THOMAS FRIEDMAN: Well, I had a meeting with a South Korean professor one
day, and I didn't really know what to expect, I asked to see a sociologist,
and we sat down and he started in with the most virulent anti-American rant,
and all I could think was, oh no I came here to get away from that, I've
been in the Middle East for 14 months, please, no, not that! And what you
find there is an anti-Americanism fed by really three sources, one is
traditional old left pro Marxist Koreans who feel that we did prop up their
autocratic regimes. Secondly, though, your people object to our military
presence, two American soldiers were acquitted last week in a trial for
running over and killing two young South Korean girls. It was an accident,
but that produced a lot of anti-Americanism. And lastly there is that
feeling that maybe Uncle Sam is standing in the way a little bit between our
unification with our brother. So it's not the kind of vicious al-Qaida-like
anti-Americanism which we've heard about here tonight. But it's there, it's
underneath the surface. And just when you think you might have come to the
one place where you're not going to hear it, sorry, there is no such place.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/july-dec02/friedman_11-25.html
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