[drawkbox]

South Korea is a great example of how a country can prosper friendly to the US.

Japan, Germany (and much of Europe), Philippines, many others, they may have had conflicts with the US but after we helped enemies become friends. It is easy to win over the side that is already friendly, we need to economically turn the non-friendlies into friendlies.

Around the time of the Korean war, we also recently moved from #16 military in the world before WWII to arguably #1. With this our economic plans turned more harsh in the following conflicts, we thought we could win with harsher ultimatums rather than just getting money to the people in the state we are trying to win over. Eisenhower even warned about this and he saw everything from WWII through Korea, a complex was emerging, the military-industrial complex, that in some cases preferred conflict to extend chaos over actual war ending nation building.

We stopped nation building for the side that we needed to win over, not just the friendlies. We essentially turned into the strict parent instead of the one that makes a good time for everyone and lives life for quality.

Yes China is complicit in this, they also fought the other side in Vietnam but the whole of Vietnam is now friendly to the US and economically it is benefitting finally. A divided Korea helps China and is a buffer. They need to be called out on it and much of the turn for North Korea has to come from China but we can encourage that.

We should have worked harder at getting North Korea on our side much much earlier, 60+ years of division is not the solution.

[xiaoma]

What is your idea of "working harder" in this case? Are you familiar with what was attempted?

[drawkbox]

I am familiar with what we did, maybe not all but much of it, and do today for South Korea.

We also have attempted many things on North Korea but much of it is from a position of force for many reasons including internal conflict, ideology and external players.

We aren't finishing things decisively with nation building. We even have politics today that argue against nation building when they mention wars. Peace and security are only about economics and nation building, extremism is subdued in good economic systems, exasperated in bad economic situations that turn toward authoritarian systems. This is a big reason why the ME is so messed up, small force, no nation building, no economic plan, chaos ensues, large amounts of wealth are made in the chaos, lack of cultural awareness leads to the wrong people gaining power in the power vacuum etc but I digress. Not nation building goes against things like the Marshall Plans, Eisenhower Doctrine and more, this is largely our problem since the Korean war or just after.

Are you saying we did enough in 6+ decades in Korea? We didn't even get a peace treaty, they are still technically at war.