How U.S. should respond to N. Korea
I have followed events on the Korean peninsula since serving as a U.S. Army officer in Seoul in the mid-1970s, and I think we could all learn a lesson from President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger about how to respond to an Asian dictatorship. In 1976, two U.S. Army officers were ax-murdered at Panmunjom, in the neutral zone on the South Korea/North Korea border, while supervising the trimming of tree branches that were blocking the view of an American outpost. The entire country went on alert while the South Korean and U.S. governments tried to determine what happened and how to respond, and U.S. forces began preparing for the possibility of war.
Instead of an armed response, however, President Ford and Kissinger sent in another team that cut the tree down altogether, leaving nothing but an ugly stump that survived for years — the message being, “OK, you don’t want us trimming the tree, we’ll just cut the damned thing down.” Those of us in Korea, who had learned something of the subtleties of Asian culture, thought the response was perfect for the situation: inflicting the North Koreans with loss of face by ignoring their hostility and simply removing the tree. They looked like children, and we looked like grownups.
In an attempt to save face, Kim Jong Un’s government has used cyberforce to prevent the release of “The Interview.” Following lessons learned in 1976, I suggest Sony simply recut the movie and show Kim Jong Un dressed in nothing but pink underwear. If North Korean bullying persists, Sony could escalate … until someone in Pyongyang decides that Kim has lost enough face for the time being.
PHIL MOISE, ATLANTA
Don’t cloud issue of school shootings
Regarding “Report on school shootings in Georgia badly misleads” (Metro, Dec. 19), who other than the NRA and its minions think that the “common understanding” of a school shooting requires an intruder or student purposely shooting at innocent students or staff? An accidental discharge of a firearm is still a shooting. Even the editors of the AJC concur because on page A24 of the same issue, the AJC reports, “Man shot after dog steps on rifle.” I am a commoner, and my understanding of a school shooting is that a firearm is fired at a school or school event. If someone — anyone — brings a firearm to school and it is fired on purpose or by accident, that is a school shooting.
KEN POWELL, ATLANTA
