THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

THE TWO-WORD SOLUTION TO THE KOREAN PROBLEM | 2003-03-15

The more I think about fashionable opinion, the shorter my answers to it become.

On February 22, 2003, in The Three-Word Solution to the North Korean Problem, I pointed out that fashionable opinion in the 1960s used to worry about Urban Guerrillas.

What would we do, worried one fashionable opinionater after another, if Urban Guerrillas seized a city?

My answer was four words long

"Cut off the water."

You see, fashionable opinion is formulated in cities, and city people have no idea how vulnerable their little city world is.

But if you don't realize how vulnerable cities are you can kill a LOT of people. Instead of cutting off the water you would send in thousands of soldiers to die, just as many Americans are talking about doing in Baghdad.

My answer to the Urban Guerrillas Problem was four words long. My solution to the North Korean Problem was three words long

"Let 'em sink."

Like all leftism, Communism is just plain silly. No Communist state has ever survived without constant and massive help from non-Communist countries.

North Korea will not be able to massacre its people for long without our help, and Bush Administration is as desperate as any liberal to save the North Korean regime at taxpayer expense.

So fashionable opinion is trying to find a way to get North Korea to accept our help in return for more promises. We can either "Let 'em sink" or we can help Communism kill some more tens of millions of people.

Again.

You have to go all the way with the three-word solution or kill a lot of people. As to Urban Guerrillas, you have to adopt the four-word solution entirely or kill thousands of our soldiers.

Now we come to the two-word solution for the Korean Problem.

That solution is

"GET OUT!"

We have thirty five thousand human sacrifices in South Korea right now. Those American soldiers are stationed in South Korea for absolutely no purpose except to die if North Korea attacks.

Someone in the Bush Administration just mentioned withdrawing some of those troops. The immediate result was a huge pro-American demonstration in Seoul. They had just voted in a new South Korean Government that demanded US withdrawal.

As long as we insist on keeping our human sacrifices in South Korea the South Koreans, the Japanese and the Chinese will sit around and act self-righteous while we deal with North Korea.

But to make it work, you have to take the whole two-word solution. To take care of North Korea you have to take the whole three-word solution. To deal with Urban Guerrillas you have to do the whole four words without compromise.

No compromises. No fashionable rhetoric.

Just do it.