tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187379777728560214.post-22749843934001052542008-12-22T09:35:00.002-06:002008-12-22T09:46:10.347-06:00<p>Bruce Cumings has come on the scene with a recent description of America’s dark involvement in the death of political prisoners during the Korean War. Having a lot of respect for Cumings' work on the Korean War, I don’t wish to make too much of a point of it, but I can’t help wondering if Cumings, who knows a great deal about other things, has no real concept of war.</p><p>So far I am not sure the information is all in about the Taejon massacre, or the No Gun Re shootings, or any of the other “crimes” of the Korean War. If they happened I am not surprised; sad, but not surprised. It seems to me that most incredible things about the emergence of these stories, and the American outrage about them, is the naiveté they expose.</p><p>What does American think it is doing when it sends it young men and women off to war? Why do we continue to play surprised that war is awful, awesome, cruel and mean, and cannot be fought cleanly and without hate and rancor. If we would stop talking about war as if it was an abstraction, and face up to its realities, maybe we could help prevent the situations in which such things happen. </p><p> </p><p><em>Senior Fellow</em> <strong>Paul M. Edwards</strong></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5187379777728560214-2274984393400105254?l=blog.koreanwarcenter.org' alt='' /></div>Gregg Edwardsnoreply@blogger.com0