USFK Announces War Time Control Handover By 2010
From Yonhap:
The United States has strongly indicated that it will allow South Korea to get back the wartime command of its troops, currently held by the U.S., around 2010, a couple of years earlier than the deadline agreed on between the sides, a Defense Ministry official said Monday.
Seoul and Washington agreed during annual defense talks in Washington last October that the transition of wartime control of South Korean troops will take place sometime between Oct. 15, 2009 and March 15, 2012.
The timing was a compromise between South Korea and the U.S., as the former wanted a delayed transfer, citing a possible power vacuum, while the latter pushed ahead with an earlier transition as part of its flexible troop deployment in which U.S. troops in the Korean Peninsula are supposed to be mobilized easier than before for other conflict regions.
"The U.S. side informed us during the Security Policy Initiative meeting in Seoul (this month) that three years is enough from now on," the official said, asking not to be named.
This is an issue that General Bell has been pushing hard on, that the Korean government has been hoping the US government would forget about with the departure of Secretary Rumsfeld. It seems the new Secretary of Defense has now finally started to put some emphasis on USFK related issues with this announcement. I had hoped that October 16, 2009 would be chosen for the handover but January 1, 2010 is just as good.Â
It will be interesting to see the Korean government’s reaction on this considering President Roh said the ROK Army could take operational control now if needed. As I have speculated before, President Roh is trying to drag out the handover, so that when it is implemented, he will have left office and any economic and political repercussions from the handover he will have successfully avoided.
It looks like the GNP is going to be in the Blue House after this years election in Korea, and they are already setting the stage for a revolt from the command transfer agreement. They will fight it as hard as they feel they need to.
Yesterday, I heard that Newt Gingrich is going to run for the US presidency.
I don't know if he has a chance to win. I think he might – which is odd since the press did all they could to obliterate him after he led the reps taking over the House in the 1990s.
If I were a young college student in political science, I'd do my Phd on the difference between the cheerleading press coverage Pelosi got after 10 years of rep control of the House and the out-n-out mission of devestation they media launched on Gingrich when the dems lost control after 40 years of rule.
I am sure the media is going to attack him this time as well.
But, it was already going to be one of the more bitter campaigns in history, and I have a feeling demonizing Gingrich might actually help him this time. The choices will be clear – at least.
And I have a feeling Gingrich will continue the push to scale down in SK.
I have no clue what Guliani would do, but I think Gingrich would say SK can defend itself and we need those resources (and he'd be tough on NK).
Sounds like Gingrich is my man. I want this hate-fest in korea to end. While I understand, all that happens in korea of a negative nature is always America's fault. It would be better if it were because we weren't there rather than because we are. A year in korea, for most troops is a year lost. Wasn't always that way. We have better use for our time, Troops and equipment.
Personally I like Newt Gingrich but I don't think he is the man we need now to be president. If he or Hillary were elected president it would be another 4 years of partisan hatred in Washington. I'm for McCain for president because he is a conservative centrist which the media will have a hard time bashing like they would Gingrich. I think it would be even better if McCain chose Joe Lieberman a liberal centrist as his running mate.
Both McCain and Lieberman as has been shown by their recent views are not slaves to their parties are ideologies. They do what they feel is the right thing for the country. Neither of them has much of a history in dealing with NK issues, but if they were in the White House and continued to lead by doing what is right, that would mean they wouldn't be committed to the status quo in Korea because all of us following USFK and NK issues know the status quo is jacked up right now.
I think the Hillary/Obama ticket will have a heck of a time beating a McCain/Lieberman ticket. I think McCain will have a harder time winning his primary than beating Hillary.
That is why I want Gingrich to get the rep nomination.
I want to force this thing into a full blown, wide ranging debate.
I want the type of people who fought long and hard during the Cold War against the side that usually portrayed US foreign policy as being in the wrong and excusing the reality of other nations to return to the debate fully.
Right now, I think the definition of the future in the US is being set. Whoever gains ground to a majority, if they can gain such ground, is going to set the conditions for the US in the world for the next 25 years.
We need somebody who can articulate why the US is not "the problem" in the world and why we need to sacrifice energy, materials, and blood to help build a better environment in the world not only for the US but other democracies as well.
They will attack Gingrich relentless and with a lot of venom, but I want them to have to do that – and I want others in the US to see Gingrich intelligently and articulately respond.
Right now, with the media as it is, the public is being pummelled from basically only one side.
Gingrich as the rep nominee can change that. The press won't be any more favorable to him than before, but the level of venom it will take to counter Gingrich's responses will point out in a way that will motivate some average citizens to complain about (and become more active about) how much the press works hard to guide our thoughts toward dem positions on the war and other policies.
For those interested, I just googled to try to find anything he has said about the US-SK alliance, and I came across this on the latest nuke deal:
http://www.newt.org/backpage.asp?art=4087