turned out to predict exactly what happened. Less than 3 years after this report, the Communists overran South Korea and the Korean War began. See {584008} for another remarkable foreign policy prediction.
The German reunification cost the West German citizens $1.9 Trillion over 20 years. East Germany was well behind West Germany in standard of living. However comparing South Korea—a very comfortable middle class society—with North Korea—an economic primitive basket case—produces a gap that is much wider, For example, East German infrastructure was not as well developed as West German infrastructure. North Korea has virtually no real infrastructure except a military one.
Patrick Joseph Buchanan is an American paleoconservative political commentator, columnist, politician and broadcaster. Buchanan was an assistant and special consultant to U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996. He ran on the Reform Party ticket in the 2000 presidential election.
