The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) is holding a performance tearing up the American flag as part of anti-US protests. [Photo=KCTU]

Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" is often read as a romantic yearning for an unknown journey, but its essence lies in its insight into the harsh consequences of choices and the self-justification that follows.

In life, there are irreversible crossroads, and those choices change everything. The national security landscape is no different. Remarks like Lee Jae-myung's past statement that "US forces are an occupying force" or the recent careless utterance by a supporter of the Progressive Party that "the main enemy is 'America'" are dangerous illusions and delusions that severely shake the foundation of our modern history.

The 'nation founded without America' or 'self-reliance without foreign powers' that they dream of are hallucinations of a utopia that does not exist. The reality of that 'road not taken,' which we are fortunate not to have walked, exists before us in the form of the Kim dynasty's hereditary regime across the Demilitarized Zone.

The Delusion of 'Anti-Americanism' and the True Face of KCTU-Style Protests

In some parts of our society, there is a strange delusion that has taken root, where pro-Americanism is dismissed as conservatism and shouting 'anti-American' is packaged as if one were an enlightened intellectual. However, the 'self-reliance' they cry for has nothing to do with national interest or the prosperity of the nation. It is essentially an extension of the KCTU's thoroughly self-serving struggle to protect its own interests.

As seen in the case of the KCTU, where spies from North Korea's United Front Department infiltrated its core and issued directives until recently, anti-American slogans have been used as a shield to hide impure intentions.

Interest groups seeking to maintain their vested interests and ideological factions dreaming of subverting the state are deceiving the public by donning the sophisticated uniform of 'anti-Americanism.' To them, the value of alliances is merely a disposable commodity that can be dismantled at any time to support their own fortress.

Historical Crossroads and Different Choices: South Vietnam, West Germany, and the Republic of Korea

We know the fates of countries that stood at similar crossroads in history. South Vietnam, on the verge of collapse, was consumed by internal anti-American sentiment and the specious justification of 'national solidarity.'

As a result of distrusting the value of alliances and succumbing to internal division, the 'road not taken' that they faced was not peace, but horrific purges and regression. In contrast, West Germany, which endured division on the ruins of war but firmly adhered to the Western liberal democratic path, achieved prosperity by leveraging the power of its alliances.

If President Rhee Syng-man had not secured the intervention of the United States during the founding and the Korean War, and had not established the immortal safety pin of the ROK-US Mutual Defense Treaty in the postwar era, it is evident that we would have been incorporated into the darkness of communist dictatorship and totalitarianism under the emotional slogan of 'the nation.' The end of the road we did not take was not paradise, but a land of darkness ruled by a three-generation hereditary dictatorship and starvation.

Bias in Legacy Media and the Disappearance of 'Friend or Foe Identification'

Looking at the reporting of legacy media on the recent Middle East situation, one questions whether it is indeed South Korean media. In the conflict between the US and Iran, while ignoring the strategic demands of a blood alliance, they blur the truth by framing funds transferred by the Lee Jae-myung administration to Iran as 'humanitarian aid.'

Instead of criticizing the selective isolationism of political forces that refuse even the requests of allies for troop deployments, they appear to be giving legitimacy to the opposing camp.

It may be difficult to expect fair reporting from a media landscape already dominated by the left. However, a minimal level of 'friend or foe identification' is fundamental to national existence. To what end do media outlets that process information from the perspective of the enemy, who are in direct conflict with our allies, exist? If the 칼끝 (kal-kkeut - blade's edge/tip) of the information they disseminate ultimately aims at the dismantling of national security, it is not freedom of the press, but anti-national incitement.

Delusions are Free, But the Price is Harsh

Modern warfare takes the form of 'Hybrid Warfare,' which transcends physical clashes of arms and involves a mixture of information manipulation and psychological warfare. As the waves of the new Cold War rise, the wavering of national and alliance perspectives is akin to an organism whose internal immune system has collapsed, opening its gates to a Trojan horse.

In this harsh era, I want to ask the forces that carelessly spout and incite views on nationhood and alliances as if they were children: are you prepared to take responsibility even once for the catastrophe that your irresponsible statements and actions will bring?

At the two paths in the forest, we have already chosen the best one. What is needed now is not futile speculation about the past, but firm cooperation and collaboration with the US to protect the values of freedom we have built.

Erroneous media and intellectuals must face the reality that the ultimate destination of the 'sophisticated anti-Americanism' they admire is the grim North Korea. History is not a delusion but a reality, and the price of delusion always returns in the blood and tears of the people. Delusions are free, but the price is harsh.

◆ Min Byung-gon, Author 

Political Documentary Writer 

Spokesperson for the People Power Party Chungnam Provincial Chapter