At least one part of the world believes President Bush is the first “Muslim” President:
I don’t mean to criticize when I say this. The Kurds have been through decades of fascism, genocide, and war. They suffered more than any other group of Iraqis. Northern Iraq endured more recent hardship than any other place I have ever been in my life. Scratch just beneath the happy veneer of Iraqi Kurdish adults and you’ll find people with family members murdered by Baathists, who experienced unimaginable oppression by a regime that wanted to completely erase them, and who fled to the mountains during the uprising in 1991 when the cities of Iraqi Kurdistan were emptied of people. They still have no sewage system, and they still only have a few hours of electricity each day. Having a good time just isn’t a priority for them right now.
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It’s impossible not to admire these people. Their attitude is go-go-go, build-build-build. They won’t let a little thing like a permanent power outage get in their way. They are the last people in the world anyone dare call lazy or apathetic.
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Iraqi Kurdistan is more pro-American than America. People there refer to George W. Bush as “Hajji Bush†(meaning he made the Muslim pilgrimage, the hajj, to Mecca), an incredibly high honor for a Christian from Texas whom most people hate. Bill Clinton may have been America’s first “black†president. But people in at least one part of the world say Bush is the first “Muslim†president. Weird and amazing, but true.
That’s right the Kurds love Hajji Bush and great progress is being made in Kurdistan. There is something you won’t see in the MSM; they have more important stories to cover like hunting accidents in Texas.
Having traveled through Kurdistan and having worked with the Kurdish Peshmerga I can say that the Kurds are some of the best people I have ever met. When I was in Kurdistan I couldn’t help but think that maybe this is how Korea was 50 years ago; a place in shambles but filled with people with a lot of hope for the future and a strong work ethic. Korea had the “Miracle on the Han River”, I hope one day I will see the “Miracle on the Tigris River” as well.
MRE auction on E-bay causes “MRE-gate” scandal for US Army:
Meals, Ready to Eat, the prepackaged rations infamous among service members, remain hot collectibles on the online trading site eBay.com, despite defense officials’ efforts to stop the practice.
MREs typically cost about $4.50 to produce, and are intended solely for use and distribution by members of the military, according to Defense Department rules.
But the water-activated rations are being marketed on the site as both survival gear and collector’s item, with some cases of 12 going for upward of $100.
On Friday, more than 90 unopened cases with U.S. military markings were for sale on the site, and more than 300 other listings featured individual meal packets, MRE desserts and other related foodstuffs.
In many of the listings, warnings reading “U.S. Government property — Commercial resale is unlawful†are clearly visible on the packaging.
This is actually a scandal that the military is really working on clamping down on. Usually units keep a few spare boxes of MRE’s on hand in case of a last minute tasking or a range comes up and soldiers need to get out there quick and there is no time to coordinate for chow for them. Now commanders are going through unit areas to search for spare boxes of MRE’s to ensure no extra boxes are lying around that can be picked up and sold on E-bay to survivalists or the curious.
In Korea MRE’s are highly sought after by Koreans as well. They are often sold to fishermen who spend days out on boats and MRE’s serve as a great way for them eat. Not to long ago soldiers used to give MRE’s to ajumma in ma’s tent out in the field in exchange for her to cook up Korean food for the soldiers. The army eventually clamped down on this activity but I’m sure ma was making a fortune from it at the time.
When working with the ROK Army they will always hit you up for MRE’s as well. They usually just want MRE’s to eat them more so than selling them.
To see the MRE trade in Korea in action, just travel to any of the known black market areas near US Army installations. Even in Itaewon in the back alleys you can find MRE’s for sale there. Even when I traveled last year to Ulleong-do Island I found black marketed AAFES goods and MRE’s there as well. MRE’s are what I would consider a quasi currency in Korea.
It looks like the United States will further break from South Korea and begin accepting North Korean refugees for the first time:
Participants said it was important that the U.S. takes on some of the refugees who ended up in a country other than South Korea. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also implied a policy shift by saying, “We are reviewing our policies on refugees, reviewing them with DHS (Department of Homeland Security), reviewing them with the FBI, to see if we can find a way to participate in the refugee activities as well.†If it does admit them, it is likely to exacerbate tensions with North Korea in an already chilly climate because of Washington’s sanctions and the North’s nuclear ambitions.
The North Korean Human Rights Act, which went into effect in October of 2004, stipulates that North Korean refugees can seek asylum or residence in the U.S. despite the fact that they are automatically entitled to South Korean citizenship.
This is further evidence that Washington is speeding up efforts to pressure the Pyongyang regime. First the US government implemented economic sanctions due to North Korea’s money laundering and counterfeiting operations, then the Japanese began to raid companies aiding North Korean weapons programs and now the accepting of North Korean refugees in America.
Neither Pyongyang or Seoul will be to happy about this. This is a big loss of face for Pyongyang when it’s citizens are defecting to it’s sworn enemy the United States plus asylum in the US is only going to encourage more defections which is what Washington is probably hoping to create. Seoul isn’t going to like this because it will anger North Korea and negatively effect their Sunshine Policy exchanges. Plus Seoul has to be worried about how well North Korean refugees integrate in American society compared to South Korean society. If North Korean refugees begin to integrate better in the United States than South Korea where they are discriminated against; this will cause a loss of face for the South Korean government.
Now why is the US government encouraging defections? The main reason I think is because a loss of man power and skilled labor from North Korea will negatively effect the Kim Jong Il regime. Factories can’t operate without laborers. South Korea and China having been trying with some success on clamping down on North Korean defectors but the recent policy change from the United States is sure to encourage North Korean citizens to defect from the horror of the Kim Jong Il’s regime and hope to obtain the American dream.
Of course check out the new Korean Liberator for more coverage of this announcement. Edit this Post | Delete this Post
Two dual citizen Korean-Americans enlisted in the US Army before being drafted into the ROK Army. Now the ROK Army is after them to force them to complete their mandatory Korean military service:
The Defense Ministry and the Military Manpower Administration may have to wait for years before they can get their hands on two Koreans who violated the military service law by enlisting in the U.S. Army.
The two Koreans aged 21 and 22 who have U.S. citizenship and residence respectively but retain their Korean nationality volunteered for the U.S. Army without performing their mandatory military service here, the MMA said Friday. Both were supposed to join the Korean armed forces in 2004 but both enlisted with U.S, forces instead. One instead went with them to Germany and both are now ironically with the U.S. Forces Korea as privates first class.
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The first came to Korea on leave last June, and the travel ban stopped him from returning to his unit in Germany. He was indicted here the same month but the indictment was suspended because he serves in the U.S. military. He then transferred to the USFK. The MMA says it will make both of them serve in the Korean forces as well. Article 71 of the Military Service Law says those with dual nationality who violate the law must perform their military duties in Korea before they turn 35.
Cases like this are not uncommon. Many Korean-Americans and some that are dual citizens serve in the US military and are very valuable to USFK due to their familiarization with the Korean culture and language. However, it looks like the ROK Army is really going to clamp down on these dual citizenship holders now.
On the opposite end of the spectrum I had an American KATUSA ROK Army soldier before in my unit. He was a dual citizenship holder and had lived in the US most of his life. He came back to Korea to complete his ROK Army service to keep his dual citizen status and was selected as a KATUSA. He wanted to join the US military from the start but he had to complete his ROK Army time before doing so. He still plans on enlisting in the US Army once his KATUSA time is done. He will definitely like the pay raise since KATUSA’s only make $45 a month.
From the Stars and Stripes:
A South Korean man who lives near Camp Humphreys told local police a bullet from the installation struck his house last week, police said Tuesday.
Police in Pyeongtaek said they found a hole about 4 inches in diameter in the side of the house. But they turned up no evidence it had been produced by a bullet or other projectile. The house is in Pang-sung, a section of Pyeongtaek City that includes Anjung-ri, where Camp Humphreys is located.
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Police said Lee told them a loud explosion shook his house Feb. 9 around 4 a.m., and he thought his boiler had burst. He later discovered the hole, he said, and believed it came from a weapon fired inside Camp Humphreys, police said.
Of course no evidence of an actual bullet hitting the house existed:
U.S. Forces Korea said in a written statement Tuesday that South Korean police on the afternoon of Feb. 9 “conducted an investigation of a possible stray bullet from Camp Humphreys.
“Investigators found no evidence of a stray bullet or believed that any damage was caused by the U.S.,†the statement read.
This is absolute BS that will be used to help drum anti-American support against the Camp Humphreys expansion even though there is no truth to it.
The funniest commentary on this I have read is from Nomad’s site where commenters were wondering where Dick Cheney was, at the time or if 35th ADA Brigade was trying out new potato guns. LOL.
Another Iraqi man has been killed by a soldier from the ROK Army’s Zaytun unit in Iraq due to a traffic accident:
An Iraqi local government official has been killed in a traffic accident by a Korean military truck, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) office said Thursday.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Korean driver, a corporal only identified by his family name Song, was trying to avoid a car which had cut in front of him on a street in downtown Irbil when he hit the 53-year-old Iraqi official, the office said.
Let’s use the uproar over the tragic 2002 US Army traffic accident that killed two Korean girls as a model of how the Korean government should handle this accident. First of all the soldier should be handed over to the Iraqi authorities for trial because I’m sure whatever SOFA Agreement Korea has with Iraq is unfair and unjust. Then the candle light vigils should be sweeping the country as I write this. Then President Roh should issue a weeping apology on national television followed by all his ROK Army generals to the people of Iraq due to this attack on the Iraqi people. Then a massive compensation package should then be handed over to the victim’s family.
Listed above is what many in Korea expected the US to do after the tragic accident of 2002, so what are the chances they will do the same when the tables are turned? Don’t hold your breath to long because I still haven’t seen an apology from President Roh or a massive candle light vigil for the man killed when a ROK Army soldier accidentally shot and killed an Iraqi soldier last year.
Just for the record the US military did have a candle light vigil, USFK Generals apologized after the accident and US President George W. Bush apologized a few months after the accident, and the victims families were compensated as well. Will the same happen in this case? No because this story is already buried in the media.
Hat Tip: Flying Yangban
Some of you may be familar with the current controversy in the US over allowing a Dubai based company to operate major US coastal ports:
“We’re calling for the full six-week investigation. It’s a serious investigation and the reason why this is critical is while maybe there’s nothing wrong with this company, how do we know they’re not infiltrated?” asked Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “The United Arab Emirates has had people involved in terrorism. In fact, some of its financial institutions laundered the money for the (Sept, 11) terrorists. And to just blithely go ahead and treat this as another economic transaction is all wrong.”
Currently, London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., the fourth largest port operator in the world, runs the six ports. But the $6.8 million sale of P&O to UAE-owned Dubai Ports World (DPW) would effectively turn over North American operations to the government-owned company in Dubai.
If the approval is unchallenged, Dubai Ports World would run the ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.
Interestingly enough the United States is not the only country with a Dubai based company managing port operations:
Al-Bayan newspaper reported on the opening ceremony for the new Busan Port in South Korea held in mid-January 2006 with the participation of a delegation from the Dubai International Ports Company.
This ceremony celebrated the completion of the first stage of work to develop this port, including developing the container terminal of the port. Taking part in the Dubai delegation were Assistant Manager for Operations of the Dubai International Ports Company Sultan bin Salim, Deputy Chairman of the Board Jamal bin Thanya, Operations Manager Muhammad Sharaf, and Assistant Manager for Financial Matters Hamid Ahmad Kadhim.
I for one do not believe that something as sensitive as US port operations should be handled by any foreign country much less one from the Middle East.
The Japanese government has begun a crackdown on businesses exporting possible WMD technology to North Korea. The first raid was of a company suspected of exporting nuclear technology to North Korea:
Investigators raided the headquarters of Mitutoyo Corp. on Monday morning, according to a company official who refused to be named, citing internal regulations. The official said she could not provide further details, but said the company was “cooperating fully” with investigations.
Mitutoyo Corp. is suspected of exporting two three-dimensional measurement machines that can be used for uranium enrichment — a technology that can produce nuclear fuel or bombs — to subsidiaries of Japanese firms in China and Thailand in 2001, according to a report carried Sunday by the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest daily.
The second raid involved raiding companies involved with providing biological weapon technology:
The companies allegedly exported freeze dryers that could be used to cultivate germs or other pathogens for possible weapons, Kyodo News reported, citing police.
The companies are suspected of shipping the equipment to North Korea through Taiwan in September 2002, Kyodo said.
Japanese officials even raided Yamaha over selling remote controlled helicopters:
Late last month, police raided the headquarters of Yamaha Motor Co. on suspicion it illegally exported to China remote-controlled helicopters that could be diverted to military use.
The motorcycle and engine producer was accused of selling restricted materials without receiving approval.
It is interesting that this current crackdown in Japan is coming at about the same time that the US has begun a financial crackdown on North Korean counterfeiting and money laundering operations. I don’t think the combined pressure from the two countries’ crackdowns will be enough to collapse the North Korean regime, but it is in my estimation greatly annoying them by how loud the regime has been condemning the US financial sanctions. Now if only South Korea would do something as well.
What happens when bloggers attack? Well find out here:
The government concluded its “Cyber Storm” wargame Friday, its biggest-ever exercise to test how it would respond to devastating attacks over the Internet from anti-globalization activists, underground hackers and bloggers.
Bloggers?
Participants confirmed parts of the worldwide simulation challenged government officials and industry executives to respond to deliberate misinformation campaigns and activist calls by Internet bloggers, online diarists whose “Web logs” include political rantings and musings about current events.
If the US government is so concerned about a blogging insurgency, why don’t they just shut down blog sites like Korea and China have done before? Goodbye insurgency.
Hat Tip: Coming Anarchy
