Category: International Headlines

Could you imagine what would happen to the US military if it soldiers were limited to a 41 hour work week?  Imagine what the over time bill would like after a year long deployment:

The German military, once the most feared fighting force in Europe, is being forced to lay down its weapons by restrictive new overtime limits.

German soldiers taking part in a four-week Nato exercise in Norway earlier this year had to leave after just 12 days because they had gone over their overtime limits, it has emerged.

Troops have complained to a parliamentary watchdog that they are being forced to spend entire days doing nothing under the new rules.  (…..)

Under the latest reforms, in force since January, the military working week has been reduced to 41 hours and troops can no longer be paid for working overtime.

Instead they must be compensated with alternate time off.

Mr Bertels, an MP appointed to oversee the armed forces, said the new rules had forced training camps to close at 4.30pm and left soldiers stranded on base.  [The Telegraph via reader tip]

You can read more at the link.

Considering how authorities have been scouring Brussels for terror suspects ever since the Paris terror attacks you would think it would be hard for these guys to execute such attack.  Fortunately this US military family was not killed by this latest terror attack in Europe.  I hope they have a speedy recovery from their injuries:

A U.S. airman and his family were among the scores wounded in a series of bombings in Brussels Tuesday claimed by the Islamic State group that killed more than 30 people, prompting a temporary travel restriction to the country for all American forces, U.S. military officials said.

The airman, assigned to Joint Force Command Brunssum, Netherlands, was injured at Brussels’ international airport, the Air Force said in a statement. The Airman, who the Associated Press reported was a lieutenant colonel, “sustained various injuries,” the statement said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link.

#BREAKING President Hollande blames #IslamicState group for #ParisTerrorAttacks that killed at least 127 people pic.twitter.com/j2gxmnavCA

— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) November 14, 2015

It seems we can’t go more than a few months without a missing Malaysian linked airplane making headlines:

South Korea’s foreign ministry said Sunday that at least three South Koreans were on board an AirAsia plane that went missing en route from Indonesia to Singapore.

The ministry said that a South Korean man and a woman in their 30s, and an infant were among the 162 passengers and crew members on AirAsia’s flight QZ8501 that lost contact with Jakarta’s air traffic control after takeoff early Sunday.

The foreign ministry said it convened an emergency meeting to address the issue, saying that it will monitor progress in the search operations for the missing plane.

“The Seoul government plans to closely watch related authorities’ search operations and will study various options, including the dispatch of a response team,” Lee Jeong-gwan, ambassador for overseas Koreans and consular affairs, said at the opening of the meeting. [Yonhap]

AirAsia’s majority ownership is from a Malaysian company which the industry considers as having a very good safety record.

Police have released more information that the Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-hui may have conducted a dry run of his shooting rampage just two days before the shootings.  Additionally the police still have not been able to link why Cho shot certain victims as well as why he shot students in the building that he did. 

The strangest thing is that Cho hid hard drives from multiple computers that he owned.  The police have been unable to find where Cho had the hard drives.  If those hard drives could be found I bet a lot of questions about why Cho did what he did could be answered.

Anywhere from 18-23 Korean missionaries and NGO workers were kidnapped by Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan during a bus ride from Kandahar to Kabul.  The Taliban is demanding that Korea withdraw their troops from Afghanistan for the safe return of the abducted people.  The Marmot has an excellent post following the developments of this story as they happen. 

I really hope the election of Nicolas Sarkozy does lead to positive change in the US-French relationship:

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It was really only a matter of time, but not only are Korean movies to blame for Cho’s actions but now video games are as well.

The shooting on the Virginia Tech campus was only hours old, police hadn’t even identified the gunman, and yet already the perpetrator had been fingered and was in the midst of being skewered in the media.

Video games. They were to blame for the dozens dead and wounded. They were behind the bloodiest massacre in U.S. history.

Or so Jack Thompson told Fox News and, in the days that followed, would continue to tell anyone who’d listen.

While people continue to debate what caused the shootings, more information about Cho is coming out from his relatives in South Korea as well.  They say he has always been a very quiet and withdrawn even when he was a young boy.  Over at Lost Nomad they have a good discussion going if Cho was autistic or not.  I have never heard of an autistic person committing mass murder before though.  It is pretty clear the guy had mental problems, but I don’t think that was the one thing that caused this tragedy to happen.  I don’t think there is one single thing that caused the Virginia Tech massacre like people are trying to find. 

It was probably a combination of a whole number of things that formed the mental state that caused Cho to commit his crime.  Just by watching and reading his manifesto it is clear he has mental issues.  I’m going to admittedly do a lot of speculating here, but you have a guy with a weak mental state who reportedly was bullied in high school, probably had what he felt was a lot of pressure on him to do well in school from his family especially with his sister graduating from Princeton, possibly was angered by girlfriend issues in college, and may have been jealous of others at college who had more money and friends then him. 

Movies and video games (if he even played games) may have been outlet for his anger for a while, but at some point the anger over all the false demons he created in his mind began to bubble over and began his outlet his anger by writing crazy plays, acting weird in class, starting fires on campus, and stalking women.  The mental issues went untreated and continue to manifest to the point he decided to buy a gun and commit his crime.  I really think that if people are looking for one thing to blame, don’t blame movies, video games, the Iraq War (yes I know it’s hard to believe but someone blamed Iraq for Cho’s killings), white supremacists, guns, autism, mental treatment, gun control, bullying, etc., blame Cho instead.  At the end of day everyone should be held responsible for their actions and Cho is no different.

UPDATE #2: It turns out that a Virginia Tech professor was the first person to connect Cho the Oldboy movie.  Another blogger wonders if the Korean media had anything to do with inspiring the murder as well.  I think this may become a growing sentiment.  Just for the record I find Korean movies to be no more violent than the garbage coming from Hollywood.  However it will be interesting to see how the Korean media reacts to this latest development when yesterday they were blaming American culture, white supremacists, bullies, and everything else to deflect attention away from the killer.  More good blogging here as well about the Korean reaction to this tragedy along with a good posting here to remember the victims. 

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UPDATE #1: There has been more links discovered to the Oldboy movie and Cho.  These links have made the front page of Drudge and I was just watching BBC and they linked comments from Cho’s manifesto as being words used in the Vengeance Trilogy.  Hopefully there will be web links soon.  It looks like this may turn the debate to if movies cause people to kill now. 

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The New York Times is reporting that the South Korean movie Old Boy may have inspired the Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-hui to commit the shooting rampage.  I have to admit the images are eerily similar and possibly inspired by the movie.  Was the killing rampage sparked by the movie?  No way, this guy was nuts and would have killed people whether he saw the movie or not. 

I was just watching the news and not only do I feel bad for the victims families but I also feel really bad for Cho’s family as well.  The guilt they must feel for this must be tremendous.  They just reported on Fox News that his family went into hiding and that Cho’s 81 year old grandpa in Korea wished he would have rather died earlier so he didn’t have to live to see this.  He also said that his parents treated their son like a king.  His poor sister who is a Princeton graduate and working for the State Department is being stalked by the media as well.  I really hope the media lays off Cho’s family.  I would hate to see one of them commit suicide over this, as is commonly done in Korea.

Fox News was also reporting that Cho’s family did have money issues because they were working to put their kids through school with their daughter graduating from Princeton in 2004 and the son attending Virginia Tech which isn’t a cheap university either.  These money problems may explain the jealous rage against rich kids in Cho’s manifesto. 

Also just from watching the news I don’t think showing his pictures and videos over and over again is really necessary.  Report it one time and be done with it.  The way Cho’s pictures and videos are being shown over and over again is beginning to create the appearance of a glorification of him that will only inspire more mad men to commit the same crime and go out in a blaze of glory.  Cho admitted himself in his manifesto that he was inspired by the Columbine killers.  Plus do the family members involved in this really need to see this guy’s face over and over again as well?  Anyone else have any thoughts on this or am I just over reacting?

Just as I expected the Korean media has begun to blame the incident on US racism and culture corrupting a poor Korean youth.

From the Chosun Ilbo:

Yu Bum-hee, Dept. of Neuropsychiatry, Samsung Medical Center, said, “Virginia has a reputation for having comparatively strong white supremacy movements. It’s possible that Cho felt diminished by that atmosphere.” These are difficulties all Korean-Americans face as a minority in the U.S., and especially the 1.5 generation. Joseph Oh (34), who lives in Los Angeles, said, “As I grew older, I realized the ethnic barrier. I fought with white youngsters who teased me so many times. But I finally had to accept reality.” In some cases, the situation can lead to crime. New York Police estimates that a significant number of crimes in the Queens Flushing Koreatown are committed by ethnic Koreans under 18.

Here is more from the Korea Herald:

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