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The front page headline on Jan. 22 edition of the Sun, “U.S. quietly prepares for a last resort: War with N. Korea,” could have appeared in any newspaper in 1947.
That year, I was in Seoul, working as a motor pool dispatcher. Comparing our Army’s readiness then to now, we were worse off on all counts. We were truly a ragtag Army. Most of our drivers and mechanics were Korean. Most of our trucks were deadlined, waiting for parts.
When the war ended, many thousands of South Koreans were stranded in North Korea behind a heavily mined neutral zone. One would think that in 64 years, we would have figured out a way to solve our problems in Korea, let all Koreans return to their original homes, and remove our army of occupation.
History books are filled with failed accounts of armies of occupation, from the Roman Empire to WWII and Japan and Germany. When the Russian-trained Koreans attacked our army of occupation, our newspapers called it a communist invasion. President Harry Truman called it a police action. In 1776, our patriots attacked the British army of occupation. Historians now call that war a revolution.