El Jefe:

The slippery slope argument really has no place in this particular issue, when that issue is taken in context.

1. There was no reason to assume the Pusan Pocket would be able to hold against the Norks. The American and South Korean military had been pushed back from every attempt to establish a line of resistance, and the pocket itself was under immense pressure at that time.

2. Much of the Norks success came from their taking advantage of the refugee flows to saturate forward American or South Korean positions with agents. It was not at all uncommon during the retreat of the allied forces for the opening salvo of Nork arty to obliterate allied artillery emplacements and ammo dumps. This was due to the ability of Nork agents and/or symps to fully map out allied positions and communicate that info back to Nork units.

3. The atrocities were, by no means, a one way street. The Norks slaughtered anyone in every village, town or city that they occupied that may have had any connection with the former gov, or had ever spoken out against the commies, or was a teacher, or overly educated, or simply appeared not fully cowed.

4. A prison full of those already proven to be committed to the enemy’s cause is not something that can be taken lightly, when in context of the absolute brutality and murderous intent of that cause.

5. When the issue in question is survival of a people, there is no degree of remorselessness that is not morally acceptable. Compassion and mercy may be saintly at the individual level, but for a government tasked with doing what is necessary to ensure its peoples’ survival, it is just incompetence.

Life does not bend itself to the will of those who wish to see the world in rose colored glasses filtering situations that are non-operational outside of the intellectualists ivory tower protections. Reality is brutal and merciless at such times as under discussion here. Those who do not rise up to meet it at the levels of intensity required simply cease to exist.