Category: Uncategorized

A 76 year old Korean War veteran has finally been awarded the nation’s highest honor, the Medal of Honor:

Rubin, 76, was born in Hungary and sent to the Nazi concentration camp in Mauthausen, Austria, as a boy. His parents and a sister were killed during their imprisonment, but Rubin survived for 14 months and was freed when American soldiers stormed the camp.

“My English at the time wasn’t so good, but I told them I’d have to go (with the POWs),” he said. “I wouldn’t want to leave without them, because I had my brothers there.”

Rubin’s story is really amazing. This guy was liberated from Nazi death camp by US soldiers and then four years later he was serving in the very Army that liberated him from the death camp. A really inspiring story and a great man worthy of the nation’s highest honor.

You can get a more detailed background on Rubin from the Mudville Gazette by clicking here.

This is interesting, Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon is being considered for the UN Secretary General role:

It was revealed on September 22 that the government is actively considering Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki-moon to be a candidate for the next secretary general of the United Nations who will be elected late next year.

A senior official of the government said on that day, “There is a consensus within the government that Minster Ban is qualified to be UN secretary general in all aspects such as capacity, experience and relations with other countries.”

This would probably be a positive development for the United States if Minister Ban does run for the position and is selected. Minister Ban is one of the few people in the current South Korean government that actually seems to know what he is doing and has a good relationship with the United States as well. Good luck Minister Ban.

There is going to be a new sheriff in town shortly:

U.S. Army Europe commander Gen. B.B. Bell, who oversaw the deployment of Germany- and Italy-based soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan and also wrote the plan to downsize the Army’s presence in Europe, has been nominated to be the next commander of U.S. Forces Korea.

A Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday he did not know if LaPorte was retiring or being reassigned and did not know who would replace Bell at USAREUR headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany.

Here is what General Bell gets to look forward to:

Issues that would confront Bell in South Korea include the scheduled reduction of U.S. forces there from 37,500 to 25,000 by 2008; the possible rotation of troops into war zones; and ensuring U.S. and South Korean troops are prepared to defend the nation against aggressors.

The U.S. is undergoing a major repositioning of its forces in South Korea in which the number of its installations would be reduced from 41 to 10. The goal, U.S. Forces Korea officials have said, is to create a less intrusive, more flexible configuration of American forces on the peninsula.

I don’t know much about General Bell but feel free to comment those that do.

It seems like USFK is actually getting serious about cracking down on the black marketers for once. There have been numerous arrest over the course of this past year. Here are some more arrests that led to one AAFES employee committing suicide:

Seoul Customs Office officials are recommending that 17 South Koreans, including two AAFES employees, be charged with conspiring to evade South Korean tax law in connection with the sale of 56,000 cases of beer from Area I bases to local businesses, according to U.S. and South Korean authorities.

Kwon Ju-sung, of the customs office, said the case was to be filed to the Seoul Central Prosecutors Office on Wednesday, where officials will decide whether to press charges.

Kwon said an 18th suspect, whom he identified as an AAFES store manager, died Aug. 1 after jumping from the roof of his apartment building.

These arrests are just a drop in the bucket to a much larger problem with black marketing. I really understood how bad the black marketing problem was here, when I traveled to Ullong-do Island out in the East Sea and a restaurant I ate at had black marketed condiments.

Not that this is a surprise or anything but the Norks are already back pedaling on the deal they struck 24 hours ago:

The North Korean Foreign Ministry on Tuesday offered an idiosyncratic reading of Monday’s agreement, saying the country would rejoin the Non-Proliferation Treaty and come back into full IAEA compliance “when the U.S. provides us with a light-water reactor that can be the basis of bilateral confidence.”

It said Pyongyang was “fair and square, consistent and deep-rooted like a rock. The U.S. should not even dream of asking us to give up the nuclear deterrent we already have before providing a light-water nuclear reactor. That is the security of building bilateral confidence, physical security.” The statement of principles was understood to be merely envisaging “discussion” on the thorny issue that had threatened to scupper the talks.

The only thing surprising about this is that it occurred only one day after the original deal. The Norks want that reactor not for power but for when in the future they need to build nuclear weapons again to extort more international aid. The Norks want agreement that gives them the aid they want plus allows them to still have the capacity to make nuclear weapons in the future if needed. That is why they not only want a reactor but will never allow inspectors full access to their country, even though they are saying so now.

So in the mean time they will continue to bicker over this reactor until everyone else involved in the talks pressures the US to give them the reactor just to shut them up because the international community wants to see this issue go away. Hopefully the US doesn’t give in and work out a useless deal like the 1994 agreement just to make everyone in the region happy.

In the mean time the North Koreans will full fill their energy needs by getting free power from the South Koreans. The South however, is saying they will review the energy request now after yesterday’s developments. Just like we all knew the Norks would renege on the deal, we also all know the South Koreans will give into the North Koreans and give them the power anyway, along with fertilizer, food, etc. that they need.

How come I don’t see Unification Minister Chung Dong-young taking credit for this?

Then:

Namdaemun Gate shown in 1900. Namdaemun was the southern entrance into the old walled city of Seoul. Markets tended to form near the gates outside the cities, which you can see in this picture.

Now:

Today Namdaemun still stands in central Seoul after reconstruction from the aftermath of the Korean War. The old Namdaemun Market remains adjacent to the gate and recent renovations around Namdaemun have transformed the surrounding land into a really nice park area for the citizens of downtown Seoul.

Is there any doubt now that Ted Turner is a Useful Idiot? Check out this interview with Wolf Blitzer on the Radio Blogger:

And I was really over there to try and persuade North and South Korea to make the DMZ into an international peace park when they sign a peace treaty, which I anticipate will be fairly soon, now that we have these six-party talks. We have agreement there. But I had a great time. I am absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are absolutely sincere. There’s really no reason for them to cheat or do anything to violate this very forward agreement. I think we can put the North Korea and East Asia problems behind us, and concentrate on Iran and Iraq, where we still have some ongoing difficulties.

No reason for them cheat?! They have cheated already on a similar agreement!

WB: But this is one of the most despotic regimes, and Kim Jung Il is one of the worst men on Earth. Isn’t that a fair assessment?

TT: Well, I didn’t get to meet him, but he didn’t look…in the pictures I’ve seen of him on CNN, he didn’t look too much different than most of the other people I’ve met.

What kind of people is this guy hanging out with? This interview only gets better:

TT: Well, hey. Listen, I saw a lot of people over there. They were thin, and they were riding bicycles instead of driving in cars. But I didn’t see any brutality in the capitol, or out in the DMZ. We drove through the countryside quite a bit to down to P’annumjom and Kaesong. We traveled around. I’m sure we were on a special route, but I don’t see…there’s really no reason…North Korea’s got enough problems with their economy and their agriculture. I think they want to join the Western world, and improve the quality of life for their people, just like everybody else.

Let me guess, they are thin because they ride bicycles unlike us fat slob Americans who drive cars. I guess their thinness has nothing to do with the bad agricultural problems that Turner even mentioned. Plus North Korea can join the Western World tomorrow if they get rid of their nukes and open their country to investment and the outside world.

Wait there is still more:

WB: What about those ground-to-ground missiles, and the…

TT: They can’t reach us.

WB: They can reach Japan. They can reach South Korea. They can reach a lot of our allies.

TT: They can’t reach the U.S.A., and we can pound them into oblivion in 24 hours.

WB: But you don’t want to get to that. There’s some estimates, by the way, they could reach Alaska.

TT: Well, what? The Aleutian Islands? There’s nothing up there but a few sea lions.

I guess the American government shouldn’t care about the security of our allies or the welfare of Americans in Alaska as well according to Turner. Last I checked I thought Alaskans were Americans? Did somebody change citizenship requirements in Alaska and only tell Ted Turner?

Read the rest of your own but this guy is nuts. How in the world can someone be such a pro-commie and be a billionaire? Then again Kim Jong Il is pro-commie and he is a billionaire as well, so they both got something in common there. Just keep in mind what Nomad thinks on this subject; he did marry Jane Fonda.

Former 2ID Commanding General, General Honore continues to make a name for himself in New Orleans:

Honore: You are stuck on stupid. I’m not going to answer that question. We are going to deal with Rita. This is public information that people are depending on the government to put out. This is the way we’ve got to do it. So please. I apologize to you, but let’s talk about the future. Rita is happening. And right now, we need to get good, clean information out to the people that they can use. And we can have a conversation on the side about the past, in a couple of months.

Having listened to General Honore before in the past it is funny to listen to him use catch phrases he uses in military settings with the reporters in New Orleans. You need to listen to the audio sound bite because it is even funnier than reading the transcript. I wish more people would be willing tell the press they are stuck on stupid like that. General Honore continues to be the perfect man for this job.

Google Earth is one cool program if you haven’t downloaded it yet. Using this program I plan to post images from Korea every week and see if anyone can guess where in Korea it is from. Consider it a weekly Korea geography lesson. Anyway, this week I am starting with an easy location:

I’m assuming this one should be guessed rather quickly, but in the future for harder locations to identify I will post clues if no one can figure it out right way.

A Japanese woman who was unhappy about the hitman she hired decided to call the police about it:

A Japanese woman called in the police after a hit man she paid to kill her lover’s wife failed to carry out the job. The 32-year-old Tokyo woman was arrested on Wednesday for incitement to murder, the Daily Yomiuri newspaper said on Friday.

Police also arrested the private detective and found the alleged target safe and well, the paper said.

I guess maybe she should of called the Better Business Bureau instead.