For those who have a basketball-sized burr up their butt over President Trump’s recent action against Iran and who thus accuse him of being a “puppet of Israel,” here’s something that should make such malcontents three times more angry: our relationship with South Korea.

Seventy-five years ago, we fought alongside the South Koreans in a brutal war that cost tens of thousands of American lives.  We did that in the service of “freedom” against communism, even though South Korea was a dictatorship and would remain so for more than thirty years after the war.

The war actually never officially ended.  There was never a peace treaty — only an armistice.  We are technically at war with North Korea to this day.

There are many similarities between the situation faced by South Korea versus North Korea on the one hand and Israel versus her adversaries on the other.  North Korea is an implacable enemy that considers the government of South Korea a colonial puppet regime, which deserves to be eradicated by force if at all possible.  North Korea has engaged in numerous terrorist actions and other provocative acts over the years against South Korea.  One of the main factors preventing a North Korean invasion is the presence of American forces.

Though literally halfway around the world, unlike in the case of Israel, where only token numbers of American troops are stationed, South Korea is home to tens of thousands of American soldiers, who would be on the front line from the moment hostilities began.  These include major ground combat units as well as air combat assets at permanent bases.

We spend many billions of taxpayer dollars every year to maintain this capability on behalf of South Korea — far more than we spend on aid to Israel.  In South Korea’s case, we call it not “aid,” but rather “defense spending,” but aid it is, and in spades.  This military presence means that South Korea can afford to spend that much less on its own defense.

And unlike the case of aid to Israel, which must all be spent on American weapons and thus supports our arms industry, the money we spend maintaining forces in South Korea goes into the South Korean economy, and we don’t get it back.  What do we get back from South Korea?  Consistent trade deficits, because we import a lot of their goods while they make it very difficult for American companies to market their products over there. 

Whereas South Korea was, in decades past, a poor and backward country, today it is a very modern and prosperous nation, far larger and richer in absolute terms compared with Israel, and could thus easily provide entirely for its own defense.  Yet our combat divisions and fighter squadrons remain on their front line to this day.  For many years after the armistice, our troops there were the targets of countless North Korean provocation and harassment attacks that cost dozens of American lives every year, though this got no media coverage.

What difference would it make to Americans in an immediate day-to-day sense if our forces weren’t there, and the North successfully invaded the South?  Very little, as there is hardly anything we import from South Korea that is of vital strategic importance.  What we do import from there could be obtained from other countries or could be manufactured here.  Again, still and all, we are spending far more money and are prepared to sacrifice far more for them than is the case for Israel.

So where is all of the outrage from the Israel-bashing isolationist crowd over South Korea?  It is nonexistent.

The above is written not in protest of our relationship with South Korea.  This author considers that nation to be an important regional ally, with great respect for its people and culture.  They are tough, productive, smart, and resourceful; their cuisine is wonderful.  But the above serves to illustrate the extreme hypocrisy of those shrill voices who endlessly gripe about the “Israel lobby,” how we do so much for Israel, how the Israelis seem to control our government, ad nauseam.  Such voices may fancy themselves as “righteous” or “patriotic,” but in fact, they are ignorant bigots, whether they realize it or not.

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