COMMENTARY
`What's Wrong with This Man?'
by Sunmyung "Harry" Lee
Mr. Lee is Editor-in-Chief of Korea Press International (KPI), an independent news service in Washington, D.C., distributing Korea-related news throughout the world. All correspondence with the news service should be addressed to: Korea Press International KPI, 950-25th Street NW, Suite 1021N, Washington, D.C. 20037-2145, Voice: 202-337-2125, Fax: 202-337-7866, E-mail: sLee_kpi@hotmail.com.
Some American media, observing the first 100 days of the Bush Presidency, claim: "The fact that Bush enjoys a much higher popularity than expected, is a proof that he is harmonizing the divided public opinion of the American people." Nothing is more misleading than this analysis of the right-wing press, which is under the influence of the ammunition industry tycoons.
Such popularity can be made up, literally, without much trouble. Hitler of the Third Reich, and Stalin after the death of Lenin, enjoyed an extremely high level of popularity, which was in fact, of course, insanity.
The morality, and the greatness thereby, of the American Presidency, is to provide a leadership for peace, security and prosperity of mankind as a whole. This is the very mandate imposed on the Presidency of a great empire in the 21st Century. But Bush began showing the ugly symptoms of vengeance and confrontation from the moment he moved into the White House. He ordered a large-scale attack on Iraq, threw cold water on the peace efforts in Korea, threw gasoline onto the conflicts between Israel and Palestine, and picked fights with Russia and China. All these were played out in accordance with the strategy of a poker dictated by the interests behind him.
This insanity demonstrates the fact that the guideline of his policymaking is to return the favors to those who made him President, through the loophole of election laws, and to those who helped finance the process. He discarded, like a pair of worn-out shoes, the values of American democracy and the noble guiding philosophy of the Founding Fathers. He totally ignored the policies of many great Presidents, aimed at contributing to world peace and the welfare of mankind.
Bush's strategy for Korea and China, "to divide and rule," is based on a "Demon's Book" of Machiavelli and the like--the descendants of Cain. We need to remember that this policy of confrontation had contributed to the massacres of millions of people as witnessed in World Wars I and II and the Holocaust, not to mention the Korean War and our untold sufferings under Imperial Japan. We were forcibly halved, killed each other in millions, and suffered the curse of foreign ideology for over 50 years. We were a scapegoat in the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union.
After such a long period of national tribulation, we just began to raise ourselves, to find out an outlet, only to find a Goliath blocking this vital process. It has become clear that Bush wants to turn back the clock to the Cold War age of confrontation on the Korean peninsula and China. He does not care about the peace and welfare of Asian people. This man is apparently insane. This is a sign of his racism against Asian people. This dramatically reveals how antagonistic he is toward the Asian people.
Racism is very un-American. The fact that this kind of racism is allowed in American foreign policy, may be a harbinger of the fall of American morality.
We just began to exchange letters between North and South Korea, though the number was very limited. The torch of reason and hope was just lighted in this desolate zone of anti-civilization. Then, all of a sudden, we found ourselves back to the middle of a dark tunnel. Do we really have to be trampled this cruelly, only because we are a minority people even in this 21st Century, when the world is enjoying an age of civilization?
How long will we have to wait for the Spring? Bong-ju Lee's victory at the Boston Marathon was a great feat for our Korean nation--he was the master of his destiny, and he carried the day. It demonstrated the greatness of the Korean people to the world. This victory is very suggestive that, however harshly the hands of Cain's sons squeeze our neck, we will be able and resolved to free ourselves from the shackles of division and rule by foreign forces and regain full control of our own destinies.
