Bush sees some parallels b/w SKorea and Iraq

Heiligendamm, Germany, June 7: US President George W Bush said that a US troop presence in Iraq could help a democracy emerge the way that one did in South Korea after the Korean War 50 years ago.

But he acknowledged that there were big differences in the cultures of the two countries and that the analogy was not at all exact.

''The US presence enabled the South Korean economy and system to evolve, and at the same time, provided assurances to the Chinese and the Japanese,'' Bush told reporters on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Germany.

''It helped achieve an objective for all of us, and today, the Far East is peaceful. And it wasn't peaceful at the end of the Korean War. It was a place where thousands of Americans had lost lives.'' But Bush added, ''The comparison between Korea and the Middle East is, again, not to say that the religious situation was the same -- of course, it was different -- nor to say that some of the influential players were the same -- it's different. But it is to say that given time, these democracies will emerge.'' White House spokesman Tony Snow said last month that Bush would like to see a US role in Iraq ultimately similar to that in South Korea in which ''you get to a point in the future where you want it to be a purely support model.'' The comparison stirred criticism among some who noted South Korea after the armistice with the North experienced nowhere near the violence that it is going on in Iraq.

The comments also suggested a lengthy US troop presence in Iraq, stirring concern among Democrats in control of the US Congress who have been pressing Bush to agree to a timetable for pulling troops out of Iraq.

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

Reuters>