Category: Anti-American Crap

Jeff in Busan points out this letter to the editor in the Korea Times. Here are highlights from the letter:

I was sent to Korea and I served with the 7th Infantry Division. We were to serve for nine months and 36 points. When I finally rotated home, I was in Korea over 13 months and I had 52 points, but I was one of the lucky ones, I made it home.

I have always tried to feel I did some good in helping South Korea and its people. I wore my 7th Division cap with Korean ribbons on it in civilian life, but no more!

Like many Korean War veterans, I too have tired of the TV reports showing mobs of people in various Korean cities shouting “Americans, Go Home!”

When I think of the sacrifice we made and the number of people we lost in trying to protect the freedom of the South Korean people, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and to have the South Korean people throw our sacrifices in our face is too much to take.

Jeff tends to think that Korean anti-Americanism shouldn’t be taken at face value because the majority of Koreans do not want the US to leave they just want the US to change it’s attitude.

(…) letters like those written by Mr. Gunther remind me that to Americans, who do not understand the Korean way of doing things, words mean things. Americans hear the words and take them at their face value.

We don’t do a lot of processing words through the filters of other cultures. Although there needs to be greater education and less focus on the minor events in the Western press, the Korean side must also understand that a poor choice of words or misguided actions can end up doing much more harm than good

There is definitely cultural misunderstandings about what one sees on the news compared to the actual reality here in Korea. I remember last month’s Hanchongryun protest that totaled 3,000 college students at Yongsan fighting with the riot police. Most of those college students probably could care less about the ideology of Hanchongryun but just look forward to fighting with the riot police and trading war stories that night at the bar with their friends.

This violent protest was all over the world news and my parents even called me wondering what was going on over here after seeing it on the news. I just explained to them that this type of thing is something that college students typically do here every summer. It is like a rite of passage around here to protest something.

However, the next week 4,000 USFK workers stage an even bigger, but peaceful protest in favor of USFK and for keeping their jobs and no one cares or reports it. This selective reporting by the international media only further inflames the sentiment back in America. The international media in my opinion has an agenda to push anti-Americanism probably because it sells in the international market and the Hanchongryun types only continue to feed it and to further tarnish Korea’s image in America.

The domestic media in Korea is just as bad at fueling not just anti-American sentiment but also anti-foreigner sentiment in general with biased one sided reporting. This reporting only reinforces preconceived stereotypes that many Koreans hold about foreigners to begin with.

However, the Korea Times letter writer should take pride in the fact that him and his fellow American soldiers sacrifices during the Korean War are what have allowed the South Korean media to have biased free speech to begin with. Freedom and especially free speech, if even biased 50 years later is still something to proud of having given to the South Koreans.

I said this before that nothing good would come from this report and I was right as Yonhap provides this update:

SEOUL, June 10 (Yonhap) — Records of U.S. and South Korean investigations into two middle school girls killed by a U.S. armored military vehicle in 2002 suggest that the prosecution was a whitewash and the accused U.S. soldiers were acquitted based on false statements, a civic organization in Seoul said Friday, citing the recently released documents.

“We cannot contain our rage against the U.S. investigation authorities and the South Korean prosecutors after discovering in their hidden documents how they framed and covered up the case,” said Goh Yeong-jae, an official for Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea (SPARK), in a press conference.

I wish they would report in detail what the alledged cover up and white washing was. It is always easy to make claims without evidence.

UPDATE III:

The US government must be really concerned about the possible anti-US backlash here because now even President Bush has expressed his condolences to President Roh about the accident.

I first want to express my country’s deepest condolences for the accident that took place where a U.S. military vehicle killed a Korean woman, and we send our deepest sympathies to the woman’s families,” Bush told reporters after a meeting with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.

“And Mr. President, I just want you to know our hearts are sad as a result of this incident,” he said, looking at Roh sitting next to him at the briefing with the press.

Bush’s swift response to the road accident apparently reflected concerns that a fresh wave of anti-American sentiment may flare up in South Korea over the tragedy as it did over a similar accident three years ago.

Once again good move. A lot has been learned from 2002.

UPDATE II:

Here is what the Joongang is reporting. The only new news they provided was that the accident involved an MP LMTV. They also reported General Campbell’s apology and condolences to the family for the accident. Good move by the General, so far the army has been handling this difficult situation pretty well.

UPDATE I:

The Korea Times is reporting that 8th US Army commander General Charles Campbell is apologizing for the tragic accident:

“Gen. Campbell sincerely apologizes and expresses his deep personal condolences to the family and friends for the tragic death,?? the U.S. Army said in a news release.

(…)

The general?s apology came just hours after the tragedy took place given that two South Korean schoolgirls killed by a U.S. armored vehicle had sparked massive anti-American protests in the country in June 2002.

The article provides some more details about the case:

The woman, a 51-year-old yogurt delivery worker with the surname Kim, was hit by a 2.5-ton military truck driven by an Army private in Saengyon-dong, Tongduchon, around 2 p.m.

It was not immediately confirmed whether the U.S. private was off duty at the time of the accident. He is under the custody of Korean police in Tongduchon for questioning.

The soldiers in truck were obviously on duty since they were driving a military vehicle. Since the soldiers were on duty they will fall under the SOFA agreement that means that the case will be handled by the US military law system.

I can already see the unfair SOFA protestors now.

It has already hit the news wires, but this is what I have been dealing with all afternoon. I’ll let the Army Public Affairs Office explain in detail what happened before I comment on it but it doesn’t look good initially but let’s reserve judgement and let the investigation play out.

This is sure give the Hanchongnyun types protesting this weekend plenty to protest and cause trouble about unfortunately. Especially with the anniversary of the 2002 accident coming up on Monday. There couldn’t be a worse time for this. My condolences to the family for this tragedy.

South Korean students have begun their annual summer time protests outside Yongsan garrison.

Thousands of South Korean students rallying Sunday against the U.S. military’s five-decade presence clashed with police after trying to enter the American base, and at least 12 people were injured and more than 20 were arrested.

Demonstrators marched through Seoul before attempting to enter the main Yongsan U.S. military base in the city center. They called for the withdrawal of the 32,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.

What the article failed to report was that the protestors were from the Hanchongryun student group that is backed and financed by North Korea. The group used to be illegal under South Korea’s National Security Law but since President Roh Moo Hyun took office he has allowed the outlawed group free reign to conduct their criminal activities. In fact their leader Ms. Song Hyo Won last week traveled to North Korea fully approved by the South Korean government no doubt to get her marching orders from the Norks before this weekend’s protests.

Hanchonghyun Leader Song Hyo Won.

Here is an excerpt from an interview with the Hanchongryun spokesman that will give you a good indication of their ideology and thinking.

Dae Sik Yoo, the student body president of Kyung Hee University, is on the lam. Since police can arrest him anywhere but here—they’re not allowed on university grounds—Yoo never leaves campus for more than 12 hours. For a wanted man, he looks wholesome, with wire-rimmed glasses, baseball cap, and khaki pants. He could pass for a preppie American student. But when asked about the political opinions that got him into trouble, he sounds more like a North Korean Communist affiliate than a college student in a U.S.-allied country.

“Kim Jong Il is an outstanding leader,” says Yoo. “No other country can stand up to the U.S. Only North Korea can.”

Yoo landed on the wanted list for his role as spokesperson for the Hanchongryun, a left-wing student organization notorious for its pro-North Korean views. Hanchongryun spearheaded demonstrations and sit-ins for 11 years, pushing for reunification of the North and South—but on Korean terms and without any U.S. interference.

(…)

“Kim is just another leader and not a despot or a dictator,” he says. “If he really is a dictator, the North Koreans wouldn’t have tolerated that and overthrown him. They’re not that brainwashed. They must see something in the system that’s right.”

By saying the North Koreans are “not that brainwashed” he is admitting that at least some brainwashing is going on. What he doesn’t understand is that the North Korean people cannot see anything wrong in the system because if they did they would be sent to the gulag or shot. If the system is so great then why are defectors trying to jump the fences of every embassy in China. This is how Hanchongryun explains these facts:

North Korea’s violent crackdowns at home counted for little here. “The U.S. has been giving false propaganda about the North,” said one Catholic university student. “There is no proof that the North commits human rights violations. I think the U.S. is misbroadcasting information about North Korea killing its own people.”

That’s right folks the gulags and famine are all US propaganda though evidence of these gulags come from the governments of other countries plus from the mouths of North Korean defectors themselves. The American CIA must of brainwashed all of these people to speak badly of the Dear Leader. It only gets better:

He is careful to emphasize that he’s not a radical and prefers to stay out of student protests. Still, he feels little reason to be threatened by Kim Jong Il’s regime: “Maybe it is dangerous for North Korea to have nuclear arms. I think, though, when reunification happens, their nukes will be our nukes and give us a higher international standing.”

Their nukes will be your nukes when they land on Seoul. Plus if he is so eager to see Korea possess nuclear weapons, South Korea is more than capable right now of manufacturing nuclear weapons. The government chooses not to due to treaty obligations. Now what about human rights in North Korea? Hanchongryun could care little about that:

Activists who try to denounce Kim Jong Il for human rights violations complain that South Korean government officials have sabotaged their efforts. Human rights activist Norbert Vollertsen, a German, once spent 18 months in Pyongyang working for Doctors Without Borders and witnessed the devastating effects the famine and gulags have had on North Korean citizens. Now residing in South Korea, he complains that he is followed and harassed and says surveillance is so strict, he feels like he is in Pyongyang again.

“The youth are quite interested in human rights issues in Iraq, racism in America. They’re eager to do something and make changes. But when it comes to North Korea, they are so ignorant and uninformed of human rights violations,” Vollertsen says. “When I do college tours, it’s quite shocking because first of all they don’t want to believe my stories. When I showed them pictures of children starving, they thought the pictures were from Dachau or Auschwitz. They didn’t want to believe it was in North Korea. They kept challenging me and saying, ‘Are you sure they’re starving and dying? Are you sure you’re a doctor?’ “

I’m sure Hanchongryun members comfort each other by saying Vollertsen is a CIA agent or something to that effect because famine cannot possibly have happened in the Worker’s Paradise.

Experts and activists, like Vollertsen, claim North Korean agents steer groups such as Hanchongryun, newsrooms, even Roh’s administration. But Yoo denies that Hanchongryun has official ties to North Korea, and is quick to defend the country. “Everywhere in the world, there are prisons. North Korea is nothing special,” Yoo says, with a sigh. “But if there are human rights problems, then Hanchongryun will help them.”

I really don’t mind people protesting against the US military because it is their right to do so but they shouldn’t be allowed to beat the heck out the riot police like they do. The young mandatory service draftees that make up the riot police get the crap beaten out of them every time there is a major protest. I can’t believe how these people get away with assaulting police officers.

What bothers me the most about these protestors is that the media will not tell you who they are. You read the news and the reports tell you students protested against the US military. Why doesn’t the media say Hanchongnyun protestors instead of student protestors? Well, that would mean admitting to who you are and from what you have read above, who they are is nothing to be proud of.

Here is a well written editorial in the Korea Times that makes many good points. Here is a sample:

The past years have seen surges in anti-Americanism, which was initially sparked by an accidental death of schoolgirls being struck by a U.S. military vehicle. Even though the USFK readily expressed “heartfelt condolences’’ and then formally apologized, Koreans flooded downtown to denounce America which has saved a lot more innocent Koreans than they have accidentally killed. Surprisingly, the Korean press has glossed over the accidental death of an Iraqi after being struck by a bullet from a Korean military rifle. The Korean public dismisses this as being “an accident,’’ but was it not also “an accident,’’ which occurred on the Korean road a few years ago?

Interesting comparison of incidents. I’m still waiting to see what the truth of that incident really is. Here is the point I like best:

In addition, U.S. soldiers stationed here have paid a human emotional cost by being away from their loved ones. If people feel Americans do not pay enough for their bases or other costs, these same people should take a sobering stroll around the War Memorial and as they see the names of the multitude of dead U.S. and U.N. soldiers they should remember that freedom is not free. All of this is to protect Korea from a crazed regime in North Korea.

Many Koreans don’t realize how hard it is for US soldiers to come here for a year and leave their wife and kids back in the US. It is a big emotional sacrifice for soldiers to leave their families especially in this day and age when you may have just come off of an Iraq deployment, just to come to Korea for another year away from your family. This causes untold amounts of marrital problems and divorce. Then having people protest you even though you left your family to come here to help protect the peninsula is really frustrating for many soldiers. Read the rest of the article on your own. Interesting reading.

The Oranckay first reported about the MBC interview with SGT Mark Walker who was driving the tracked vehicle in June 2002 that accidentally ran over and killed two young Korean girls. The Stars and Stripes has picked up on the story now:

Former Army Sgt. Mark Walker is still haunted by the day three years ago when the U.S. military vehicle he was driving killed two South Korean girls on a country road in Uijongbu, according to a news segment that aired in South Korea late Friday night.

“I know there was nothing I could have done to stop it,” he said during an interview at a McDonald’s in the Atlanta area in April. “I have flashbacks every day.”

Walker granted the interview in April with producers from “W,” a South Korean news magazine that airs each Friday night on the network MBC. He told the network he lost 50 pounds during the subsequent trial and that he sleeps four hours a night, if he’s lucky.

Kim Hyun-Chul, an MBC producer and director, said he wanted the 20-minute news story to explore the American perspective of the controversial and traumatic accident. Kim and his colleagues went to the States last month and spent 10 days trying to find Walker.

They used Web searches on America Online, inquiries to the U.S. military and even random phone calls to dozens of people named Mark Walker in Atlanta before finding the right one, the segment showed. When they finally interviewed him, he agreed to a microphone but not an up-close camera shot.

Here is Walker’s and the Army’s version of what happened:

On June 13, 2002, Walker was driving a 60-ton tracked bridge carrier along Highway 56 in the northern part of the country as part of a convoy. According to court-martial testimony, Walker didn’t see the two 13-year-old girls as the vehicle went up a hill and rounded a curve. After his commander spotted the girls, Walker tried to brake, but the vehicle’s momentum carried them forward and they crushed the girls, according to U.S. military officials’ accounts of the accident.

This would seem to be a tragic accident but the internet rumor mill in Korea destroyed any search for the truth of this accident. The power of the internet is definitely displayed by this case. Many rational thinking Korean people believe Walker ran the girls over on purpose and the Army is covering it up and Walker should be rotting in a Korean prison.

I have had KATUSAs tell me they think the guy ran the girls over on purpose and then backed up on them again to make sure they were dead. Then the rumors about him celebrating after the accident and then joking about it once he got back to camp and caused a fight with a KATUSA. Many of these rational thinking people will tell you there is video of these incidents on the internet to prove their claims, though when asked to produce them no one can. Because they only exist in the collective minds of the people that pass these rumors to bash the US military for their own seperate reasons.

The MBC interview of course made sure to take the mandatory cheap shot at the US military:

The segment, which aired during South Korean prime time just before midnight Friday night, also addressed some of the failings U.S. troops have had in other foreign countries, including scenes from prison abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

What Abu Graib has to do with something that happened in 2002 is beyond me, especially considering the soldiers (I think shitbags is a more appropriate term) involved in that incident are in jail now or at least still standing trial. What happened in Abu Graib it could be argued is the same thing that happens in ROK Army basic training. I don’t think the shitbags at Abu Graib made the terrorists eat feces like the ROK Army does. I would rather be on a dog leash then be forced to eat human feces out of the toilet. So will the Korea media include in every story about the ROK Army the human feces scandal? I think not, but it is a fair comparison.

Yesterday Uri Party law makers took their show on the road to Camp Casey to meet with USFK commanding general Leon LaPorte. When asked about anti-Americanism in Korea the general responded:

General Leon LaPorte, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, said yesterday in a meeting with Lee Bu-young, chairman of the governing Uri Party, and 10 Uri Party lawmakers that anti-U.S. sentiment in Korea did not bother him because he was proud defending a democracy where such freedom of expression is possible.

Here is something that really infuriates me by these pin head Uri politicians.

Addressing the causes of anti-Americanism in Korea, the Uri Party chairman claimed that an accident in June 2002, in which two girls were killed by a U.S.-armored vehicle participating in a training exercise in Uijeongbu City, could have been prevented with more caution.

First of all the accident didn’t even happen in Uijeongbu, it actually happened in the country side of the city of Yangju. So if you are going to make accusations at least get the location right. Secondly the army does bare some responsibility for the accident but not any more than the Korean government. The accident happened because two convoys of oversized armored vehicles were approaching each other on a very narrow country road. The convoy with what is called a AVLB which is a large tracked vehicle with a bridge on the top of it had to manuever to the shoulder of the road to avoid the on coming convoy. The driver of the AVLB cannot see to the right of his track due to his view being blocked by the armor of the track. So the driver is dependent on the track commander who sits on top to warn him of any hazards on the right side of the track. Due to some communications problems in the vehicle, the driver was not warned in time about the two girls who were walking on the side of the road. Why were they walking on the side of the road you ask. Well there are no sidewalks out there for pedestrians to walk on.

Many soldiers including myself have complained about the lack of sidewalks before the accident because there are so many civilians who walk on the roads that are in or near or training areas. Plus the civilians have grown so used to seeing large military equipment that they do not move out of the way of them.

So if the Uri politicians want to assign blame well let’s look at this. Guess who approves all convoy movements for 2ID? The ROK Army does. Guess who makes the roads in Korea? Yes, you guessed right the Korean government does not the US Army. Who makes side walks in Korea? Yes again the Korean government. Imagine that. What blame can be placed on the army? The communication problem was definitely an army issue, but with military equipment you are going to have communication problems no matter what you do. Sensitive electronic equipment riding around in tactical vehicles means commo problems. Happens all the time. That is why other safety measures like wider roads and sidewalks are needed. If these measures were in place this accident would have never happened. The fact that no accident happened before this one is a tribute to how seriously 2ID takes convoy safety. I challenge anyone to find an organization that takes convoy safety as seriously as 2ID.

Quietly now the Korean government in the area the accident, is now widening the roads and making sidewalks. I just wish someone would challenge these pin heads when they are so quick to jump on the US military for this accident when there is an equal amount of blame that should be placed on the Korean government. Then again why should we expect any Korean politician to be held responsible for anything. It is easier just to blame America for everything. The life of a global scapegoat.

If I was talking to these guys I would of asked the politician if he knew how narrow the roads were and why there was a lack of sidewalks to begin with. They probably didn’t even know about these facts because nobody in media has put that information out there. I then would ask him what measures the Korean government is taking to ensure US soldiers are not kidnapped or stabbed and murdered by Korean civilians in the future. What you haven’t heard about these incidents in the fair and balanced Korean media!? Click Here to find out more. I would love to see their faces when challenged.

The army is to much of a punching bag here, sometimes we just need to punch back in an effort to inform and influence public opinion. The US chain of command has taken responsibility for the incident and apologized all the way up to the President of the United States. What has Korea done to accept in responsibility in this? Nothing, it easier to play the role of the small, weak country. It is easier to avoid any responsibility this way.