South Korea's Leader Gets It

Following the beheading of Kim Sun-il, an innocent South Korean civilian in Iraq by Islamist terrorists, South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun vowed to "deal sternly" with terrorism and push ahead with a large troop expansion as reported in the AP via the Detroit News.

While some South Koreans protested with placardsreading "Bush and Roh killed Kim Sun-il" and "We don't want to die. Korean troops get out." Placing the blame away from the terorrists and being as eager as the Spanish and French to capitulate, the average South Korean is made of sterner stuff.

I Have friends who served in Vietnam who either worked with or were near South Korean units and held the ROK units in high regard and respect. From their stories and from reading about the history of the ROK participation in Vietnam, it is a well known fact, and the terrorists should have known this, that messing with South Koreans is a very bad idea.

Hopefully the President Roh Moo-hyun will send not just the Engineers and Medics but combat troops to guard them and give the Islamist cowards a demonstration of exactly why its a very Bad Idea to kill innocent South Koreans.

He's right not to buckle to teerorrism, and his promised of sending even more troops is exactly the right response. It not only does not comply with the Islamists demands but does the opposite showing the guts and resolve of SOuth Korea in the face of these threats. I daresay the Islamists are going to be in for a rude awakening if they mess with South Koreans again.