Listen to Rep. Paul deliver this address. Last week President Obama made a surprise pre-dawn trip to Afghanistan to mark the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden and to sign a document further extending the U.S. presence in that country. The...
Save Money by Ending Costly Alliances
Continued U.S. economic sluggishness, induced by a massive national debt in excess of $15 trillion, should be causing soul-searching in the American foreign policy community about which unnecessary alliance commitments can be shed to save money. Yet, predictably,...
Naval Base Tears Apart Korean Village
“The land and sea aren’t something you bought,” explained Kang Ae-Shim. “Why are you selling something that was there long before you were born?” Kang Ae-Shim is a haenyo, one of the legendary Korean women sea divers from Jeju Island who can hold their breath for up...
US Policy Toward the Koreas Is Unrealistic
Why does the U.S. government's foreign policy often hinge on the naïve and moralistic expectation that other countries should act against their own interests? Wouldn't a more realistic U.S. foreign policy be better for everyone concerned? Let's take an example....
Korean Conundrum: Is There a Way Out?
Initial reports were unequivocal: those crazy North Koreans had once again broken the longstanding ceasefire and attacked the South, this time at Yeonpyeong Island, shelling civilian quarters, and killing two South Korean marines. A few hours later, however, a more...
End the Korean War
We're at war – old news, you say? Well you don't know how old – because I'm not talking about our eternal "war on terrorism," but the Korean war. Yes, in case you didn't know, it's still on, at least in the formal sense: a truce was signed, on July 27, 1953,...
Resist the Urge to Confront Kim Jong-Il
The more one learns about North Korea – its unconscionable human rights violations, its gulags and summary executions, the way it locks its citizens in and tortures or kills them when they try to escape over the Chinese border, the way every foreign visitor must...
Obama Affirms Alliance With S. Korea Amid Rising Tensions
Amid rising tensions with North Korea, U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday assured visiting South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak that Washington was firmly committed to their nearly 60-year alliance and their mutual determination not to yield to Pyongyang's demands...