Category: Uncategorized

A South Korean human rights group protests in front of the Laos Embassy in Seoul to draw awareness to three North Korean defectors captured in Laos that the Laos government plans to return to North Korea where they will either face life in the gulag or execution. 

What has the South Korean government doing about this you may ask?  Well absolutely nothing:

The South Korean Embassy in Laos allegedly ignored pleas for help from three young North Koreans held by Lao authorities who could be deported to their Stalinist home country. Hiroshi Kato, the head of Japanese activist group Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, on Thursday revealed the identity of the young defectors and is working for their release. According to Kato, Choi Hyang, Choi Hyuk and Choi Hyang-mi are being held in a detention center near the capital Vientiane.

This is about par for the course for the South Korean government to ignore the plight of desperate refugees.  Does anyone else find it ironic that a Japanese activist group is the one fighting for the release of these refugees while the South Korean government does nothing?  They must be to preoccupied with more pressing matters like demanding apologies from Japan for the 15th time about the Korean "comfort women" of 60 years ago while ignoring the plight of these Korean women now. 

I think this is a perfect opportunity for the US or Japanese governments to step in and offer asylum to these defectors if the South Korean government does nothing.  Some government needs to show some moral courage here and save these defectors from the gulag that awaits them in North Korea. 

One pillar of the anti-US hate groups has collapsed:

Seoul and Washington yesterday finalized the return of 14 U.S. military bases to Korea but the agreement finds Seoul agreeing to shoulder as much as 40 billion won ($42 million) for the necessary environmental clean-up of the military installations.
A total of 18 bases, including four that already have been returned, are now back in Seoul’s hands while negotiations for the return of the remaining 41 bases continues.
Under an agreement with Washington called the Land Partnership Plan, the United States will return 59 bases to South Korea by 2011. Until now, Seoul and Washington have been at odds over how to split the cost related to the environmental cleaning process.

The entire camp pollution issue is a total fraud and now the Korean government is paying for helping perpetuate the fraud. Of course the anti-US group Green Korea has now weighed in on the announcement from the Korean government:

Civic groups such as Green Korea United criticized the government yesterday for giving in to Washington on the issue.
“The U.S. soldiers have left and they left Korea a lot of waste. This should not serve as an example for other bases to be returned in the future. U.S. forces need to be asked clearly to take responsibility,” said the organization in a statement.

Here is the source of Green Korea’s concern about this issue:

In February, Green Korea and some media outlets said they acquired leaked Ministry of the Environment data that showed unsafe ground and water contamination levels at several sites. They included camps Page, Garry Owen, Greaves, Stanton, Edwards, Giant, Falling Water and Howze, the Kimpo post terminal, the Freedom Bridge and the Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and North Carolina firing ranges.

Can you believe that firing ranges have lead contamination? I tell you I am shocked! What is even more laughable about this is that the firing ranges are not used exclusively by USFK but by the ROK Army as well. Why isn’t the ROK Army being investigated for pollution? I found the inclusion of Freedom Bridge even funnier because USFK soldiers guarded that bridge. How the heck do soldiers pulling guard duty which also includes Koreans by the way, pollute a bridge to the point that these environmentalists say it is unsafe for the public? If this bridge is unsafe than every bridge in Korea needs to be shut down!

For those who have never served in Korea, the USFK camps are literally an oasis of green in the middle of dense urban cities. The camps after the Korean war were located on the outskirts of Korean cities but the camps have now been swallowed up by the growing cities which are a sign of Korea’s amazing development since the war. It is partly because of this development that USFK wants to relocate the camps to the sparsely populated Camp Humphreys area. If anything the USFK camps are the cleanest piece of land in the surrounding communities and some have been designated to become parks when handed over; yet the anti-US hate groups have successfully used this issue to further delay the USFK relocation.

That is why I say release the pollution findings with detailed data to check for errors because I wouldn’t be surprised if the findings were “Dr. Hwang-ed for political reasons especially when these so call environmental groups have been linked to North Korean spies.

If USFK really wanted to prove a point they should have environmental studies conducted by their own researchers on USFK bases compared to the surrounding communities. Does anyone think for example that Yongsan Garrison is more dangerous to the environment than Seoul? Case in point while Green Korea is busy complaining about these camps, Korean citizens in multiple cities are drinking water with high levels of uranium and Green Korea could care less.

Earlier this week I criticized Governor Bill Richardson for allowing himself to be used as a propaganda piece by the North Korean government with his touring of the USS Pueblo and the subsequent mockery of Richardson by the North Koreans during the tour. Now Governor Richardson is using the North Koreans for his own propaganda purposes with his announcement of negotiating a “North Korean Breakthrough”:

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What you won’t see in the MSM:

Accessions

Goal

Percent

Here is something else that relates back to my prior posting about blacks and US military recruiting. Here are some samples of more of the myths of the “conventional wisdom” out there about the US military:

This stat just confirms my prior hypothesis that the military is not getting dumber as some people have claimed. Here is another popular myth:

Notice in the graph above that there is now more wealthy recruits than poor recruits and growing while poor recruits and decreasing. There is something you will not see in the MSM or a documentary by Michael Moore on anytime soon. Make sure you read the rest because the report dispels more myths with some great hard data.

The reason these facts will not make it into the MSM or ever be uttered by Michael Moore or any of the other race and class demagogues out there, is because it goes against the current effort to paint soldiers as uneducated low lives that are committing war crimes all over Iraq. I’m sure if you ask them though, they will tell you they support the troops; their actions say other wise.

HT: Greyhawk

Remember the talk from the Democrats about reinstating the draft because minorities especially blacks are the ones dying for a white man’s war?:

Conyers said in a statement that “once the conscription process for service in the military becomes universal and mandatory for all those who meet the criteria . . . it removes the long-held stigma that people of color and persons from low-income backgrounds are disproportionately killed and injured while serving as ground troops on the front line.”

Critics of the congressmen, along with neutral observers, said their motive appeared to be a political attempt to call attention to race and class inequities in the military during the buildup to Iraq, rather than a call for mobilization toward war.

I would like these critics of the military to point out these “race and class inequities”. They never do because they can’t. They know full well that there isn’t an institution in the United States that gives blacks or any minority for that matter a fairer opportunity to excel than the US military.

Additionally their claims that blacks are dying in disproportionate numbers in Iraq have been proven to be totally and utterly false:

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I  found this to be curious:

Ahn Dong-Mahn, head of the Agency for Defence Development (ADD), also said South Korea had joined the international race to develop electromagnetic E-bombs capable of disabling enemy computers and radio or radar receivers.

In an interview with the Korea Defence Daily, Ahn said the agency and 16 other defence companies planned to develop a medium-range ground-to-air missile, known as Iron Hawk-II, by 2011.

Doesn’t North Korea need to first have computers and other electronics to disable?  Unless of course this is really meant for the upcoming Dokdo/Takeshima War. 

Well he didn’t actually say that, but that is pretty much what he meant:

“South Korea will be a good model for us,” Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo during a dinner. “Iraq should learn from South Korea’s experience.”

Al-Maliki is scheduled to hold a summit with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on Thursday.

Their meeting is expected to center on expanding cooperation in various sectors, including natural resources, electricity and construction, Roh’s office said.

Notice not one word about Zaytun.  Like I have said before, 2,300 Korean businessmen can do more for Iraq, than what 2,300 ROK Army soldiers are doing right now and Maliki knows it.  Another thing Maliki can learn from Korea in regards to governing the country is less Rhee Syng-man and more Park Chung-hee.

The US mainstream media has been working over time trying to create negative perceptions of the US military in the general American public. First they tried to create a perception of poor troop morale, which failed, along with their efforts to stop military recruiting by attacking and banning recruiters or going after ROTC programs. Remember all the stories of the military not meeting their recruiting numbers a couple years ago? That was because the military was in the midst of expanding the overall force numbers, which meant more people had to be recruited. Now that the force has completed the expansion it is easier to maintain recruiting numbers which the military has been able to do for well over a year during a time of war.

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From the Korea Times:

Female cell phone users in their late teens or early 20s are found to be the most vulnerable when it comes to obsessive use of the handset, according to a government survey Tuesday.

The Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion said the cell phone addiction index for 1,639 respondents stood at 2.085 out of five points.

Broken down into four categories _ withdrawal symptoms, tolerance, coercion and deviation regarding cellular phone use _ females showed a higher dependence than males.

First of all who cares, secondly this is about as unsurprising as North Korea reneging on another nuclear agreement. 

Just when I think the media can’t get any worse it does:

Amid the deaths and the grim daily struggle bravely borne by Britain’s forces in southern Iraq, one tale of heroism stands out.

Private Johnson Beharry’s courage in rescuing an ambushed foot patrol then, in a second act, saving his vehicle’s crew despite his own terrible injuries earned him a Victoria Cross.

For the BBC, however, his story is “too positive” about the conflict.

The corporation has cancelled the commission for a 90-minute drama about Britain’s youngest surviving Victoria Cross hero because it feared it would alienate members of the audience opposed to the war in Iraq.

Unbelievable. Here is more on the reason given for cancelling the documentary:

“It began to have second thoughts last year as the war in Iraq deteriorated. It felt it couldn’t show anything with a degree of positivity about the conflict.

“It needed to tell stories about Iraq which reflected the fact that some members of the audience didn’t approve of what was going on. Obviously a story about Johnson Beharry could never do that. You couldn’t have a scene where he suddenly turned around and denounced the war because he just wouldn’t do that.

“The film is now on hold and it will only make it to the screen if another broadcaster picks it up.”

Then at the same time you have the British sailors and marines selling their stories about being held hostage in Iran. The lone female hostage who was paraded around on Iranian TV selling out her country, is reported to be making $240,000 dollars from selling her story, yet the Victoria Cross awardee can’t even get his story told.

HT: Milblogs