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The invasion of Korean Christians into Afghanistan has now drawn the attention of even Afghan President Hamid Karzai:

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai has ordered the ¿complete expulsion¿ of all Koreans who went there to take part in a ¿peace march¿ organized by an evangelical organization, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. Lee Joon-kyu, the ministry¿s director general in charge of consular affairs, told KBS radio that Kabul informed the Korean Embassy of the decision on Tuesday.

For those not familiar with this issue, over 1,000 Korean proselytizers descended on Afghanistan and some of them have been roughed up and threatened by Afghans opposed to their Christian activities.

Well now this story even gets weirder:

Afghans have taken to the streets against a bizarre ¿peace march¿ planned in the devoutly Muslim nation by hundreds of Korean evangelicals as violence continued unabated in the country. It emerged Thursday that an explosive device was recently discovered in the vest of a Korean aid worker.

Hundreds of students, Islamic clergy and residents protested against the peace march at the Blue Mosque in northern Afghanistan¿s Mazar-i-Sharif on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry officials dispatched to Kabul told the Chosun Ilbo by telephone. “We’ve heard that some in the area were told, `Leave. If you don’t it will be dangerous,¿” one said. Reuters quoted protestors as saying the Afghan government must send the Korean back as they went there to proselytize — a grave offense under Sharia or Islamic law.

Rumors that Korean prostitutes had entered the country and that the Christian groups were carrying ¿giant crosses¿ marching through downtown did little to defuse the situation.

Korean prostitutes in Afghanistan?  I wonder how much a drink for “juicy girl” in Afghanistan costs?

The ROK Army is trying to do their part to improve the sagging birthrate in Korea:

The armed forces are trying to persuade military couples to have more children amid record-low birthrates. Army couples have to move frequently across the country and are separated for long periods, but under new measures they will be able to spend more time together. The Army said Tuesday new personnel management measures being implemented now will allow newlyweds to live together for five years to create a favorable environment where they can give birth and raise children.

Female military personnel can delay moving to newly assigned posts between the second month of pregnancy and six months after giving birth to reduce possible miscarriages and give them a minimal amount of time to take care of their children. Another incentive is giving all military personnel and staff with a third child the option to change their assignment to an area of their choosing. ¿Military couples have a birthrate of 0.83, which is even lower than the nation¿s average of 1.08,¿ a military official said. ¿The new measure will help increase our birthrate and also contribute to improving welfare and boosting morale in our armed forces.¿

Here is an idea, pay the soldiers more so they can afford three kids.

I have to wonder about this thinking.  The Korean government wants operation war time control of the military in the name of “independent defense” despite calls from all of Korea’s past defense ministers claiming that the ROK military is not ready for complete war time control due to a number of capabilities the ROK military does not possess, but the US does.

However, what I find interesting is that the cornerstone of the “independent defense” policy of the current Korean government is that if war did break out the Yankee cavalry will come in and save our asses anyway.  So how is this really “independent defense”?

I have been reading Ralph Peters latest book, Never Quit the Fight.  Peters is an ex-US Army intelligence analyst who has written a number of books about the War on Terror and transforming the US military to meet today’s and the future’s challenges.  In fact so far from reading this book Peters has perfectly described Hezbollah’s tactics against Israel fairly closely despite writing the book before the latest conflict.  Hopefully in this book he provides his insights into the North Korean nuclear issue as well.

As I read this book I am going to blog some quotes I have found interesting from this book as I go along.  Here is the first quote:

“Even those that despise religion had best pay attention.  The issue of God’s will, as interpreted by discontented human beings, will reshape the governance of continents in the coming decades.  We insist that our wars are not religious wars.  But they are.  Because our enemies believe them to be so.”

I agree with Peters that even if you have no interest in religion you best study and understand it.  I wished I would have studied Islam more before I deployed to Iraq, though Iraq turned out to be quite a classroom to learn about it.  Religion is continuing to play a role in the current crisis in Lebanon and will play a further role in the looming crisis with Iran which has even more religious complexity due to their Shiite brand of Islam.  Plus you can even look at my own country the United States and see how religion plays a role in the American government.  The controversy over the stem cell research is a perfect example.

Here is some more food for thought:

“We are learning that many beings prefer certainty, no matter how oppressive and primitive, to the risks and responsibilities of freedom.”

This is also a very true statement we are finding out the hard way.  Not every country has Jefferson’s, Adam’s, Washington’s mobilizing people to seek freedom.  Instead in the Islamic world you have Bin Laden’s, Nasrallah’s, and Zarqawi’s mobilizing people to oppression and death and many people are willing following them.

Here is my favorite quote I have read so far:

“Of course, we shall hear no end of fatuous arguments to the effect that we can’t kill our way out of the problem.  Well, until a better methodology is discovered, killing every terrorist we can find is a good interim solution.  The truth is that even if you can’t kill yourself out of a problem, you can make the problem a great deal smaller by effective targeting.”

The point Peter’s makes here is that the media and the international community is trying to create the paradigm that all killing is bad, even killing your enemy.  Just look at the crisis in Lebanon to confirm this.  Peter’s makes the case that US government’s decision for precision bombings and the reduction of casualties even against Iraqi military units during the initial war came back to haunt the US when Sunni Arab areas in Iraq never felt defeated after the war because they were not leveled or immediately occuppied by US troops.  Possbily today’s insurgents could have been killed during the initial invasion if the US military used it’s fire power to inflict maximum carnage on the Iraqis followed by a swift and overwhelming occupation..

That is one of the things that has frustrated me about the Iraq war.  The perception was that the US military flattened Iraq during the war in 2003 when in fact many areas of Iraq you wouldn’t even had known there was a war going on. The US military didn’t just mindlessly blow people away like the left wingers would have you believe.  Bus and taxis were running in some areas we went through, people working in the fields, and the infrastructure was largely intact; it was kind of surreal in a way.  The Shiites in Iraq were already living back in the stone age, but maybe bombing the much more afluent Sunnis areas in Iraq back to the stone age and inflicting maximum carnage on them may have reduced the violence we see now in Iraq?

I think Israel has been paying attention though to the lessons learned from Iraq and they seem intent on bombing Hezbollah back to the stone age and finishing them off once and for all, no matter how much the international community complains.  We should find out over the coming months if that strategy actually works.

I am reposting last week’s Korea finder with an additional hints that should help someone name this mountain.

Who can name this prominent Korean Mountain?

Hints:  This mountain is also a national park of the same name.  It is located adjacent to a very large lake in the middle of the country, and the name begins with a W.

Somebody should be able to get this now.

The woman convicted of setting a fire on Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, now has a new excuses for setting the fire:

The South Korean woman found guilty of arson in connection with a March fire on Yongsan Garrison is appealing her conviction, according to her new court-appointed lawyer.

Kweon Jung-ja is due in Seoul High Court, South Korea¿s appellate court, on Aug. 17 to argue she set the March 16 fire out of self-defense, according to Park Byeong-kweon, her lawyer. Kweon says she set the early morning fire to defend herself against a threat of terror, Park said Wednesday.

A threat of terror?  The article didn’t provide what this threat of terror was, but none the less it is obvious this woman needs some serious mental help.

Here is a pretty funny AAFES story for everyone.  I wonder if this could happen in Korea?

It looks like the Arirang taxi drivers may have really overplayed their hand with their recent strike:

Army and Air Force Exchange Services officials are considering opening on-base taxi service to competition in the wake of a recent taxi strike, an AAFES general manager said Thursday at a Camp Casey town hall meeting.

The idea still is in its infancy and is being evaluated with several options to improve taxi service, said Betty O¿Brien, Area II general manager.

¿We¿re looking at a second company on installation for competition,¿ O¿Brien told a soldier in the audience who voiced unhappiness with the current service. The new service would apply to both Area I and Area II bases, O¿Brien later said.

If the cab drivers thought they weren’t making enough money before imagine the income hit they are going to take if they face competition on post.

For those with non-command sponsored families in Korea this is a big deal:

The inventory of Army housing dictates how many families receive ¿command-sponsored¿ status, Jolissaint said. The number today is about 1,500, he said. Yet several thousand more ¿noncommand-sponsored¿ families are also are living in South Korea.

They paid their own travel costs and live on the economy without benefit of ¿with-dependents¿ housing or cost-of-living allowances. Some feel they can cope financially because of an extra $300 a month in Assignment Incentive Pay paid in Korea to members who extend their tours another year. After Iraq or Afghanistan, any more time away from family is a harder sell.

¿In olden days, if you weren¿t command-sponsored, you couldn¿t get a ration card,¿ said Jolissaint. ¿You couldn¿t access other services on post. Now we are treating these folks as if they are command-sponsored. They get their ID cards. They can come on post. They can use the PX. They can use the commissary. They have access to all services. They just can¿t get housing on post, and there¿s the Tricare Prime issue.¿

In April 2005, William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, clarified in a memo to the services that department policy bans enrollment of noncommand-sponsored dependents in Tricare Prime programs overseas. Winkenwerder wrote that, except in a few select circumstances, only active-duty family members who are ¿command sponsored,¿ as defined by travel orders, ¿shall be eligible¿ for Tricare Overseas Program (TOP) Prime or the Tricare Global Remote Overseas (TGRO) program.

Basically if your family is not command sponsored you cannot get timely access to military health care facilities and then when you go to health care provided by the local Korean health care providers instead, you have to pay additional and up front fees that Tri-care will not cover.  Hopefully General Bell is serious about addressing this issue because the numbers of non-command sponsored families in Korea are increasing.  The simple solution to this will be the camp consolidation at Camp Humphrey if that ever does happen, but in the mean time hopefully a short term fix can be worked out.

Could it be that the old guard of Korea’s security sees that the hand over of war time command is actually the end of the US-ROK alliance as we know it?:

A group of senior military experts including 13 former defense ministers have urged Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung to stop seeking the return of wartime operational control from the U.S. The meeting came at Yoon’s invitation on Wednesday.

It is rare for the contents of such a meeting to be made public, especially when it focuses on a call to end a core government project.

The group included Lee Sang-hoon and other former defense ministers as well as retired Gen. Paik Sun-yup and former vice defense minister Lee Jung-rin. They said now is not the time to reclaim wartime operational control of troops but rather the moment to strengthen the Korea-U.S. alliance.

The old guard of Korea understands what a strong alliance with America has brought the country since the devastation of the Korean War.  I have met Gen. Paik Sun-yup on a couple of occassions and he is one of the greatest heroes of the Korean War generation and is one of the strongest US-ROK allaince supporters out there.  So it isn’t surprising that he and his colleagues are against what the Roh administration in one presidential term has done to the US-ROK alliance that they spent decades creating and strengthening.

However, the damage has already been done and the “writing is on the wall” that the US-ROK alliance is in the midst of some massive changes possibly this year.  The old guard is in the middle of damage control right now, but it may be to little to late, but I have to give them credit for trying with comments like this:

Former defense minister Kim Sung-eun added Korea does not have the military intelligence power to exercise operational control on its own and needs U.S. support. Other former defense chiefs were unanimous in demanding to know why the government is going the way it is when the reverse course, of strengthening the alliance with the U.S, is the need of the hour. After the meeting, Lee said he told Yoon, “I’ve sought a meeting with Gen. Burwell Bell, the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea. If I meet him, I’ll suggest that he ignores what the South Korean government says.”

I think if the recent uni-lateral hand over of USFK camps to the Korean government is any indication, General Bell is already ignoring them.