Anti-US feelings in South Korea after 50 years. What of Iraq after 10?

A lot of you have probably seen this, but there is an underlying issue I want to get to that is related.

I wasn't aware how popular the voicing of anti-US feelings was in South Korea. I knew there was a degree of anti-US sentiment, but after being linked to a song/film-clip which it appears is very popular I did a bit of net surfing specifically involving the events in the song's lyrics.

"F**king USA" by pop composer Yoon Min-sok.

Did you see the short-track skating race?
A vulgar country, fu**ing U.S.A.
Are you so happy over a gold medal?
A nasty country, fu**ing U.S.A.
Such as you are, can you claim that the U.S.A. is a nation of justice?
Why on earth don't we say what we have to?
Are we slaves of a colonial nation?
Now we will shout: "No to the U.S.A."
A wretched thief, fu**ing U.S.A. that stole our Olympic gold medal
A wicked robber, fu**ing U.S.A. that tries to rob everything by force

Did you hear Bush's reckless words?
A shameless country, fu**ing U.S.A.
It makes war threats to the north as well as intervention into the south
A country of gangsters, fu**ing U.S.A.
Is the U.S.A. still a beautiful country?
Is the north still an "enemy" to be killed?
How much more do you want to endure?
It's time to shout: "Yankee, go home!"
You dirty Yankees, wait and see
We will reunify the country with the independent force of the Korean nation
We will build a dignified country, a reunified country

Don't forget the blood-stained history of Korea!
You, author of Korea's division, fu**ing U.S.A.
Don't forget the Nogun-ri massacre of civilians!
You, murderer, fu**ing U.S.A.

Now, I think the overtly emotional response by the Koreans about the gold medal stealing is pretty stupid. But I think the rest may have validity on their end, and the Olympic "event" may just have pushed those feelings over the edge. There seems to be a large anti-US movement in South Korea, and why? Do you ever stop to ask yourselves "Why do we bother going into these countries if this is the thanks we get?". Granted it is some time since the Korean War, but what do you think the situation will be like in Iraq, or Afghanistan in 10, 15, 20 years time? Look at it now. In this song, the singer is basically signalling that they will reunify with North Korea and then "just you wait", that's kinda the tone I got from it. If these people don't appreciate what their country has become, and there are elementary school children singing along with the "F**king USA" pop song, and they are possibly being taught anti-USA hate much like we see in Palestine against Jews (and probably vice-versa)...is it worth it? Was this effort short sighted? Or was there long-term planning? Is it the same for Iraq? Is turning these countries into long-lasting democracies really working?

What could possibly make these people feel the way they do? Is it the behaviour of the American Military in their countries? Are they being made to feel like US property? Lower than Americans? In their own country? I honestly don't know, I've just been looking into this recently. I'm sure there are plenty of South koreans happy with how their country is now, but it is clear there are those who are not.

These South Koreans seem to think the "reckless" US rhetoric directed at North Korea is dangerous and that they look forward to reunifying with them. Is that something the US would be happy to see?

I had seen that video a while ago and it caught me by surprise.
I wasn't aware that Anti-American sentiment was so high in Korea until watching the video and doing some searches on the situation in Korea afterwards.

Apparently, it's really tough over there for Americans and even Europeans who may be mistaken for Americans.

I posted comments on this in another thread a while back.

politics.abovetopsecret.com...
Originally posted by AceOfBase
If you think Anti-US sentiment in Europe is bad (I don't) you should see what's coming out of South Korea.

www.areastudies.org...

Apparently, a song called "Fu...ing USA" is popular among the younger generation. The song is by Yoon Min-sok, a South Korean.

It was used in a video, which is said to have come from North Korea but I'm not sure if it did.
This is a quicktime version of it below. I've included multiple links in case one goes down.
acsu.buffalo.edu "Fu...ing USA.mov"
unresort.com "Fu...ing USA.mov"
shackspace.com "Fu...ing USA.mov"

It was also used in another video which combined war footage:
"Fu...ing USA" , war footage version WMV

It is definitely possible that Iraqis will still be angry at America decades from now and will speak about the horrors of Fallujah.

[edit on 2-1-2005 by AceOfBase]

Originally posted by cargo
What could possibly make these people feel the way they do? Is it the behaviour of the American Military in their countries? Are they being made to feel like US property? Lower than Americans? In their own country? I honestly don't know, I've just been looking into this recently. I'm sure there are plenty of South koreans happy with how their country is now, but it is clear there are those who are not.

If you look at the footage from these videos: link, you will see that there is a lot of opposition to the military base in their country and that rises even higher after incidents like the one where a tank ran over two school girls in 2002.

I think a lot of them have resentment towards the division of Korea by the US and the Soviet Union and think it should be reunited.

Cool, I will look through that thread. The main point of my post was more of a discussion regarding whether these drive-thru democracies are really worth it in the long run (incase a mod thinks I'm just posting this for the song). It seems that as well intentioned as you are, people just don't want to see their country become like yours and don't want your military "occupying" their country.

I just don't think that, in the long run, Iraq will become at peace with it's newly installed democracy. And you are right, there will be plenty of horrors to be angered about in the future. Who does this all benefit in the end? (maybe a rhetorical question...)

Edit: Thanks for the link AOB, I remember the tank + 2 girls incident and was going to bring it up but thought it would get mentioned in discussion eventually.

[edit on 2-1-2005 by cargo]