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UPDATE: Another good read over at Korean Unification Studies on the North Korean attempt to drive a wedge between the US and Japan.

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I’m shocked I tell you, the North Koreans lied:

North Korea remains on a list of states that sponsor terrorism, a senior U.S. diplomat said Tuesday, dismissing North Korean claims that Washington decided to remove the designation.

“No, they haven’t been taken off the terrorism list,” Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told Japanese reporters as he arrived in Australia‘s business capital for a meeting of Pacific Rim nations. A State Department press officer separately confirmed the remarks.

Hill’s comments were the first U.S. denial since North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement carried Monday by the country’s official news agency, said that Washington decided to scotch the terror designation and with it related economic sanctions. [Charles Hutzler, AP]

What still worries me though is that there may be a grain of truth to this such as Christopher Hill promising to fast track them off the terrorism list by allowing them for example to not have to come clean on the Japanese abduction issue.

More over at Marmot, DPRK Studies, OFK, and Nomad.

If you haven’t already make sure you watch this photo essay from Michael Gordon.  What is interesting about the essay is that Gordon embedded with the unit of the infamous Beauchamp.  No pictures of melted women, dogs being run over, or soldiers running around with skulls.  Just soldiers doing a dangerous and difficult mission and getting slow, but steady results.

The big news today was that North Korea agreed to disclose and disable all their nuclear facilities and for some reason everyone is excited about this.  Why am I not excited and jumping with joy that peace is about to break out on the Korean peninsula?  Well because we have been here before just this past February when North Korea promised the same thing that they are promising now.  They then made new demands which the US met and the North Koreans have yet to meet their side of the agreement anyway. 

Now we are being told that the North Koreans are going to disclose all their nuclear facilities again and what did the US give the North Koreans this time for their promise to do something they had already promised to do?  Well this:

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that the United States has decided to remove the communist country from its list of terror-sponsoring nations and make political and economic measures for "compensation," such as lifting a trade ban.

The decision was made at a working-level meeting between the two nations in Geneva over the weekend, a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the North’s Korean Central News Agency.
"As a consequence, a foundation for making progress in the next round of six-party talks (on the North’s nuclear ambitions) was paved, the spokesman said. [Yonhap]

The North Koreans have never atoned for their various terrorist attacks like Libya did and yet the Bush administration is going to reward them with removing them from the state sponsored terrorism list.  They are agreeing to do this as an incentive to do something the North Koreans have been promising to do for the last thirteen years stretching all the way back to 1994 when the first Agreed Framework was signed during the Clinton Administration. 

The US governments desperation to perpetuate the "Myth of Progress" is truly astounding.  I really hope the "Six Party Charade" and the sell out of a sound North Korea policy is worth the setting of conditions to bomb Iran.

Make sure to read OFK’s take on this.

I have uncovered another leftist plant in the military that was featured in the New York Times recently.  The list continues to grow.  You can read about it over at Forward Deployed.

UPDATE: Captain’s Journal has more on the electricity issue in Iraq.

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The Stars and Stripes has an excellent article today explaining in detail the electricity situation in Iraq. Though security has greatly improved Iraqis are not satisfied with just that, they want electricity as well.  According to the article electricity is currently at 4,230 megawatts across the country which is near the pre-war level of 4,500 megawatts.  However, during the Saddam Hussein regime Baghdad was guaranteed power at the expense of areas outside of the city, particularly Shiite areas.  There are parts of Iraq that have power now that never had power during the time of Saddam. 

Something the article did not mention was the increased availability of electrical goods with the opening of the economy that has put additional strain on the power grid.  After the US invasion it was incredible to see the number of trucks filled with electrical goods flowing down the highway from Turkey.  

The article did mention that the US refurbished certain power plants in Iraq and then turned them over to the Iraqi government where due to incompetence they once again were in disrepair and not operating at peak efficiency.  Most troubling is the report that Shiite militias are controlling the power plants:

Armed militias have taken control of many of the switching stations that regulate the flow of electricity throughout the country, an Iraqi official said Wednesday.

At a news briefing with U.S. military officials, electricity minister Karim Wahid said the armed groups have effectively been able to keep certain areas of Iraq without electrical power.

Wahid’s remarks were first reported by The New York Times on Thursday.

“The development adds to existing electricity problems in Baghdad, which has been struggling to provide power for more than a few hours a day because insurgents regularly blow up the towers that carry power lines into the city,” the Times reported.

“Officials have been trying to control the flow of electricity from huge power plants in the south, north and west by calling local officials there and ordering them to physically flip switches. But the officials refuse to follow those orders when the armed groups threaten their lives, [Wahid] said, and the often isolated stations are abandoned at night and easily manipulated by whatever group controls the area.” [Stars & Stripes]

This is definitely troublesome and just another reason why I expect a confrontation with the Shiite militias once Al Qaida in Iraq is destroyed.  The article did not specify which militia was controlling what power plants, but I highly suspect the Mahdi Army since that would be keeping in line with its Hezbollah roots of controlling public services thus undermining the national government and making them into a proxy government to the people.  The Mahdi Army already controls many hospitals and food distribution centers in Iraq, thus concluding they are controlling power plants as well is not much of a stretch. 

This solution to the problem being implemented by the 3-82 Field Artillery Regiment in Baghdad I think is a great idea:

The men of the field artillery regiment aren’t swayed by outside issues. They want to help out residents in their own area of operation, one megawatt at a time.

According to 1st Lt. Jesse Wood, a civil military operations officer, plans to install a one- megawatt generator are already in the works, paid for by the artillery unit’s funds.

“We’re trying to figure out how and where to run the cables for it right now,” Wood said. “It could cover 300 to 350 households once it’s up.”

Installing these generators in every neighborhood would increase the electrical output but would also give the neighborhood a stake in protecting their own electrical infrastructure from insurgent attacks while simultaneously decreasing the power the militias currently have by controlling the large power plants.  However, to make the small community generator idea feasible a reliable method of bringing fuel into the neighborhoods would need to be established which the militias will probably try and influence. 

The whole issue over electricity is probably the country’s second most important issue behind improving security.  I think this Michael Totten interview of an Iraqi interpreter sums up the importance of this issue to average Iraqis quite well:

If you give average Iraqis electricity right now it will be enough. This is the most important thing. Give them power for seven days in a row and there will be no fights.

After the US came and Saddam fell they earned 3 dollars a month. Now they earn between 100 and 700 dollars a month.

Giving them electricity would reduce violence. If you don’t believe me, ask yourself what would happen to this Army base if the power was cut off forever and the soldiers had to spend the rest of their lives in Iraq. Do think think these soldiers would still behave normally?

Iraqis are paid to set up IEDs. They do it so they can buy gas for their generator and cool off their house or leave the country. Their hands do this, not their minds.

TV is the most interesting thing to Iraqis. They learn everything from the TV. Right now they only have one hour of electricity every day. Do you know what they watch? Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera pushes them to fight. If they got TV the whole day they would watch many things. Their minds would be influenced by something other than terrorist propaganda.

Right now they have no electricity. They have no dreams. Nothing. And Saddam messed with their minds. For more than 30 years he poisoned their minds.

You can’t understand Iraq because you can’t get inside their mind. When you get inside their mind…it is a crazy mind. [Michael Totten]

Who knows Iraqi better than another Iraqi thus I take what this man as saying as being very true. General Petraeus’ counter-insurgency strategy is clear, hold, and build.  Hopefully in the areas of Iraq that are in the build stage electricity is priority number one. 

I have decided to try something new here at the ROK Drop and offer a story, joke, and a brain teaser for the weekend as well as one to start the week with.

Story for the weekend:
“The Real Meaning Of Peace” Author Unknown
“There once was a king who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The king looked at all the pictures. But there were only two he really liked, and he had to choose between them.
One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds.
All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.
The other picture had mountains, too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky, from which rain fell and in which lightning played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all. But when the king looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest – in perfect peace.
Which picture do you think won the prize? The king chose the second picture. Do you know why?
“Because,” explained the king, “peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace.”

Humour
It goes without saying that you should never have more children than you have car windows.” – Erma Bombeck

Brain Teaser:
After Barry dropped the live grenade the five soldiers charged out of the bunker before it could go off. Barry was not the first out. Andy was neither first nor last. Colin pushed out immediately behind Barry. Dave wasn’t second out. Ernie was two men behind Dave. In what order did the men race from the bunker?

Answer Below

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The Chosun is wondering if Korea is raising an army of beauty queens:

Korea’s servicemen are changing. The rough skin, sun-burnt faces and stubble-length hair that once were the trademarks of typical army men have gone for the new generation. Some now rival women in the use of cosmetics, and some even order wigs to disguise their short hair for the vacation. And some buy dietary supplements in an attempt to create the perfect body.

Han (21) is stationed in Gangwon Province. He spends an average of W110,000 (US$1=W944) on bath products and cosmetics. [Chosun Ilbo]

Guys like this would have to lean on their families for the extra money since the ROK soldiers get paid next to nothing for their service, which leads me to believe this is something more likely reserved for the more well off than your average Kim ROK soldier.  A few of my KATUSAs were beauty queens, but the vast majority were not and this article is probably a bit overstated.

You will be seeing a whole lot more of this in the coming weeks:

Headline: Poll Majority Mistrustful of Upcoming Iraq Report

A majority of Americans don’t trust the upcoming report by the Army’s top commander in Iraq on the progress of the war and even if they did, it wouldn’t change their mind, according to a new poll.

President Bush frequently has asked Congress — and the American people — to withhold judgment on his so-called troop surge in Iraq until Gen. David Petraeus, the commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, issue their progress report in September.

But according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Thursday, 53 percent of people polled said they suspect that the military assessment of the situation will try to make it sound better than it actually is. Forty-three percent said they do trust the report. [CNN]

I have talked about this before, but as the September progress reports come nearer expect the attacks on General Petraeus’ creditability to increase.  Senator Reid began the personal attacks on General Petraeus all the way back in June

Some of you may remember that the last time Petraeus testified before Congress the Democrats used this article from LTC Paul Yingling to try and discredit General Petraeus and the new commanders in Iraq as incompetent even though if you actually read the whole article it has nothing to do about the current leadership in Iraq.  This didn’t stop politicians and the media from claiming that it is a scathing indictment of US leadership in Iraq.  This is just the beginning there will be a whole lot more attacks to come.

Someone needs to be fired over this:

A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas, U.S. officials said.

The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq, and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Pentagon records show.

The owners of C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina — twin sisters — exploited a flaw in an automated Defense Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or U.S. bases that were labeled “priority” were usually paid automatically, said Cynthia Stroot, a Pentagon investigator. [Tony Capaccio – Bloomberg]

First of all, it is disgusting that people would rip off the military at a time soldiers are at war dieing every day and need every dime available to support them.  Secondly, this is a huge oversight error because this had been going on since 2000 without anyone noticing.  Whoever was over responsible for oversight of this system should be held accountable. 

Fortunately the Army is getting their money back and audited all the shipping records in this system and tracked down a few more frauds.  One positive thing to take out of all this is that somebody did catch it and those responsible for the fraud were tried and convicted with the military getting their money back. 

Here is another example that if there is an anti-Israel angle that the media can find they will publish it:

Israel said Sunday it will no longer allow refugees from Darfur to stay after they sneak across the border from Egypt, drawing criticism from those who say the Jewish state is morally obliged to offer sanctuary to people fleeing mass murder.

Israel has been grappling for months over how to deal with the swelling numbers of Africans, including some from Darfur, who have been crossing the porous desert border.

The number of migrants has shot up to as many as 50 a day, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, apparently as word of job opportunities in Israel has spread. The rise has led to concerns that the country could face a flood of African refugees if it doesn’t take a harsher stand on asylum seekers. [Matti Friedman – AP]

The article is titled “Israel to Turn Away Darfur Refugees”, but towards the end of the article the AP writer includes a quote that these refugees are economic refugees from Darfur that were living in Egypt:

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