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I highly recommend that everyone read this article from Greyhawk about the latest efforts by the liberals to undermine and bad mouth the military through a “astroturfing” campaign.

Just to summarize a Navy liberal spy seaman comes out with a website about serving military personnel against the war, which suddenly over 200 newspapers and media outlets around the world pick up on and tout as a “grassroot effort” by US troops to speak out against the war.  However, on closer inspection it turns out the seaman is actually a covert agent for Amnesty International planted in the Navy in order to have him come out and claim racism in the Navy and be seen as a “grassroot” upriser within the military against the war.

The “astroturfing” term is used to describe efforts by larger entities to disguise their activities as being “grassroot” efforts through front entities such as this seaman’s webpage in order to give their views added credibility.  The tentacles behind this seaman’s “grassroot” efforts extends all the way back to the greatest media power brokers of the liberal establishment.  It makes me wonder how many more plants from the anti-war establishment has been put into the military?  Notice they picked the Navy to plant this guy in because you know for damn sure they wouldn’t pick the Marines where any plant would likely face combat.  So they have this guy nice and safe on a boat speaking out against the military.  I think I read something the other day about the Navy looking for naval infantry to man river patrol boats in Iraq; they ought to put this guy on one.

Once again make sure you read the whole posting.  It is shocking how far the liberal establishment is willing to go to bash the military.  What is even more shocking to me is that the media went and accepted this “grassroot” effort at face value while a milblogger with a full time military career on his own time is left to expose this fraud for what it is.  What the heck are journalists payed for anymore if they are not even willing to do simple background checks on people?

Maybe the liberal establishment took some tips from Kim Jong-il.  As the recent  spy scandal in South Korea has shown, the North Koreans have been running their own “astroturfing” campaign in South Korea for quite some time.  The North Koreans have been using their own covert agents to stir up anti-American sentiment in Korea through their own front entities of “grassroot” citizen activist groups.  This “astroturfing” campaign has been widely successful in recent years in South Korea.  Let’s hope the liberal establishment in America is not as successful in undermining and bashing the military with theirs.

It looks like I got big brother after me now:

A new Army effort to monitor soldiers’ personal Web sites is raising concerns among military bloggers, who worry the service is discouraging the online community’s positive efforts.

Since July a new 10-man branch of the Virginia Army National Guard’s Data Processing Unit — a team of guardsmen trained in security issues — has been surveying the Internet for the Army, looking for online postings that might violate operational security standards.

The group isn’t reviewing things like soldiers’ e-mail accounts, but it is looking at blogs and photo-sharing sites like myspace.com.

Last year Army officials issued warnings to all soldiers posting information online, noting that certain mission information, photographs of defense facilities, and other unclassified information could pose a threat to soldiers serving overseas.

I just have to wonder why the military is taking such a pro-active approach to censuring milblogs while papers like the New York Times continue to regularly breach national security with impunity?

From the Stars and Stripes:

Hundreds gathered on Knight Field on Thursday afternoon to bid farewell to the deputy commander of the United Nations Command and U.S. Forces Korea.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Garry R. Trexler is retiring after 35 years of service. He’s spent the past three years in South Korea, also as the commander of the Air Component Command for U.S. Air Forces Korea and commander of the 7th United States Air Force.

As I alluded to in my title, General Trexler will always be remembered by many as the one who put his foot down and issued this ultimatum to the ROK government, and guess what?  It worked.

When I read claims of how US Korean War veterans are a bunch of war criminals and that the US government should pay compensation, my response is often here is your compensation:

It took 56 years, but Jenkins’ great-uncle, Army Pfc. Francis Crater Jr., now is home for good.

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced this week that it positively had identified Crater, who died after an overwhelming Chinese assault in North Korea on Nov. 28, 1950.

Jenkins and his family laid Crater to rest in front of 150 people in Akron, Ohio, on Oct. 21.

“The funeral we did was one of the most profound experiences of my life,” Jenkins said during a phone interview with Stars and Stripes.

Jenkins delivered the eulogy in front of his grandfather, Glenn Crater, 79, and other family members.

Crater’s 32nd Infantry Regiment was assigned temporarily to the Army’s 31st Regimental Combat Team on Nov. 27, 1950, when a massive and unexpected wave of Chinese soldiers attacked the heavily outnumbered United Nations forces.

Jenkins spoke to the lone U.S. survivor of that attack in Crater’s unit.

“He said [Crater] was fighting them off, hopping from one machine gun nest to the other,” Jenkins said. “He saw my uncle fighting hand-to-hand in the nest, trying to save his comrades. When he last saw him, they were overrun in the nest.”

Crater had multiple bullet wounds and likely died from a Chinese bullet to the head, Jenkins said.

I still find it amazing that people are demanding financial compensation for a war fought 50 years ago that the United States is still digging up bodies from of our fellow Americans.  Isn’t 36,516 dead, 103,284 wounded, 8,176 unaccounted for, and 7,245 POWs plus 50+ years of economic development and defense assistance enough American compensation to South Korea?

Have you ever wonder who has been cutting Kim Jong-il’s hair all these years?  In a ROK Drop exclusive the dictator’s barber has been uncovered.

I just got done watching the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and Lynne Cheney absolutely unloaded on Wolf.  Cheney was there to talk about a childrens book she wrote and it turned into a complete media ambush on Cheney.  Lynne Cheney though absolutely smashed Wolf Blitzer.  If for some reason you still aren’t convinced of media bias at CNN then watch this video or the transcript over a Hugh Hewitt.

Lynne Cheney made a great point when she said she wrote a children’s book about the great things about America because of all the negativity in the media that children were seeing every day.  She wanted to write a book reminding them about all the great things about America and what does CNN do during a book interview with Lynne Cheney about her book, turn it into a ambush involving sex, lies, lesbians, rape, and whatever else the Democratic talking points accuse her of.

I think it is still a toss up of whose media is worse, the Korean media or the US media?  I can’t wait until this election is over so maybe some sanity can return to US television news but I’m not getting my hopes up.

With South Korea toying with the idea of implementing increased UN sanctions against North Korea, Pyongyang has come out and threatened South Korea in usual Nork rhetoric fashion:

North Korea warned Wednesday if South Korea joins U.S.-led sanctions against the Stalinist country, it will regard it as “a declaration of confrontation.” The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said it will treat South Korean cooperation with a UN resolution sanctioning the North as “a declaration of confrontation against its own people” and a negation of the 2000 Joint Statement by former president Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il “and take corresponding measures.” “The South will bear the entire responsibility and pay dearly if international sanctions it backs have destructive results for inter-Korean relations,” a committee spokesman said in a statement.

I tend to agree with Dr. Lankov that the South Koreans will only implement sanctions to a degree to where it appears they are doing something to get international pressure off of them, but not enough of anything that effects or changes the current situation.  Think of it like the Korean Zaytun unit in Iraq, they are just there as a symbolic presence and have no real value, that is what I expect any South Korean sanctions against North Korea to be, symbolic and with no real value.

However, I do wish that for once that somebody in South Korean government, even if they are only planning symbolic sanctions, would just get some balls and tell the Norks after one of their rhetorical attacks to go F__k Off!

Dr. Lankov has an article up in the International Herald Tribune regarding the sanctions debate in South Korea:

Since the UN Security Council ordered sanctions against North Korea, Seoul has done its share of tough talking, and it will probably support the embargo once it is imposed. But it is unlikely that South Korea will maintain pressure on the North for long.

More likely, South Korea will use the first available excuse to walk away from the sanctions, citing, for example, humanitarian concerns (i.e. a major flood in North Korea). Already now, South Korean diplomats are working hard to make sure that the sanctions will not be too harsh, and they will probably find some support from China and Russia.

(…) 

 This might appear strange: after all, South Korea would seem to be the country most threatened by North Korean nuclear weapons. Some Americans blame South Korean indecisiveness on the nationalist left which now dominates Seoul’s politics. The major reason for Seoul’s attitude, however, is not an inability to grasp the seriousness of the situation, but rather a very real divergence of interests with Washington.

For those who have been following the North Korean nuclear issue, Dr. Lankov really doesn’t bring up anything new, but he is educating a wider audience by being published in the International Herald Tribune about the South Korean reaction to the nuclear crisis, which I have not seen one MSM media source accurately explain until Dr. Lankov’s article.

The cynical side of me just wonders if this will be used by the ROK government as an excuse to keep North Korean defectors out of South Korea:

South Korea said Thursday it will ban the entry of North Korean officials who fall under a U.N. travel restriction — Seoul’s first concrete move to enforce sanctions imposed after the North’s nuclear test.

Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok also said Seoul will control transactions and remittances relating to inter-Korean trade and investment with the North Korean officials, Yonhap news agency reported.

A U.N. committee on the sanctions, passed in response to North Korea’s Oct. 9 nuclear test, has been working to outline how they will be implemented.

So who exactly are they keeping out?

Former Korean president Choi Kyu-hah will be layed to rest in an official state funeral:

The late former president Choi Kyu-hah will be buried on Oct. 26, the day his predecessor Park Chung-hee was assassinated 27 years ago. After Park’s death, the then prime minister shortly served as acting president and later formally president. A Cabinet meeting on Monday decided to organize a state funeral for Choi. In accordance with the wishes of their children, the remains of Choi’s late wife Hong Ki, who died in 2004, will be exhumed from her grave and laid to rest alongside her husband.

For some interesting reading about Choi’s short presidency make sure to read this great posting from Oranckay.