effthegreen

Zing-a-ling-a-ding-dong!

I recommend reading "This Kind of War" by Fehrenbach and "The Two Koreas" by Oberdorfer if you're truly interested.

Essentially, Taft approved the Japanese occupation of Korea prior to WW1 to protect the Phillipines. After WW2, the Russians marched to what is now the 38th parallel. The US, wanting to protect regional interests, among other things, devised a deal to create two temporary occupation zones, North and South Korea.

As the Cold War amped up, the two Koreas became increasingly antagonistic towards each other. After the US and Russia trained their respective regimes, they left and the two Koreas moved to gain military superiority. This led to the Korean War.

Tl; dr A few people created a situation that really fucked the Koreans.

Edit: This is the really short version because I'm on my mobile. I've lived in Korea and have done quite a bit of research on Korea and the Korean War.

Edit #2: Wow! Downvotes. Don't really get it for a bit of historical fact but I guess I'll never really understand reddit.

Edit: changed "we" to "a few people" so as to remove any perceived blame from any people not involved.

I really agree with your idea to change the military. I think at all levels in the Chain of Command, we need to reevaluate who we allow to lead and make decisions.

This was one of the major reasons I decided to leave the military. It seemed that instead of vetting people for leadership positions, we had almost a "no officer and senior nco left behind policy." Instead of ensuring they were up to the task, everyone gets a shot until they fail.

It was truly disappointing because I enjoyed the military but after having one BN commander squeak by and almost get relieved in Korea and one BN commander actually get relieved of command in Afghanistan, (not to mention a myriad of issues at the company command level), I lost all faith in the Army's ability to choose leaders.

It isn't just the Army though. There have been a number of AF and Navy generals in the news lately.

I definitely agree. There is so much relevant history involved with this and it is so frustrating that it is never discussed; all you ever read about are the military aspects.

NK didn't just wake up one day, point at the US on a map, and say "These are now our sworn enemies. "