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Updated Tuesday, July 27, 2010 9:29 am TWN, By Eric Talmadge, AP U.S. holds drills off Korea as Pyongyang talks warAn international investigation has blamed the North for the sinking of a South Korean warship, killing 46 sailors in what officials called the worst military attack on the South since the 1950-53 Korean War. The four-day "Invincible Spirit" exercises involving 20 ships, 200 aircraft and about 8,000 U.S. and South Korean sailors are being held in the waters off Korea's east coast have brought threats of retaliation from North Korea, which denies responsibility for the attack on the Cheonan. The anti-submarine phase of the training -- which also involves anti-ship and anti-aircraft operations -- is particularly important because an international investigation found that the 1,200-ton corvette Cheonan was sunk by a torpedo launched from a North Korean submarine that somehow penetrated South Korea's defenses. "North Korea's danger lies because they are unpredictable," said Capt. David Lausman, the commanding officer of the USS George Washington, a nuclear-powered supercarrier deployed to the maneuvers from its home port in Japan. "The sinking of the Cheonan is a prime example." North Korea has strongly protested the exercises, saying they are a provocation and threatening retaliation. In flourishes of rhetoric typical of the regime, it vowed to respond with a "sacred war" and a "powerful nuclear deterrence." "They will face a costly consequence if they stick to the criminal activities ravaging peace and security on the Korean peninsula," North Korea's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in commentary carried Monday by the official Korean Central News Agency. North Korea says the investigation results were fabricated and has accused the United States of attempting to punish it. Pyongyang's latest rhetoric was seen by most as bluster: South Korea's Defense Ministry said it had not observed any significant moves by the North Korean military since the maneuvers began Sunday. But the threats carry extra weight following the sinking of the Cheonan that dramatically intensified tension on the Korean peninsula. The ship sank near the tense western sea border, a scene of three bloody inter-Korean maritime battles in recent years. U.S. officials say that the maneuvers, held well away from North Korea's border, are not intended to provoke a response, but add that they do want to send Pyongyang a message that further aggression in the region will not be tolerated and that the alliance between the U.S. and South Korea remains strong. Comments |
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This is a remarkable story of people – the governed (although they are in theory supposed to be the actual governor in democracy), not their government – making difference in the world.
1. Compare and contrast.
"More enlightened" American people, Congress and media; Bush; WMD; War (and huge suffering),
(http://whitehouser.com/war/CIA-confirms-Bush-WMD-lie)
and,
"Supposedly less so enlightened" Korean people; Korean President Lee; Cheonan; prevention of War (so far).
(I am including among 'the Korean people' the Korean-Americans.)
2. Also remarkable is that the "inside" Korean people braved the government prosecution.
Caveat: Under the current South Korean regime, South Korean citizens can be sued for defamation by their own government officials, and defamation in South Korea is a crime (as well as a civil offense) prosecuted by the government's own centrally-controlled national prosecutors who selectively choose or choose not whom to prosecute.
Recently, aforementioned Shin Sang-chul got (criminally) sued for defamation by a government official for expressing disagreement over the current South Korean regime's version of the Cheonan Incident.
3. A list of early English publications on Questions on the Cheonan Incident and the Power of South KoreanNetizens can be found at http://korea.true.ws (by LetsTry Reason).
Also, look at: http://nature.com/news/2010/080710/full/news.2010.343.html;
http://japanfocus.org/-JOHN-MCGLYNN/3372;
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/pcc-772-cheonan-south-korean-government-admits-the-deception-and-then-lies-about-it/
4. Compare and contrast.
911; Al-Qaida; We did it (was not wrong, not sorry about it and we will do it again).
Cheonan; North Korea; We didn't do it (therefore, presumably, was wrong, sorry about it and we will not do it).
Crime and punishment. If we are taking consequentialist moral philosophy, and if the utilitarian utility of punishment is to prevent future crime, then punishment serves little or no purpose (maybe to others but not) to North Korea who says 'We didn't do it,' because either (a) the North didn't do it, therefore the punishment will be outrageous injustice, or (b) the North did do it, but 'We didn't do it' basically implies 'We will not do it.' (And, it hardly gives the North any payoff.)
5. Representative democracy is not pure democracy. (Pure)Direct democracy is now (or becoming) possible, through recent developments in computer science and technology, making private Internet-voting, democratic on-line discussions and cheap instantaneous micro referendum possible.
The science (computer science) should finally make the people, the governed, the actual de facto governor in democracy.
6. I take this honor of hereby formally asking the folks in Sweden to consider awarding a "Nobel" Peace Prize to the "Supposedly less so enlightened" Korean people including myself.