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.

It looks like the Taliban has some competition:

Seoul has an uneasy feeling about plans by South Korean Christians to hold a “peace rally” in Afghanistan `s capital, Kabul, next weekend.
The Foreign Ministry said yesterday it had dispatched a team to the Central Asian country to help if trouble breaks out between the group and Afghan Muslims or insurgents.
The Institute of Asian Culture and Development, a Christian group in Korea, has been warned repeatedly since January about the potential for violence in a Muslim country still wracked by war and terrorism. Last month, the administration issued a statement in the names of several government agencies, including the Justice Ministry, urging prospective participants to rethink and stay away from the event.
Responding to the latest warning, issued yesterday, the institute protested that the event was a peaceful one involving only cultural activities and volunteer work, not proselytizing.

Sure they are not there not there to proselytize, they are probably just there to check out the donkey markets, gardening outlet stores, shopping, beaches and skiing because we all know how boring Seoul can be.  What amazes me more than anything are the numbers of Koreans that are in Afghanistan right now:

Reportedly, about 1,000 Koreans have already gone to Afghanistan for the event. That country’s Ministry of Culture had approved the plans, but changed its mind after approaches from the Korean government.
The Afghan ministry said it has told the institute that the event cannot be held; security officials in Kabul have reinforced that warning, saying they could not guarantee the security of the participants.

1,000 Koreans in Afghanistan?  You can make two combat battalions out of them.  Heck, maybe they part of the new NATO led force there?

Is it just me or does this just encourage more hostage taking of Koreans?:

The Seoul government refused to disclose the ransom, but Somali elder Abdi Ilmi told AFP on Monday that 800,000 dollars (about 627,000 euros) had been paid for the release of the ship and crew.

The foreign ministry confirmed late Sunday that the released South Korean ship was escorted by a US warship from Somali waters to Kenya.

Dongwon Fisheries, owner and operator of the ship, said all 25 crew were unharmed and allowed to return home soon after medical checks in Kenya.

The ship — carrying eight Koreans, five Vietnamese, nine Indonesians and three Chinese — was hijacked by local militiamen on April 4 in the Indian Ocean off the Somali coast.

Over at the Lost Nomad there is an interesting posting and discussion going on about this Donga article. The article pretty much makes the case that foreigners in Korea find the country to be boring. I tend to disagree because I feel there is always something going on in Korea, you just need to know where to go. For example if you are a foreigner and the only thing you do is go to Itaewon or the local ville, yeah Korea is going to suck. However, if you get yourself a good guide book and just go out and adventure around a little bit you can have loads of fun.

I have always found it amazing how many foreigners and I am referring primarily to US soldiers since that is who I usually deal with do not own a guide book. Korea is not a place where things to do just jump out at you because of the differences in language and culture. So a good guide book is critical to enjoying your time in Korea. I prefer the Lonely Planet Korea guide book which provides many great ideas for things to check out in Korea. Everything is covered from entertainment, cultural, historical, outdoors activities, restaurants, hotels, etc. in the country. Another great guide that is especially GI friendly is the guide book, Having a Great Tour. This book focuses more on things to in Korea focused around the US military installations which is a great guide for USFK personnel. Another option is, I’m going to plug the Marmot here, but go get the Seoul magazine. The magazine is filled with things going on in Seoul and it is really one of the strong points of the magazine.

Another key thing to learn to do is master the public transportation system. I know seeing all the Korean hangul seems intimidating at first, but Korea does an absolute superb job with providing English translations throughout their mass transit system compared to other nation’s mass transit systems. The subways have English signs at every station and if you got a good guide book like I suggested you will have a English subway map handy as well. The train system in Korea is also quite easy to master and if you don’t have a car is the best way to get around the country and see more of what is outside of the Seoul area. Additionally the mass transit in Korea is extremely cheap, clean, and safe way to get around.

The next thing people need to do to enjoy their time in Korea is to get involved in the culture. I see soldiers sit around on post and never interact with the community around them. Go out and try different Korean foods for example besides bulgoki rice and yaki mandoo they sell in the ville. Do a home stay with one of the Korean KATUSA soldiers and meet their family and learn more about them. Get involved in teaching English at nearby schools or volunteer at a local orphanage. These activities will keep you busy plus help you make friends in the Korean community. Once you make friends with Koreans they are some of the best friends you will ever have. This will help you enjoy your experience in Korea more and motivate you to want to learn more about the place.

I could go on and on with tips but I think I have made my main points, get a good guide book, learn the public transportation system, and get involved with Korea. Other nations in Asia do a good job promoting themselves and their culture, so when you go to China you want to see the Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China and the tour buses are lined up to take foreigners there. Korea on the other hand does a very poor job promoting themselves, plus the wackiness of some of it’s citizens and the even wackier North Koreans, that gets broadcasted on foreign television screens doesn’t help either.

So when a foreigner comes to Korea they don’t know something like Suwon has a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Suwon Fortress that is a short train ride from Seoul that should be a must see for someone visiting Korea. Or if you are visiting in the winter that Korea has some great skiing and is a candidate for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. It may not be the Alps, but it is still fun. I once arranged a ski trip for soldiers in my unit before and they had a blast and were amazed that Korea had such modern ski resorts. That is because Korea doesn’t promote themselves as a ski destination to the rest of the world.

If you stay on camp all weekend and sit in front of your Playstation then of course you are going to think Korea is boring. Or if you are an expat that doesn’t do anything other than go to Itaewon or a similar villes and drink OB than yes that is going to eventually get old too. There are number of other great things to see in Korea besides the inside of your barracks and the ville, but you have to do your research and then go out and do it. I have always maintained that if you find Korea boring than it is your own fault.

The Marmot has weighed in on this topic as well.