[EDITORIALS]Cockeyed nationalism

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[EDITORIALS]Cockeyed nationalism

We are concerned that a few opposition groups advocating the removal of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur’s statue from Incheon’s Freedom Park are becoming more organized in their operations. Repeated demonstrations are now just the basics. Recently, a professor wrote in a published article that the “statue of war-crazy MacArthur must be thrown back into history.” Then came a song with lyrics such as “General MacArthur is a murderer” that is currently being widely distributed. At a rally yesterday, demonstrators yelled that the statue of General MacArthur ― “which symbolizes occupation and slaughter” ― will soon be dismantled.
These people seem to think that the world is theirs to rule. Their manner of speech seems haughty because they talk stubbornly and with sophistication without the backing of a majority of the people. They claim that General MacArthur is a warmonger, a symbol of imperialism and a “head of the occupation forces.” This is not only a distortion of reality, it is also agit-prop with evil intentions to damage the legitimacy of the South Korean government. Shouldn’t the “warmonger” be Kim Il Sung, who attacked the South? And isn’t the “Imperialist” the former Soviet Union, the country that secretly supported Kim Il Sung?
General MacArthur only led a war to end the provocation by communist imperialist forces. Why is it that these people mouth such strange logic? If, for some reason, they intend to spur anti-U.S. sentiment by their demonstrations to remove the statue, they should stop immediately. If they think Koreans are going to fall for that sort of instigation, they should know that they are making a huge mistake.
General MacArthur is the man who saved our country in the Korean War through his success in the Incheon landings, which turned the tide of the war. Moreover, his statue is a symbolic memorial of the struggle to protect the precious democracy that we enjoy today. Therefore, people who demand the removal of the statue should bear in mind that what they are saying is almost the same thing as longing for unification under communism.
Even here, these people have distorted the facts. They claim that “MacArthur only protected the freedom of a few pro-American people.” Is that true? They should be thankful to General MacArthur and the free democratic system that allows them to demonstrate like this.
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