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In his acceptance speech for the party's presidential nomination at the Republican convention, President George W. Bush made no specific mention of South Korea in expressing his strong appreciation to U.S. allies in the war against terror when he said, "That would be nations like Great Britain, Poland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, El Salvador, Australia, and others." Moreover, it was in a speech in which he even mentioned the leaders of some of the U.S. allies.
The American president's nomination acceptance speech at his party convention contains the basic understanding of the situation on the part of the chief executive and his administration. The speech thus indicates that our concerns that South Korea is being forgotten in the mind of the U.S. government are not unsubstantiated.
Korea has sent 3,700 troops to Iraq, the largest number of foreign soldiers following the United States and Britain. Japan has dispatched 500 and El Salvador 380. In every respect, President Bush couldn't treat South Korea like this. Granted, this administration annoyed the U.S. by dragging out the troop dispatch for nearly a year after a decision was made on the matter and sending the troops when other countries were withdrawing theirs. Nonetheless, the 3,700 Korean troops sent to the foreign land are not sons of this administration, but those of the Korean people. No difference exists between them and those American troops who were dispatched to the Korean front, a place they had never heard of, 50 years ago. The American president should not treat our troops who have left their homeland only for the sake of helping an ally in such a way.
The Republican Party platform recently classified Japan as a "key ally" and South Korea as a "valued democratic ally." Other warnings indicting abnormal symptoms in the Korea-U.S. alliance have been sounded repeatedly. Every time such a warning is issued, the incumbent administration has repeated saying, "Nothing is wrong with the Korea-U.S. alliance," without changing its countenance. If they really believed so, nothing could be more incompetent; if they said so while knowing the truth, nothing could be more a naked lie. Who would assume eventual responsibility for this diplomatic disaster in which 3,700 troops of ours who have left on the justification of maintaining the Korea-U.S. alliance are being ill-treated as soldiers from an "opportunistic ally?"
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