The Pinocchio Paradox

The New York Times says that South Korea is talking about developing its own nuclear arsenal.

SEOUL, South Korea — As their country prospered, South Koreans largely shrugged off the constant threat of a North Korean attack. But breakthroughs in the North’s missile and nuclear programs and fiery threats of war have heightened fears in the South that even small miscalculations by untested leaders on either side could have disastrous consequences.

Now this new sense of vulnerability is causing some influential South Koreans to break a decades-old taboo by openly calling for the South to develop its own nuclear arsenal, a move that would raise the stakes in what is already one of the world’s most militarized regions.

The NYT thinks it won’t happen ‘anytime soon’ and then adds that “two-thirds of South Koreans support the idea” of re-arming. Who’s against it then? If South Korea begins to arm, Japan cannot be far behind. And then Australia must follow. The Obama administration’s endless efforts to dismantle the Pax Americana and weaken the US military will lead to precisely the opposite of his stated goal of Global Zero. It will lead to a new arms race.

Perhaps nothing illustrates the difference between Democratic Party’s memory and overseas perceptions so much as this tellng line from the NYT article. It says the Koreans are afraid they Americans will pull out just like Vietnam.

Opinions like Mr. Kwon’s appear to be spreading. Two opinion polls conducted after the third test, one by Gallup Korea and the other by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, found that 64 to 66.5 percent of the respondents supported the idea that South Korea should develop its own nuclear weapons, similar to polls after the Yeonpyeong attack in 2010.

“Having a nuclear North Korea is like facing a person holding a gun with just your bare hands,” said Mr. Kwon, the engineer. South Koreans should have “our own nuclear capabilities, in case the U.S. pulls out like it did in Vietnam.”

Why after more than 50 years does South Korea suddenly have these doubts? Why after more than half a century, despite a Peace Constitution, is Japan de facto re-arming? What has changed?

Maybe it has to do with an administration that wants to disarm the United States itself, that counsels everyone who will listen that when confronted with a gun everyone should just call the police (but America is no longer the global policeman) and thinks the withdrawal from Vietnam was the high point of ’60s. Surely that’s going to bring peace, Aquarius and understanding? Just ask Piers Morgan. Just ask Barack Obama.

Who has the heart to tell John Kerry that the high point of his youth is now a synonym for betrayal?

Mark Twain once observed that “it ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

The problem with lies is that they seem harmless. But soon they show their age; and the lies of the 60s have not aged well. By degrees falsehood destroys the language of discourse itself. And then the truth must be rediscovered, without resort to words.