Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 09:19:03 -0400
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: M*A*S*H and other TV shows.
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

> candymadigan at mindspring.com 4/15/2005 8:06:04 AM >>>
>At 08:19 PM 4/14/2005, you wrote:
>
>>On Apr 14, 2005, at 5:32 PM, MarkLFischer at aol.com wrote:
>>
>> > In a message dated 4/14/2005 5:06:27 PM Eastern Daylight
>Time,
>> > mike at nthzine.com writes:
>> >
>> >> eleven seasons I believe.
>> >
>> > Rather longer than the actual war.
>
>Actually, the war is still technically going on.

& they're still shooting at each other every so often.  Plus, there are
the tunnels heading to the south.

We arrived sometime in April 1960, just as Syngman Rhee was being
"asked" to leave the country.  Landed at Inchon, jeeped to Kimpo, then
helicoptered into Seoul.

30 months later, back stateside to DC & the Military District of
Washington, when it was time for the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Jeeze.

A few years later my father retired from the Army.

> That was the first thing
>they would tell us when we got off the plane in Korea.  It is only a
>cease-fire and could restart at any time.  I always figured that we
>would
>know that it had started up by two things.  One:  the Korean
>Nationals
>would all not show up for work one morning, and two:  holes would
>suddenly
>open up on the flight line.

While there we (the family) had a trip to Panmunjom.  Even at 10/11
years of age one quickly figured out this was a tense place.

As a side note, the DMZ because it is so heavily guarded is also one
incredible bird sanctuary.  Nobody goes hunting there.

>
>One of the joys of having been a sacrificial goat is the knowledge
that
>I
>got out of there without being sacrificed.  The American presence in
>Korea
>is purely so that if the North Koreans attack, enough American
>citizens
>will be killed that the American people will be willing to go to war
>over it.

And if the North Korean leadership isn't too insane they'll realize
that and just rattle their sabres.  From what I've been reading both
China & Japan harbor worries/concerns about Kim Jong-Il.  More about
"poeerless leader" here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/783967.stm including
this: "according to official North Korean accounts, he was born in a log
cabin ".  (Oh, stop your snorting...)

>
>Cynical?  Oh no, not me.

Why would anyone be cynical about politics?  Gosh.  I"m shocked...

mjw