Like many other Americans, I have been shocked and angered by the recent manifestations of anti-Americanism in South Korea. I heard a South Korean protester say in a recent radio interview that she was really maddened by what happened to those two poor young girls and the outcome of the subsequent military inquiry.

Well, I want her to know that while such tragic loss of life is truly painful and regrettable and my sympathies go to the bereaved families, she is not the only one with feelings of anger. It seems that there are many members of this present generation of South Koreans that have forgotten their country's history and the thousands of young American lives that were sacrificed to ensure their political and economic survival. Thousands of Americans are still making sacrifices to ensure the continued existence of South Korea but this appears to be of small consequence to such protesters. Maybe it is time for the larger South Korean population to consider their prosperity and to weigh this current protest activity over the desperately sad and unfortunate deaths of these two young girls against all the Korean lives, including possible family members, that could potentially have been lost had the US not acted as protector over the past 50 years.

The cynical exploitation of this tragedy by your leading politicians for short-term flag waving political advantage is also a particularly bitter pill for many Americans to stomach. I drive a Hyundai XG350 and recently bought a Hyundai Sonata for another family member. I am already regretting these purchases and will certainly think twice before spending more money on South Korean goods. Maybe the thousands of other Americans driving Hyundais and Kias or purchasing Samsung electronics or buying the tons of other consumer goods that the US imports from South Korea annually will also reconsider their purchasing behavior.

I am particularly incensed by the local threats against US military personnel. These service men and women are there to help safeguard Korean lives. They have little choice about being in South Korea. No person in his or her right mind, could really believe that this terrible event was anything other than a horrible and tragic accident. I now feel, however, the US government should bring its forces home, rather than allow them to be subject to such hostility. This will also allow South Korea to take on full responsibility for its own defense while removing American lives from harm's way.

In any case, right now, these lives seem to be as much at risk from Koreans in the South as from those in the North. Now would seem a particularly good time to test South Korea's resolve and its solo self-defense capability, given that the blackmailers and extortionists in the North are once more rattling their nuclear saber. I would also suggest that the citizens of South Korea think hard about the wisdom of following those who seek to drive a wedge between themselves and the US and ask what motivates people to act in a way that can only give pleasure and comfort to the Pyongyang regime?

I regret that my letter may only be published in your English edition and therefore not be read by the majority of your readership. However, perhaps many are not yet ready to face such unpleasant truths.

Stuart Goss

Skillman, NJ