Category: Uncategorized

For background on this posting I highly recommend you read my prior postings here and here.  Anyway, today officially marks the day the Appeal for Courage petition has overtaken the Appeal for Redress petition.  As of this posting Appeal for Courage has had 1,730 signatures compared to Appeal for Redress’s 1,727 signatures.  Courage has overtaken Redress despite Redress being covertly backed by large liberal activist groups and supported by the largest liberal public relations firm in the country, Fenton Communications, which receives George Soros money.  Additionally Redress was formed by a former Amnesty International member who was planted into the military in an effort to create a perception of a "grassroots" uprising within the ranks against the President’s policy in Iraq.

Redress was launched last October before the mid-term elections and due to Fenton Communications it has been featured in past few months in hundreds of newspapers, a CBS News 60 Minutes special, and backed by Yahoo to name a few prominent media supporters.  Despite all of this, Appeal for Courage has overtaken Redress in just 37 days with very little media publicity.  This is a real grassroots effort, much like the Gathering of Eagles this past weekend, that will receive very little media attention despite outnumbering those who the mainstream media is giving all the coverage to. 

The Asia Sentinel has some a strong view on the latest Macau Bank deal being negotiated between the US and North Korea. 

Is anyone surprised by this at all:

North Korea will not stop its nuclear activity unless $25 million of its funds held in a Macau bank are fully released, the regime’s top nuclear envoy said Saturday.

Banco Delta Asia had been blacklisted by Washington since September 2005 for its complicity in North Korean money laundering. The U.S. had promised to resolve the issue as part of the implementation of a landmark nuclear disarmament deal with North Korea.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Treasury Department ended its investigation into the small Macau lender and said that ties would be cut with the bank and the U.S. financial system. The move might lead regulators to unfreeze a portion of the money.

Issuing the communist state’s first official response to the U.S. decision, Kim Kye Gwan said Saturday in Beijing that his country has not heard anything officially about the lifting of financial sanctions.

"We will not stop our nuclear activity until our funds frozen in the BDA are fully released," he said. "We will not stop the Yongbyon nuclear facility until the United States fully releases our funds frozen in the BDA."

What annoys me about the media coverage of this latest North Korean antic is that the unfreezing of money in the Macau bank was not an agreed upon pre-condition for the US to give to North Korea in return for freezing their nuclear reactor.  I recommend everyone read OFK’s excellent run down on this issue.  However, I felt the tone of the article made it sound like the US side is the one not living up to the agreement by not unfreezing the accounts when in fact it is the North Koreans making demands that are not in the original agreement. 

It is always impressive the amount of money the military is able to raise for charities through the Combined Federal Campaign:

Representatives from units and fraternal organizations throughout South Korea gathered at the Yongsan Multiplex Theater on Tuesday for the 2006 Combined Federal Campaign awards ceremony.

More than 170 awards were given to the units with the largest percentages of members donating to CFC and with the largest average donations.

Awards fell into four categories: platinum, gold, silver and bronze. More than half of the awards fell into the upper two categories, with 54 units receiving the platinum award for at least 85 percent participation and an average gift of $200 and 49 units earning gold for 60 percent participation and an average donation of $120. Air Force Lt. Gen. Steve Wood, 7th Air Force commander, served as guest speaker and presented awards.

Describing CFC as the most inclusive charitable organization in the world, he explained why he felt donating was important. “CFC is a big deal,” he said. “It’s one of the ways we give back to the community and make things better.” According to Wood, CFC-Overseas generated more than $1.5 million in 2006, with 10 percent of the donations coming from within U.S. Forces Korea.

For those not in the military reading this, every year the military encourages soldiers to choose a charity that is part of the CFC to donate money to.  The soldiers are given a book with a number of charities that the military has deemed to be legitimate and worthy of donations and then it is up to the soldier if he/she wants to donate money.  As you can see above the military raised $1.5 million dollars overseas with 10% coming from USFK which means USFK raised $150,000 dollars this year for charity. 

The other really good charity campaign the Army does is the Army Emergency Relief fund.  AER donations are used to allow soldiers to have immediate financial assistance in case of family emergencies.  Soldiers can apply for immediate financial assistance that will come in the form of either an interest free loan or an out right grant if the repayment of an interest free loan is to big of a financial burden on the soldier.  This program is truly soldiers taking care of their own.  AER is especially important for USFK because when soldiers have family members get critically ill, injured, or pass away; they can receive AER money to pay for their plane tickets back to the US.  The AER program in the Second Infantry Division I know is outstanding from personal experience from sending soldiers there for money and being approved the same day and flying home the next. 

So if you are not already donating through both the CFC and AER you really should because they are definitely both good programs worthy of a few extra bucks you may have available every month. 

You can tell the Democrats are in power because this issue just continues to stay alive:

The Pentagon’s top general expressed regret Tuesday that he called homosexuality immoral, a remark that drew a harsh condemnation from members of Congress and gay advocacy groups.

In a newspaper interview Monday, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had likened homosexual acts to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces.

In a statement Tuesday, he said he should have focused more in the interview on the Defense Department policy about gays — and "less on my personal moral views."

I don’t think General Pace should apologize for his own personal moral beliefs, but it definitely wasn’t wise to bring up his moral beliefs because it just feeds the untrue assumption that the military is conducting a witch hunt against gay servicemembers. You can read more of my thoughts on this in my prior posting here.

OFK and DPRK Studies has the latest on the beginning of the possible reneging by North Korea on the nuclear agreement signed last month.  Is anyone really surprised by this?

This poll is just another indication of how discontented the general Korean population has become with President Roh Moo-hyun and the Sunshine Policy in general.  Here are some of the results of the poll:

In the politics category, some 83.3 percent of respondents said it is senseless to give aid to North Korea unless that country shows a basic change in attitude. The figure is an increase of 15 percent from four years ago. Other questions also triggered a clear majority of conservative answers: "Union members should restrain from staging strikes as they lower corporations’ international competitiveness" (75.6 percent, an increase of 20 percentage points); "National unification should be realized only within a framework of a free market economy" (68.8 percent); "It’s justifiable for police to use force when public order is threatened by demonstrators" (62.5 percent); and "The National Security Law should be maintained as it is" (61.5 percent).

As you can see in the graphic above, Gallup compiled their findings between conservative and progressive positions and assigned point values to them.  Koreans are actually more conservative now than they were 5 years ago, which is bad news for any progressive candidates in this year’s presidential election.  Are Koreans finally going to stop drinking the "Sunshine" Kool-Aid spoon fed to them by the progressives these past 6 years?  If this poll is any indication it appears the answer is yes and this year the population will be able to prove it with their vote in the presidential election.

(HT: Joe)

From the Stars and Stripes:

Prince Harry learned last week that his royal status will curry no favor with Army and Air Force Exchange Service employees — unless he calls ahead.

The prince, who made an unannounced visit to the home of the 48th Fighter Wing last Sunday, was part of a contingent of British troops turned away from the register for failure to have a proper American identification card to shop at an AAFES facility.

“As soon as the first soldier got turned away, the prince and the other soldier left the line,” said AAFES spokesman Lt. Col. Dave Konop.

A local British paper reported that Prince Harry was trying to buy an iPod, Apple’s popular music player.

I only have one question about this, how is it AAFES can turn away Prince Harry, but for some reason can never seem to turn away an ajumma in the commissary who shows up every week with a cart full of ox tails, pork strips, Spam, Herbal Essence shampoo, Ritz crackers, among a host of other items popular in the Korean blackmarket?

From the Chosun:

In a faraway country, surrounded by desert in all directions, the South Korean soldiers hung the poster to express their longing for their families back home. "We’re often stressed here,” a senior officer said. “It’s an ascetic life in the desert" — just as monks meditate deep in the mountains to seek after religious truth. Daiman officers are racking their brains to prevent combat stress-related accidents.

Combat stress is a mental condition soldiers start to suffer around three months after they are dispatched to combat zones. They feel depressed and lose their temper easily over mere trifles, resulting in firearms-related accidents. This kind of stress is the biggest concern for senior officers with troops stationed overseas. The condition is common among the 2,500 South Korean soldiers stationed in eight areas, including Daiman, Irbil in northern Iraq, and the Dongui Medical Unit and the Dasan Engineering Unit in Afghanistan, where Sgt. Yoon Jang-ho was last week killed in a bomb attack.

Combat stress from making toilets?  First of all, if the soldiers feel like their monks in the mountains meditating, that just shows they have to much time on their hands.  When I was in Iraq I was constantly busy on missions, patrols, guard duty, meetings, etc.  I had no time to be a monk and meditate and treasured what little sleep I was able to get. 

Let me also remind everyone that in Irbil where the ROK Army contingent is stationed is not a combat zone.  It is located in Iraqi Kurdistan.  Kurdistan is where the US soldiers go for R&R.  There is a hotel on a lake up in Kurdistan where US soldiers can go to chill out for a few days before going back to their units.  So basically the Korean combat zone is the US military R&R zone.  The Daiman unit mentioned in the article is in Kuwait which also is not a combat zone.  Really the only ROK Army unit in a combat zone is the engineers and medics at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, which was proven with the casualty of SSG Yoon Chang-ho this past week. 

If the Korean government would let the soldiers deployed abroad, who all volunteered to be there, act like soldiers, they probably wouldn’t be "depressed and losing their temper easily" or thinking they are monks up in the mountains with "combat stress".  I have said this since the day the Zaytun unit was first deployed, if Korea isn’t going to allow the soldiers to be soldiers because the government does not have the political will to accept casualties, than don’t send them.  The proud ROK Army deserves better than appear to be a window dressing Army.

OFK has the latest on the failures of the US State Department to aid North Korean refugees in China.  The US Consulate in Shenyang’s actions directly led to six North Korean refugees being captured and returned to at best a life in gulag in North Korea.