I had to watch this video again because I was so shocked that a TV news reporter was openly defending the terrorist mastermind of Al Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but that is exactly what CNN correspondent Jamie McIntyre does in the video.

I am going to summarize and put in quotes exactly what McIntyre had to say in regards to the bumbling al-Zarqawi trying to fire an American M249 Squad Automatic Weapon in a propaganda video:

The M249 machine has a “heavy trigger and is not easy to fire” making it “understandable” why he would “have trouble firing it” because the weapon requires “specific training” and “he is probably not trained to fire American weapons.”

To see the video for yourself you need to go to the CNN.com website and go to the Watch Video section and select the US Mocks al-Zarqawi Video in that section.  Sorry there is no specific link to access the video that I could find.  You will have to use the CNN.com website.

Anyway the M249 is not that difficult to fire.  In the Army we teach 18 year old privates who’s only weapons knowledge is playing Duck Hunt on the Nintendo, how to fire this weapon in no time.  Plus people with weapons experience know that if your weapon is jamming to pull back the charging handle to clear the chamber.  Zarqawi had to get someone to show him how to pull back a charging handle on the weapon.  This just makes me wonder how often he is actually handling weapons?  He is probably just like all the other Al Qaida big wigs, sending out kids filled with propaganda about 72 virgins to do their dirty work while they sit back make propaganda videos, collect the money coming in, and in Zarqawi’s case, buy new American made tennis shoes.

This report though just begs the question of who’s side are these US reporters on?  How in world can any journalist, especially an American journalist defend a brutal killer like Zarqawi and keep a straight face like Jamie McIntyre does?  I think these reporters are so used to watering down anything positive that CENTCOM puts out that he doesn’t even realize how ridiculous he sounds.  Is CNN becoming another Al Jazeera?

There has been a change of leadership for the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea:

The 2nd Infantry Division soldiers came out to salute their outgoing and incoming commanding generals at Camp Casey Indianhead Field on Thursday.

Maj. Gen. James Coggin accepted the ceremonial colors from outgoing Maj. Gen. George Higgins in front of dignitaries and the division parading units.

Coggin previously was assistant chief of staff for operations of the U.N. Command, the Combined Forces Command and United States Forces Korea. Higgins heads to Washington, D.C., to become Army assistant deputy chief of staff.

Coggin thanked the Army leadership for trusting him with the division command.

General Higgins is actually leaving command a little bit earlier than most Division Commanders. Usually Division Commanders serve for two years. MG Higgins took command in September 2004. His early departure is probably due to the timing of the job opening at the Pentagon that he heading to next.

MG Higgins really is one of the good guys in the Army. What I liked about MG Higgins the most was that he wasn’t an arrogant cigar smoking MacArthur wanna be, as I have seen many other generals give the persona of wanting to be. MG Higgins is extremely intelligent and the fact that he used to be a West Point instructor is quite evident because he is always trying to teach and educate soldiers that he interacts with. Plus he has spent a lot of time in Korea and understood the country very well. He also advocated very hard for soldiers to take part in all the Good Neighbor Projects in hopes of improving relations with the surrounding communities.

MG Higgins was a good commander and will be missed. It is to bad that MG Higgins tenure will be most remembered for taxi cab related incidents.

MG Coggins during his tenure as commander will most assuredly be faced with moving the 2nd ID to Camp Humphreys once the expansion of the facility is complete. This will be huge logistical undertaking that is sure to keep him up at night. Not to mention dealing with the anti-US protests that are sure to continue as the division makes the move. The next two years could be an interesting time to serve for the new 2ID Commander. Good Luck.

Some how I just don’t see this happening any time soon:

Korea, China and Japan have agreed to start joint research at government level on introducing an Asian single currency comparable to the euro. Finance Minister Han Duck-soo made the agreement with his Chinese counterpart Jin Renqing and Japan¿s Sadakazu Tanigaki on the sidelines of the 39th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank in India.

This is the first time governments have decided to make concrete efforts toward the launch of the Asian currency unit (ACU), which only exists as a theoretical construct. So far, calls have mostly come from the private sector.

These guys can’t even agree on who owns what worthless rocks in the middle of the ocean or who did what to who historically much less agree on sharing a common currency.  I’m fairly confident that a combination of xenophobia and nationalism will sink this idea for quite some time.

Japan is scheduling the redeployment of the SDF soldiers in Iraq:

The Defense Agency chief on Monday formally told the United States that Japan will pull its troops out of Iraq when British and Australian forces withdraw, but an air unit will remain in Kuwait for logistic support, a Japanese official said.

Director General Fukushiro Nukaga informed the U.S. during a top-level security meeting in Washington.

Britain and Australia have announced their troops will leave the Samawah area but have not said when.

The British and Australians are templating to redeploy their troops from Iraq at the end of this year which would mean that Japan will have their troops redeployed by then as well. As I had noted before plus with my personal pictures and recollections of the city Samawah, the results from the SDF deployment are mixed, but I for one appreciate their service in the effort to rebuild Iraq.

With the Japanese now templated to redeploy, will the Koreans now be tempted to do the same? You never know, those dastardly Japanese are really sneaky. In fact the real reason the 600 Japanese soldiers are being redeployed may be to add to a building invasion force to retake the Dokdo Islets. If so, Korea better hurry up and redeploy their 3,000 soldiers to reinforce the Dokdo defenses or better yet after this past week maybe the Camp Humphreys defenses.

UPDATE #3: So much for the Gwangju comparisons, the battle is over and the frontlines have been secured. Here is a tally of the final casualties:

About 1,100 protesters and farmers were evicted yesterday morning from the site of a planned U.S. Army base. In a 10-hour operation, riot police with batons, shields and water cannon overran a school where the protesters made a stand. With the area cleared, military engineers moved in to build a concertina wire-topped fence around the area. About 210 people, 117 policemen and 93 protesters, were reportedly injured in the assault. Six policemen and seven protesters were said to have been seriously hurt.
Police made more than 500 arrests.
About 13,000 riot police and 2,800 soldiers were involved.

Of course the human rights commission is on their way:

Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung said in a statement, “The actions by some activists to use the people of the area as pawns in a political battle against a national project is detrimental both to the citizens living in the area and the national interest.” Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission dispatched 13 investigators to the scene to ascertain no human rights violations occurred in the day¿s conflict.

I’m sue we will be subjected to human rights complaints for the next few days from these guys complaining about the protesters getting the crap beaten out of them while completing ignoring the fact these protesters were beating the police with their pipes and bamboo poles not to mention the fact that more police were injured in the battle than protesters.

So far it looks like the anti-US hate groups have been dealt a crushing blow as they right now appear to not be garnering any public sympathy for their cause. It appears that their violent tactics and childish ranting has worn thin with an indifferent Korean public. However, I’m sure they will be back using some other tactics, possibly complaining of “environmental damage” on the annexed land by the Defense Ministry. I can assure you that this is not over yet.

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UPDATE #2: Here is an Oh My News report with lot’s of pictures from the front lines.

Here is a picture from the school in Daechu-ri, that is a lot of riot police:

Here is a picture of the wire that is being put up around the area being annexed for the Camp Humphreys expansion. For those not in the military this is military concertina wire that is actually very effective for securing perimeters but you have to leave patrols to ensure that no one will put boards over it or digs underneath it.

The Oh My News coverage basically centered around the police beating up the protesters with pictures like these:

Before you start feeling sorry for these union pro-North Korean / anti-US thugs, remember images like the one below. Peaceful protesters don’t weild pipes and bamboo poles at the police. The police after beating the crap out of these guys should have arrested them as well.

So far it looks like the Ministry of Defense is winning this climatic battle and will just need to continue to hold the perimeter from these thugs. I will provide updates as they come out.

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UPDATE #1: The rumble is on at Camp Humphreys:

Thousands of police Thursday scuffled with hundreds of farmers, civic activists and anti-U.S. students in an area designated for expanded U.S. military facilities. There have been no immediate reports of

casualties, according to police.
The Defense Ministry sent some 3,000 troops, including 600 military engineers, and about 700 civilian security personnel and heavy equipment to build a barbed wire fence around the area. Engineers started setting up the wire fence at around 7:30 a.m.

No reports of casualties? This sounds like front line war report. Than again the Daechu-ri Elementary School might as well be a war zone:

Police armed with batons and shields were engaged in fierce fighting with stone-throwing labor activists and some residents wielding long sticks near Daechuri Elementary School, a makeshift headquarters for the remaining occupants and civic activists.

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It looks like the final showdown between the anti-US hate groups and the Korean government is about to take place to decide the fate of the Camp Humphreys expansion and the future of the US-ROK alliance:

The Defense Ministry and the police have agreed to put up barbed wire fences around the site for a planned new U.S. Forces Korea headquarters to keep protestors from occupying an elementary school and working the fields there. The government plans to mobilize a huge force of some 14,000 troops to evict the resistance on Thursday, raising fears of violent clashes with residents, activists and members of the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions camped out at the Daechu-ri Elementary School in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

What the heck does the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions have to do with a base expansion other than their hatred for anything involving the US?:

On Tuesday, when it became clear that clashes would be inevitable, the secretary-general of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions announced, ¿Workers in South and North Korea came together and resolved to stage an anti-American campaign on Labor Day¿ at Daechu-ri Elementary School, the impromptu headquarters of activists there. ¿It is the U.S. that drives this peaceful land to war and squeezes the public of its blood and sweat,¿ he said. ¿Daechu-ri in Pyeongtaek has its place in our fight against the U.S.¿

It is going to be interesting to see if the Korean government has enough nerve to actually enforce law and order in Daechu-ri and arrest the outsiders like the KFTU thugs that are continually causing problems in Korea.

A statement like this one from the new (anti)Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok definitely qualifies you to be a useful idiot (from the Korea Liberator):

¿At least since 2000 when we began providing assistance to the North, no one there has been starving to death,¿ Lee said.

¿ UniFiction Minister Lee Jong-Seok

Read the rest of the Korea Liberator report on the other fibs Lee has been caught passing.  I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this guy may actually be worse than former Unification Minister Chung Dong-young.

It was just another day in the Korean National Assembly:

Vice Assembly Speaker Kim Duk-kyu of the Uri Party chaired the session in the absence of Speaker Kim Won-ki, who was prevented from leaving his office when GNP representatives surrounded it. The vice speaker wrapped up voting in just 25 minutes guarded by Uri Party lawmakers who had barricaded themselves in the speaker¿s seat until his arrival. Unruly scenes ran the gamut from verbal abuse to physical scuffles between the adversaries.

If I was in the Korean legislator I would be really smart and hire Choi Hong-man as one of my aides:

Image from MMATKO.

The Chosun Ilbo featured an article in Foreign Policy magazine that has rankings for the sustainability of the different countries in the world:

North Korea has been ranked 14th on a list of ¿failed states¿ compiled by the U.S. global policy journal Foreign Policy together with the Fund for Peace. The two gave countries number grades in areas like government authority, legitimacy, public peace and basic public services.

In the results published Monday, Sudan topped the list for being in the middle of a civil war. It was followed by the similarly afflicted Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Iraq and Zimbabwe. Among the 148 countries, 11 in the top 20 were African nations.

Take a look at this map:

I have to wonder about the data to create this map when the US and most of Europe are not considered sustainable governments?

Despite what the anti-US hate groups say the SOFA Agreement continues to work just fine:

Five soldiers were found guilty and sentenced to prison in Uijeongbu court on Tuesday for the Christmas-night assault and robbery of a taxi driver.

Pvt. Kidrem Cortez Porter, 21, received four years in prison, minus 67 days of time served at a Seoul detention center.

Four others received sentences of three and a half years in prison: Spc. Nicholas John Durkin, 21; Pfc. John D. McCall Jr., 21; Pvt. Javon Joshua Reid, 20; and Spc. Ivey Nathaniel Westbrook, 21, who received credit for two days of time served in detention.

You are all military personnel of the U.S. Army and therefore must respect Korean law,lead judge Cho Yun-shin said through an interpreter.

Pretty stiff sentences because I have seen plenty of people do far worse and receive less punishment through the Korean courts, but I really don’t feel sorry for them. Hopefully this will send a message and end these taxi cab related incidents.

The United States economy did just fine today after the protests by illegal immigrants.  The protesters called the rallies a day without immigrants which is an absolute farce because the one’s protesting are “illegal” immigrants, not immigrants which is a big difference.  If all the legal immigrants in America didn’t go to work than that would cause problems.  Some of these legal immigrants are taking a stand against these illegals:

A group of Hispanic Americans calling themselves, “You Don’t Speak for Me,” participated in a Washington news conference Monday in support of strong border security.

Led by Ret. Army Col. Al Rodriguez, the coalition formed to dispel the impression that all Hispanic Americans support those who are trying to disrupt the nation on May 1.

“As the demands of illegal aliens and their supporters become ever more shrilled and outrageous, the silent majority of Americans are remaining silent no longer. We are proud and delighted that will give a voice to the millions of hard-working, law-abiding Hispanic Americans whose views are too often misrepresented,” said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which organized the coalition.

“These people have been telling us for a long time they hate to be treated like criminals. What they’re doing today, throughout the whole country, is behaving just like that,” Claudia Spencer, a member of You Don’t Speak for Me, told FOX News. “We feel really really offended … they are hurting everything in the United States, including us, the legal Latinos.”

I am originally from Colorado and I can tell you Hispanic-Americans there do not like the illegal immigrants because they create a negative image for the hispanic community in general plus they are taking jobs that many legal hispanics had worked because the illegals are working for cheaper wages.  So this here really didn’t come as much of a surprise to me:

A group called “Defend Colorado Now” was holding an opposition rally Monday. That group wants to deny state services to illegal immigrants. In Colorado alone, 462 bills related to immigration or immigrants were introduced in the Legislature; only about 10 percent are expected to pass.

The “Defend Colorado Now” group is mainly composed of Hispanic-Americans who are trying to protect US Workers rights in the state.  Here is a picture of the group:

I think the important thing to remember about this is that American citizens like Defend Colorado Now, who are angered by all illegals making demands that they have no right to demand should not direct their anger at the protesters.  Think about it, you can’t blame them for wanting to come to America and they now have the media and the politicians on their side so they feel the momentum shifting to where if they conduct enough protests they may be able to shift public opinion to make their amnesty demands reality.  However, the only way their demands become reality is if the spineless politicians allow it to happen.  These spineless politicians all see a possible voting block for their political interests if they give these people the amnesty they are demanding.  So that is why I say don’t blame the protesters, blame the politicians and their media accomplices that allowing these people to feel they have the right to demand amnesty.

I have been working on my wife’s legal citizenship for three years now and she entered the country as a legal immigrant.  These illegals protesting today feel that they have the right to cut in front of my wife in the citizenship line because of their strength in numbers that has the politicians running scared.

So I am sitting here watching all this nonsense on TV and the whole time I am thinking, where are the Asians?  Why aren’t they protesting?  Why aren’t Asian immigrants not included in these amnesty demands?  With the large Chinese and Korean communities in the United States you would think that the Asian community in the US would be screaming mad that the latino community is getting such special treatment in possibly receiving amnesty.  But then again the Asian community was working Monday making ends meet and contributing to the betterment of the United States unlike the hundreds of thousands who were out protesting and doing nothing.