Reuters:

President George W. Bush would like to see a lengthy U.S. troop presence in Iraq like the one in South Korea to provide stability but not in a frontline combat role, the White House said on Wednesday.

The United States has had thousands of U.S. troops in South Korea to guard against a North Korean invasion for 50 years.

Democrats in control of the U.S. Congress have been pressing Bush to agree to a timetable for pulling troops from Iraq, an idea firmly opposed by the president.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush would like to see a U.S. role in Iraq ultimately similar to that in South Korea.

“The Korean model is one in which the United States provides a security presence, but you’ve had the development of a successful democracy in South Korea over a period of years, and, therefore, the United States is there as a force of stability,” Snow told reporters.

He said U.S. bases in Iraq would not necessarily be permanent because they would be there at the invitation of the host government and “the person who has done the invitation has the right to withdraw the invitation.”

First of all, some history. The President of South Korea from 1948 to 1960 was Syngman Rhee. Rhee was not a democrat. He tortured and massacred people on the left and was a model of corruption. He was forced out of office by student protests that erupted after a rigged election for his vice-president.

On April 28 [1960], a DC-4 belonging to the CIA – operated Civil Air Transport whisked Rhee out of South Korea and away from the clutches of a lynch mob that was closing in.

Rhee was not replaced by a democrat, either. After a period of instability and chaos, there was a coup d’etat led by Park Chung-Hee.

Seizing the moment, Major General Park Chung-hee led a bloodless military coup (called the 5.16 Revolution) on May 16, 1961, a coup largely welcomed by a general populace exhausted by political chaos. Although Chang resisted the coup efforts, President Yoon sided with the junta and persuaded the United States Eighth Army and the commanders of various South Korean army units not to interfere with the new rulers. Soon, he was promoted to Lieutenant General.

The Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) was created on June 19, 1961 to prevent a countercoup and to suppress all potential enemies, domestic and international. It was to have not only investigative power, but also the power to arrest and detain anyone suspected of wrongdoing or harboring antijunta sentiments.

Park ‘served’ two terms as president, and he wasn’t replaced by a democrat, either. He forced through an amendment to the constitution and ran for a third term. Then he declared a state of emergency and stopped allowing anyone to run against him in future elections. In 1979, his presidency was finally ended…by a bullet fired from the head of the KCIA’s gun.

So…twenty-six years after the end of the Korean War there had been nothing but military dictatorships, a coup d’etat, sham elections, and an assassination of the head of state by the director of central intelligence. At this point it must have turned into a bastion of liberty, right?

Wrong. In 1980:

General Chun Doo-hwan launched a coup d’etat against the transitional government of Choi Gyu Hwa, the former prime minister under Park and interim president, to assume the presidency. Chun’s seizure of power triggered national protest asking for democrazation, particularly protests in Gwangju, South Cholla province. Chun sent in the special forces to suppress the city, and many students and civilian were killed brutally.

You can read about the Gwangju Massacre here.

It wasn’t until 1988, when South Korea hosted the Olympics, that real democracy finally came into existence there. It took a full thirty-five years to manifest itself.

If Iraq follows the same timeline, it will be 2038 when they finally have a real democracy.

But, of course, Iraq will never develop along the same timeline because there is almost nothing that Iraq shares in common with South Korea. South Korea is almost 100% ethnically Korean. They don’t fight over theological differences.

And, while they have a militarized and insane neighbor to their north, just as Iraq has a militarized and insane neighbor to their east, South Korea has no history of invading that neighbor…it’s just the opposite.

The South Koreans tolerate the American presence there because there is a real military threat and Korean reunification has a compelling logic. There is no such thing as Iraqi/Iranian reunification.

Moreover, the Koreans have a long history of being subjugated by ethnically different neighbors. They don’t like it, but they are used to it. And America’s presence there is benevolent when compared to their other experiences. There is no larger ethnically Korean community that is militantly resistant to colonial or imperial influence. Not so among the Iraqis, the Arabs, and the Muslims.

George W. Bush has, at least and at last, laid his vision before the American people. Unfortunately, that vision is insane.