Category: Uncategorized

CNN has an interesting article about the culture within Korean universities in regards to their teachers and laboratory professors. What I found most interesting about this article was the amount of corruption within the universities in regards to tenure:

Cutthroat competition for a professorship sometimes involves large sums of money changing hands.

In one case last year, a university chancellor received $4 million from 42 candidates in exchange for appointing them as professors, prosecutors said.

Pretty amazing, $4 million dollars. Makes you wonder how many other people have also been taking bribes and getting away with it.

Just goes to show the good old Kim Jong Il will do anything to make a buck:

Stalinist North Korea is demanding billions of dollars in compensation for alleged atrocities against its prisoners of war and spies formerly held in South Korea, a demand which has sparked outrage among politicians in Seoul.

The formal damages complaint was filed to the South’s human rights commission through a border office Friday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

This demand was so outrageous the (anti)-Unification Ministry actually condemned the comments:

A senior unification ministry official told AFP on condition of anonymity that “the North Korean complaint is not worth being given any serious consideration.”

This still goes to show what cowards the Unification Ministry is when someone has to condemn this outrageous demand anonymously, but at least they did condemn it.

Undoubtedly the former prisoners were tortured at some point in South Korean prisons, but if North Korea wants compensation than how about first releasing the thousands of South Korean prisoners currently in wallowing in North Korean gulags. Outrageous, but I am curious to see how President Roh responds to this.

Congressman Jack Murtha as many of you know has been a vocal anti-war critic of the Bush Administration. I didn’t mind Murtha speaking his mind which he has a right to do about the war, but now he has gone the way of Cindy Sheehan and lost any legitimacy he had with me by attacking the military itself. For those who haven’t already heard about Congressman Murtha’s comments against army recruiting here they are via Greyhawk:

“Would you join (the military) today?,” he was asked in an interview taped on Friday.

“Exactly right,” said Murtha.

Maybe Congressman Murtha is discouraged by the fact that the military has made all it’s recruiting goals for the last 6 months and needs to speak out against military recruiting. This however has drawn the ire of Marine and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace:

A large segment of the clip had to do with opinion about the war, and that’s not my lane. This country’s strength is based on the ability of its citizens and its leadership to have divergent views.

The second was a quote that you just mentioned. That’s damaging to recruiting, it’s damaging to morale of the troops who are deployed, and it’s damaging to the morale of their families who believe in what they’re doing to serve this country. We have almost 300 million Americans who are being protected by 2.4 (million) volunteer active, Guard and Reserve members. We must recruit to that force. When a respected leader like Mr. Murtha, who has spent 37 extremely honorable years as a Marine, fought in two wars, has served the country extremely well in the Congress of the United States, when a respected individual like that says what he said, and 18- and 19-year-olds look to their leadership to determine how they are expected to act, they can get the wrong message.

I could care less when Congressman Murtha criticizes President Bush or the reasons for going to war. That is in his lane to do so as a Congressman. However, I do get offended when he attacks the US military itself. Trying to discourage people from enlisting in the military only makes things more difficult for the soldiers who are already in. Less recruits does not effect operations in Iraq. It effects other parts of the world where the US military has obligations. The Army will always fully man units in Iraq which means they will take soldiers from lets say Korea to do this, leaving the soldiers who are in Korea to do more with less.

Plus Murtha’s attacks on the military about poor training, lack of armor, Abu Graib, etc. is old news. His complaints are no longer relevant today. General Tommy Franks always liked to say that the enemy has a vote in war and the insurgents and terrorists got their vote in Iraq and the US Army reacted and now troops are armored and better trained in guerrilla warfare to deal with the threat.

Murtha’s comments drew the ire of one Army sergeant that confronted him and fellow war critic Congressman Moran at a recent town hall meeting in Washington broadcasted on this CSPAN video:

“Yes sir my name is Mark Seavey and I just want to thank you for coming up here. Until about a month ago I was Sgt Mark Seavey infantry squad leader, I returned from Afghanistan. My question to you, (applause) “Like yourself I dropped out of college two years ago to volunteer to go to Afghanistan, and I went and I came back. If I didn’t have a herniated disk now I would volunteer to go to Iraq in a second with my troops, three of which have already volunteered to go to Iraq. I keep hearing you say how you talk to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization. (applause) The morale of the troops that I talk to is phenomenal, which is why my troops are volunteering to go back, despite the hardships they had to endure in Afghanistan.

Moran – who is one of the few congressmen supporting Charlie Rangel’s call to restore the draft – responded quickly: “That wasn’t in the form of a question, it was in the form of a statement. But, uhh… let’s go over here.” And he took the next question.

These congressmen completely avoided this war veteran’s claims which even further destroys any legitimacy these critics have.

When is the anti-war left going to learn that attacking the military will not get you anywhere. The vast majority of the American public respects the military. The far left kooks thought they had the spokesman to push their agendas with due to Murtha’s former Marine Corps background. If he would have stuck to strategy and policy in Iraq I think people including myself would take his views more seriously. However, when he attacks the military it shows that his strategy is driven more by his hatred of President Bush and Secretary Rumsfeld than any concern for the soldiers.

Mudville has got more on this, Skippy-san shares his viewpoints, along with Commander Salamander.

For those of you that get stressed out trying to find gifts for your significant other for Valentines Day, take a look at what Korean couples have to go through:

Thanks to shrewd marketing in a society focused on commerce as well as love and matrimony, there is a special day on the 14th of each month for lovers to celebrate as well as a few other goodies along the way.

May 15 is Yellow Day-Rose Day. Lonely hearts gather for curry and companionship. Those who find love by this day exchange roses. Dressing in yellow is also recommended.

Check out the link for more because every month features a love holiday not to mention important anniversaries for Korean couples. It is a good thing they made January 14th Diary Day because you will need a journal to remember all these dates for the rest of the year.

You got to respect Korean actor Won Bin’s decision to join a frontline ROK Army unit instead of hiding out in a rear end job:

Superstar Won Bin has finished his five-week basic military training and volunteered for a unit guarding the iron fence at the border with North Korea. According to Army insiders, the actor volunteered for the assignment on completing his basic training, but confirmation of the assignment will not come until the beginning of next week.

Usually, stars are assigned to the Defense Media Agency, an affiliate of the Defense Ministry, and put in charge of promotional activities or troop entertainment, but Won Bin requested something more challenging. “Won conscientiously took part in military drills and was treated no different to all other servicemen,” an Army source said.

I wonder how many Korean youths reading this respect the decision compared to those who think he is stupid for volunteering for DMZ duty?

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has now also publicly criticized the North Koreans for counterfeiting US currency:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday labeled North Korea a “dangerous regime” and said Washington will not back down on financial sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for alleged counterfeiting.

U.S. diplomats have adopted a more critical line toward the North since September, when the Treasury Department ordered American financial institutions to cut all ties with the Macao-based bank Banco Delta Asia, accusing it of being a front for a North Korean counterfeiting operation.

I wonder which South Korean government official will rush to condemn Secretary Rice’s comments and defend North Korean counterfeiting?

It is going to be interesting to see how the Japanese media and public react to this news of a tragic murder and robbery of a Japanese woman:

Japanese police arrested an American sailor Saturday on charges of robbing and beating a Japanese woman to death — a case likely to further stoke opposition to U.S. military presence in Japan.

Reese, who also has been identified in Japanese media, is accused of robbing Sato of $129.

I can’t understand what would make someone want to rob and beat an elderly woman for $129 dollars? This guy is scum and hopefully he rots in a Japanese jail. So far the Japanese media seems to be reporting fairly about this incident. I haven’t seen any statements like, this is the first time a US sailor has been arrested in Japan under the SOFA agreement stuff, which is a common statement used in Korean media reports when a crime involving a USFK servicemember happens. Mostly from what I can see the Japanese media is focusing on what effect this will have on the ongoing US base relocation negotiations with the Japanese government.

For more info on this, there is a great discussion going on at Coming Anarchy on this topic plus one sailor stationed in Japan sounds off on this tragic incident as well.

Joel shares an interesting cell phone innovation in South Korea, a sobriety test:

You know you drink to much when you got to have a sorbiety test installed in your cell phone.

A new executive order has been signed formally outlawing prostitution:

For the first time, the Department of Defense has specifically made it a crime for a servicemember to patronize a prostitute. The punishment: up to a year in prison, forfeiture of pay and dishonorable discharge.

A Defense Department spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, said in an e-mailed response to questions that “prostitution” and “pandering” will now be among the offenses covered by Article 134 of the courts-martial manual.

This order pretty much puts prostitution on the same level as drug abuse in the military now. It is going to be interesting to see what effect this has on operations in the “ville”. Probably not much.

Alright who in Yongsan or Osan pissed off the 8th Army CSM Wheeler?:

Servicemembers should be in “their service’s physical fitness uniform” during organized training from 6 a.m. to 7:30 a.m., whether they’re on leave, a pass, temporary duty or on another status, according to Wheeler.

“Many are the troops who think they can wear anklets which give the appearance of no socks,” Wheeler wrote. “Wrong!”

Mark was this you?:

“Remember this as well: Being a soldier in the Army is an outdoor sport!” according to Wheeler. “You don’t get in shape for pushups by holding up the walls of the local gymnasium.”

“That senior leadership is not correcting the subordinate leadership is why we see so many violations,” said Wheeler. “I sure hope it’s not because they don’t know the standards themselves.”

Basically nothing new here for us 2ID types. 2ID has followed these standards every tour I have spend in 2ID. An old DCG at Camp Red Cloud who just loved PT, used to walk into the gym during PT hours and kick all those field grades and sergeant majors out into the cold with the rest of us. I was always amazed how many people used to hide in that gym when it was cold until that DCG showed up. A contractor buddy of mine grew a beard and longer hair so the General would not confuse him as a soldier and leave him alone in the morning while he worked out. He loved the General though because he had his choice of equipment in the morning once he kicked everyone out.