중앙데일리

The choices in battle

“My body shakes. I feel as if there is ice buried deep within my bones. What is my army division? Last school of graduation? Hometown? Why did I become a soldier? What do I think about communism? What are my feelings toward the United States? “I’m a platoon leader of a failed South Korean unit during the 1950-1953 Korean war. I witnessed a death of our noncommissioned officer after having infiltrated into enemy territory. I have been cap…

Mar 27,2003
North presents difficult choices

The reason the debate on the cause of the Iraq war and the morality of the United States seems to be so leisurely here has to do with the North Korea nuclear crisis. Our government, defying the anti-war mood at home and abroad, has issued a statement in support of the U.S. action and decided to dispatch noncombat troops for the war against Iraq, after serious deliberation, because it is a war led by our most important ally, the United State…

Mar 26,2003
Finding peace in forest of life

“The past is gone and the future has not arrived yet. What exists now is the present . . . . You are now walking through a beautiful garden. But it is just a few moments that you enjoy the beauty there. As you walk step by step, you begin to be a slave to the thoughts or work that occupied you before. You, whose heart is taken away, are like a husband who is unfaithful. You are not different from the husband who disregards his wife and childr…

Mar 25,2003
In the line of fire

Land mines made their debut in late 1914, in the early days of World War I. German forces set down the explosives in a field used by British forces, gaining some swift victories. In 1917, the Germans began using land mines against the British forces’ new armored vehicles. The torpedo was first made available for use by the father of Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite. The torpedo, which explodes when contacting a ship, made its debut in t…

Mar 23,2003
Armbands and heady power

Most of us here brandished an armband at least once during our school days. There used to be one for the kid in class whose turn it was to run errands, and the class representatives also wore them. The armband was an uncanny thing. It was just a band around the arm, but it had considerable power. It made kids horsing around turn quiet and smart. The normally quiet and shy kids became different people when they stood with the bands around…

Mar 21,2003
Ultimate irony

According to Thucydides’ account of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta gave an ultimatum to Athens in 431 B.C. The expanding city-state of Athens was posing a serious challenge to the existing power, Sparta, by closing off trade with Megara, a country located west of Athens and an ally of Sparta. Sparta warned that Athens must either reopen trade or face war. As history recounts, Athens refused the ultimatum. The history of ultimatums goes back a …

Mar 21,2003
Leadership by betrayal

Let’s call it “leadership by betrayal.” At some points in history, leaders feel it necessary to go against the tide of what their supporters want and risk criticism, loss of office or even death in some cases. If that leadership is successful, though, peace and harmony can follow. In September 1993, Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, met Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the White House in Washington to s…

Mar 19,2003
Causes, morale and weather

When war breaks out, the most developed weapons and technology a country can muster are mobilized, and the power of a country’s weapons is used as propaganda against potential enemies even before war starts. But weapons are not the sole factor to decide victory or defeat. The outcome is dependent on other elements, such as an army’s morale, the cause involved and the weather. In this sense, the Napoleonic Wars, which heavily influenced …

Mar 18,2003
The bugs are winning

On a Sunday morning in November 1942, Bostonians were shocked after reading newspaper headlines that 400 persons were killed in a night club fire. At every emergency room in the city, people were dying from infections. Under pressure, the U.S. government decided to use a secret medicine that was under the control of the military. That was the debut of penicillin, the “magic bullet” that killed staphylococcus. Penicillin had been first develop…

Mar 17,2003
Assassins

The greatest assassin in the history of the world was probably an Italian ruler during the Renaissance, Cesare Borgia (1476-1507), an illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI. The notorious prince was the subject of a letter home from the Venetian ambassador to the Vatican. “Every night, there are four or five corpses discovered. All of Rome fears for its life under the murderous Bishop Cesare.” But of the countless assassinations suspecte…

Mar 16,2003

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