President Obama has long been criticized by Republicans for his purportedly inadequate zeal in pursuing the war in Afghanistan. He was criticized sharply from the right for his plan to draw down troops over three years; too fast, they said.So it’s ironic that Obama now finds himself defending that timetable against GOP critics who want to pull out more quickly in the wake of news that a U.S. soldier allegedly massacred at least 16 civilians.“We’re risking the lives of young men and women in a mi

Viewpoints March 16, 2012

Prosecutors and police are at each other’s throats again, this time over the investigation of a prosecutor who was accused of verbal assault and abuse of power by a police officer.The case involves a police officer in Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, who filed a complaint in January against a prosecutor in Changwon, the seat of the provincial government, for insulting him and abusing his power in directing and supervising the investigation of a private waste treatment company.The police offic

Editorial March 16, 2012

Rep. Kim Moo-sung of the ruling Saenuri Party and Rep. Park Sun-sook of the main opposition Democratic United Party are a rare species in Korean politics. They recently set shining examples of self-sacrifice in the ongoing election candidate nomination process, attracting praise from the media as well as fellow politicians.Rep. Kim is a political heavyweight who has been elected four times from a district in Busan, a traditional stronghold of the ruling party. The party’s candidate recommendatio

Editorial March 16, 2012

It is perhaps the loss of public faith in Indonesia’s House of Representatives that explains why the harder it seeks to boost its image, the more it disappoints its constituents. The House has gradually distanced itself from the public for whom it is supposed to fight and defend.The tall fence surrounding the House compound is merely evidence of a gap separating the elites inside and the masses outside to whom they are indebted, as without their votes the political bigwigs would never have accum

Viewpoints March 16, 2012

Greece has taken a big step toward getting the debt relief it needs to fix its economy and stay in the euro area. Now the question is whether other strapped countries that use the single currency should follow its lead. Despite the Greek deal’s flaws ― and they are many ― it offers a model that some other sovereigns will inevitably be tempted to experiment with, no matter how much European officials insist on Greece’s uniqueness. The legal precedent is set: By retroactively inserting so-called c

Viewpoints March 14, 2012

Apparently, it is reckless to think that India could bring about a rapprochement between Iran and the U.S. That, at least, is the view of some readers of my last column on India’s lenient attitude toward Iran’s nuclear program. They reprimanded me for being naive. For Iran, run by Islamic fundamentalists committed to the destruction of Israel, desires no such reconciliation with the country Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini indelibly called the “Great Satan.” Alas, such a view, which sees fixed essenc

Viewpoints March 14, 2012

Korea is reaching out to the West. Just when the West is experiencing hard times, with persisting economic troubles stemming from the late-2000s recession, it is noteworthy to point out that Korea is betting on its future. The signing of free trade agreements with the EU and the U.S. is a landmark step toward South Korea’s further integration within the global economy and a clear strategy aimed at bringing relations with the West to the next level. This is mainly for three reasons, the first one

Viewpoints March 14, 2012

The Korea-U.S. free trade agreement went into effect today, nearly five years after the two countries concluded their negotiations in April 2007. It is an essential component of the FTA web that Korea has been weaving to become a hub of trade and investment.The trade pact will undoubtedly benefit Korea by enabling it to access the world’s largest economy more freely. Research institutes forecast that the free trade deal would boost Korea’s gross domestic product by 5.7 percent and create 350,000

Editorial March 14, 2012

The primary role of outside directors is to act as a check and balance against inside directors. They are expected to monitor their company’s overall management activities, assess the performance of management and prevent its majority shareholder or chief executive officer from always having his own way. To carry out these responsibilities, an outside director needs to have expertise and experience in corporate management. Hence, in the United States, outside directors are usually chosen from am

Editorial March 14, 2012

The world is currently being shaken by tectonic changes almost too numerous to count: the ongoing economic crisis is accelerating the degradation of international governance and supranational institutions, and both are occurring alongside a massive shift of economic and political power to Asia. Less than a quarter-century after Francis Fukuyama declared “the end of history,” we seem to have arrived at the dawn of a new age of social and geopolitical upheaval.Dramatically, the Arab world has been

Viewpoints March 14, 2012

Rick Santorum called the president “a snob” for wanting everyone to get a college education. (In fact, Obama never actually called for universal college education but only for a year or more of training after high school.)Santorum needn‘t worry. America is already making it harder for young people of modest means to attend college. Public higher education is being starved, and the middle class will shrink even more as a result.Over the last year, 41 states have cut spending for public higher edu

Viewpoints March 14, 2012

Greece has taken a big step toward getting the debt relief it needs to fix its economy and stay in the euro area. Now the question is whether other strapped countries that use the single currency should follow its lead. Despite the Greek deal’s flaws -- and they are many -- it offers a model that some other sovereigns will inevitably be tempted to experiment with, no matter how much European officials insist on Greece’s uniqueness. The legal precedent is set: By retroactively inserting so-called

Viewpoints March 14, 2012