Category: Uncategorized

For those Coming Anarchy fans out there, Robert Kaplan was just sighted at the Korean DMZ by the News21 team:

(…) a man walked out of a different office and introduced himself as Bob Kaplan. I recognized that his name sounded vaguely familiar but was too tired to process why, so I shook his hand and introduced myself. Katie, on the other hand, asked him if by Bob, he meant Robert, and if by “Robert Kaplan,” he meant Robert Kaplan, contributor to the Atlantic Monthly and author of Imperial Grunts (…)

Katie and I started to ask him about his general experiences with the military and his observations about what’s happening. One of his main points is that one of the ways the military is restructuring itself is to reorganize itself in ways that resemble what’s happening in corporations–in particular, trying to pass responsibility down the command chain, so that individuals can take action without having to wait to get approval from above.

At some point he commented on how he thought that blogging makes people worse writers.

Kaplan point about the US military trying to empower lower level leaders is very true because in todays environment decisions have to made quickly by those on the ground without having to wait for approval from above.  Now the comment about blogging making people worse writers I have to dispute.  A lot of bad writers blog, but from my experience the longer you blog the better your writing becomes.

Anyway I wonder if Curzon is jealous of the News21 team?

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is visiting the US and American President George Bush had a special retirement party for the Prime Minister due to his impending retirement from Japanese politics:

Koizumi Junichiro (right), Japan¿s Prime Minister who is visiting the U.S. before his retirement in September, and U.S. President George W. Bush is thanking the Brian Setzer Orchestra which played Elvis Presley¿s songs at an official dinner in White House on June 29. President Bush gave Koizumi, an Elvis fan, a juke box as a farewell gift.

Any guesses if President Bush will be holding a retirement party for Korean President Roh Moo-hyun next year when he leaves office?  If he did I wonder what going away gift he would give him?

How come I have a feeling this will explode into another one of those, “the yankees are trying to screw us” issues?:

South Korean and U.S. officials are expected to open negotiations later this year on Washington’s proposal to sell its war reserve stockpiles to Seoul, the U.S. command here said Friday.

The U.S. has stockpiled about 600,000 tons of ammunition in South Korea since the 1970s for use in the event of a conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

Last December, U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law a bill aimed at selling the war reserves to South Korea as part of a sweeping reshuffle of its overseas military installations.

So why do I think this may become an issue of contention?  This is why:

A possible sticking point in the negotiations would be the selling price of the reserve stockpiles.

The U.S. side hopes the combat items would be sold at a “fair market value,” while South Korean officials want to obtain them for free or purchase only part of the total, arguing that about one third of the U.S. items are too old and in need of repair.

“Fair Market Value” and agreements with the South Korean government means nothing.  The US had an agreement with South Korea over the Camp Humphreys expansion and that has been delayed due to the governments wavering on annexing the land which has in turn delayed the overall agreement of consolidating the USFK camps, most notably Yongsan Garrision in Seoul, all south of the Han River.

Then the latest issue causing contention is the agreement with the US that the South Koreans would take the vacated 2ID camps “as is”.  So what the Korean government did to break this agreement was to send in the leftist environmental wackos; who of course claimed the camps are super polluted and uninhabitable even though US soldiers having been living on the camps for 50 years with no problems.  So of course the Korean government is demanding money for the “clean up” even though they agreed beforehand to taking the camps “as is”.

So if anyone thinks selling the issue war stockpiles to the Koreans will be a smooth process are kidding themselves.  If the Korean government doesn’t get the deal they want, expect to see the environmental wackos sent in.

US Army deserter Charles Jenkins’ book has now been published in Korean and I like the title of the book, “To Tell the Truth”.  Telling the truth about North Korea and the Sunshine Policy of the current South Korean administration are not compatible.  So it will be interesting to see how well the book sells in South Korea.

Has anyone ever seen this drink before in Korea?:

I can only imagine how bad this must taste.

Hat Tip: Japundit

So how do the North Koreans plan to defeat the evil American and Japanese aggressors?  By covering them with giant rupies of course! From the Asiapundit:

North Korean website By the Korean Nation Itself launches online game ¿catch those thieves¿, enjoy yourself. Instruction: move the red stones onto the you-know-who.

How can someone complain about being hounded by the paparazzi and wanting to be left alone and then pose nude on the cover of magazine?

I commend the Donga-Ilbo for actually covering the anniversary of the West Sea Naval Battle, but you would think that in the article they would at least mention who killed the sailor?

Yeah right, whatever:

Bahk Byong-won, the chief negotiator for inter-Korean economic cooperation, said on Tuesday that economic aid to the North was not free and that Seoul had clearly sent that message in previous meetings between the two Koreas.
Speaking at a forum sponsored by the JoongAng Ilbo and the Hyundai Research Institute, Mr. Bahk, vice minister of finance, said, “Until now, aid to the North was done considering the inability of the North’s economy to pay back.”
After economic talks on Jeju Island, both Koreas agreed Seoul would provide $80 million worth of materials to manufacture much-needed garments, shoes and soaps to the North in exchange for 2.4 billion won ($2.4 million) worth of zinc and magnesite as an immediate 3 percent return for the donated materials. The rest is will be paid back over 10 years, after a 5-year grace period, at a low annual interest rate of 1 percent.

So what does USFK do to the local community that has been highly supportive of the Camp Humphreys expansion and helped keep the anti-US protesters at bay?  Well piss them off of course:

About 300 South Korean merchants gathered outside Camp Humphreys¿ gates Monday to demand Col. Michael J. Taliento¿s resignation following his decision to place two local bars off-limits to soldiers.

In a phone interview early Monday evening, Taliento told Stripes he placed Duffy¿s Club and the Bay Watch Club off-limits for serving alcohol to underage soldiers.

U.S. Forces Korea raised the legal drinking age for its personnel to 21 on Nov. 1, 2004. South Korea¿s drinking age is 20. If off-base bars sell alcohol to underage USFK personnel, the command can place those bars off-limits.

If this all sounds familiar, it should because this is a near repeat of what happened last August when the Camp Humphreys ville was put off limits for under drinking then as well.  Here is the sign they put up when that crisis occurred:

This is what the bar owners had to say after last August’s stand off ended:

Club owners outside Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek will fire bar workers who engage in prostitution as well as any of the ¿entertainment¿ agencies that provide female bar employees who might later take part in the sex traffic, the head of a local merchants group said Friday.

The merchants also will fire any worker selling alcohol to underage U.S. servicemembers, said Kim Ki-ho, merchants association president in Anjung-ri, the Pyeongtaek City district in which Camp Humphreys is located.

This is what I had to say once that stand off ended:

This dispute ended pretty much how they always do, the club owners vow to change their ways then wait a while and go back to the old ways after some time passes and there has been a personnel change over. They continue their old ways until someone calls them on it again. The bar owners face no legal consequences for human trafficking, prostitution, and selling alcohol to minors from the Korean law enforcement, so they will always continue to play this Off Limits game with the Army. The Army needs to police itself instead of relying on the clubs to do the policing for them.

So here we go again with an exactly identical situation.  When is the command going to learn to police themselves?  Bar owners are going to keep playing this silly off limits game with USFK as long as the command demands them to enforce laws that are legal in Korea.

If you want to stop underage drinking then don’t let soldiers 20 years old or younger go into the ville past 1900 when all the shopping stores close and the bars open.  You can card at the Humphreys gate and have the Courtesy Patrols do random carding in the ville.  If someone is caught breaking the policy slam them.  Or if you want to let the underage soldiers in the ville anyway at night than you need to card everyone at the gate and have a bunch of breathalyzers ready.

The current policy is only pissing off the biggest pro-American supporters in the area and greatly destroying soldier morale on Camp Humphreys.  The soldiers at the Hump are routinely locked down on camp because of the camp expansion protests and now when they aren’t locked down they can’t even go to anywhere in the local ville.

Make sure you check out Lost Nomad as well for some great pictures and more coverage of the latest only in Korea, USFK Soap Opera.