I have to agree with Nomad that this story regarding sexual assaults in Korea is one for the all time WTF department if true.

Let the Koreans keep this trash:

A 2nd Infantry Division soldier accused of robbing and assaulting a Uijeongbu taxi driver with four other soldiers Christmas night was taken into South Korean custody Friday, South Korean and Army officials confirmed Monday.

Pvt. Kidrem Cortez Porter, 21, was transferred from confinement at Camp Humphreys to Seoul Correctional Institute pending a not-yet-scheduled trial date, officials from the Uijeongbu Prosecutor’s Office said Monday.

It is just frustrating that idiots like this guy continue to pop up it seems once every two or three months and smear the rest of the GI’s in Korea that are bothering no one and staying out of trouble.

These cops can arrest me anytime and this blogger can blog about me anytime.

I picked up the book No True Glory by Bing West last weekend and I just couldn’t put this book down and finished reading it in three days. The book documents in great detail the battle for the Iraqi city of Fallujah from when the American forces first entered the city in 2003, through the first invasion of the city in April 2004, and concluding with the 2nd invasion of Fallujah in November 2004.

Though when I was in Iraq I never went to Fallujah, the city still holds some personal feelings for me because one of my squad leaders from my first tour in Korea was killed in action serving in this city.

The book begins by explaining the challenges the 3rd ID, the 3rd ACR, and 82nd Airborne had in the initial occupation of the city followed by the US Marine Corps. Shortly after the Marine Corps arrived the 4 American security contractors were ambushed in the city, killed, burned, and hung up over the Euphrates River Bridge for Al Jazeera to show to a world wide audience.

The politicians in Washington including the President were eager for an attack to avenge the contractors deaths even though the Marines on the ground were against a full fledge assault because of the fear of collateral damage alienating the local population. Politics won out and the Marines assaulted the city even though they did not want to.

The Marines methodically assaulted the city block by block but the fighting in the city drew extensive media coverage led by Al Jazeera which greatly over inflated civilian death totals and the amount of destruction in the city. The western press would just repeat Al Jazeera’s claim since they were the only media in the city thus causing the claim of massive civilian casualties to become a fact in many people’s minds.

The Iraqi politicians eager to win favor with the Iraqi public as they lobbied for government positions condemned the attack thus protecting the same terrorists who’s sworn goal was to destroy the fledgling government they represented. English Prime Minister Tony Blair battered by sagging public opinion in the UK also pushed President Bush to end the attack and with the Abu Graib crisis ready to explode President Bush halted the attack and the terrorists proclaimed victory though the Marines were only two days from taking the city and destroying the terrorist’s sanctuary.

The Zarquawi cell Al Qaida terrorists than began to use the city to send death squads and suicide bombers to ravage the country over the coming months. Not to mention the beheading of many foreigners such as Nick Berg and the Korean business intepreter. Nothing would be done to stop the terrorists once and for all until after the US presidential election and the formation of the Iraqi government.

In November 2004 the second assault on Fallujah began because no one had any political office to lose. The Marines proceeded to secure the city quicker than anyone expected without objections from the same politicians that stopped them before. However, this invasion would cost more in US and Iraqi lives, plus the destruction was much more extensive than the damage incurred from the first invasion due to the terrorists having more time to dig in and turn many of the homes into bunker complexes rigged with booby traps.

Upon the securing of the city, torture rooms including the film studio where Nick Berg and the Korean interpreter were beheaded by Zarquawi were uncovered. Plus all the mosques and schools were used as ammunition depots and headquarters buildings for the terrorists. However, none of this was focused on by media because of the shooting of a wounded terrorist by a US Marine who thought the guy was faking his injuries. Of course little if any mention in the media of the fact that this Marine had soldiers killed in his unit by terrorists using the same tactic of faking injuries.

The Marines’ successful assault on the city removed Fallujah from the headlines and killed hundreds of these terrorists even though Zarquawi was able to escape.

Here is a passage in the book that best explains what was happening in Fallujah before the November 2004 assault that liberated the city from the jihadists. For those that have been to Iraq can tell you, the majority of these insurgents are not freedom fighters or holy warriors but common criminals:

The regiment’s intelligence officer, Maj. Bellon, had contempt for the imamas advocating Islamic fundamentalism. “Wahhabism itself ins’t the motivating force in Fallujah. The imams use the mosques to gain control over ignorant people. They preach hate, and that’s not a religion,” he said. “I keep the book on these guys. Most of them are criminals. They own the real estate, they send out thugs to shake down the truck drivers doing the run to Jordan, they fence the stolen cars and organize the kidnappings. They get a cut of every hijacked truck. They could teach Al Capone how to extort a city. They use young gullible jihadists as their pawns. Don’t think of them as clerics. Think terms of a mafia don. They stand there in a religious costume , because that is exactly what it is, and inspect the latest haul before saying afternoon prayers.”

The movie rights for this book have in fact been sold to Universal Studios so expect a movie to come out eventually based on this book. If you really want an inside look at what is happening in Iraq plus see the heroism of the soldiers and Marines in Iraq based around the battle for Fallujah that you never hear about in the mainstream, than check out this book.

This has to be absolutely horrible for those who depend on the subway to get to work:

A second day of rail strikes on Thursday saw only some 44 percent of train and subway services running, with many schoolchildren already missing class or coming late at the start of the new school year. The situation was especially bad on Seoul subway lines 1,3 and 4, where double or even triple the normal number of commuters were packed like sardines on the rare trains. Freight operations fell to just 15 percent of normal levels, leaving containers and cement piled up at the teminals.

This may explain Nomad’s drive home from hell.

Some Hynix semiconductor executives are going to learn the hard way that business practices that may be acceptable in Korea are not acceptable in the US:

The U.S. Justice Department has decided that four executives of Hynix Semiconductor will serve five to eight months in a U.S. jail for their part in the international price fixing of DRAM chips, a conspiracy it says caused losses to U.S. computer manufacturers and therefore consumers. The decision is no different from a court ruling, a deal reached because the executives pleaded guilty and agreed to jail terms offered by the Justice Department.

It is a regrettable tale. The executives may well feel they are taking the fall for corporate misconduct since they hardly acted in their own interest. There is also a feeling that it makes little sense for the Hynix executives to do hard time since the company already paid US$185 million in fines last year.

I’m not sure what to make of this passage:

It seems the U.S. is being rather presumptuous in punishing non-American executives. But multinationals cannot afford to stand up to the U.S. and give up the world’s largest market. That is the harsh reality of global business.

Is the columnist saying that the US is being the big bad bullies to poor little Korea for jailing the executives? Even though other foreign executives have been jailed before as well for breaking US laws:

Samsung Electronics, Germany’s Infineon Technologies and Japan’s Elpida Memory were also involved. They paid $300 million, $160 million and $84 million in fines. Four Infineon executives have already served four to six months in jail, and it is highly likely that seven Samsung executives who are under investigation will be indicted as well. When a vitamin cartel case was unmasked in 1999, Switzerland’s Roche and Germany’s BASF paid $500 million and $225 million in fines respectively and their executives served three to five months.

It is just like the copyright infringment that runs rampant in Korea, people here do not see price fixing as being as much of a serious issue as the US views it and expect a slap on the hand.

Maybe if the hate groups didn’t do this, the city of Incheon wouldn’t need to do this:

The statue of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur has again become the subject of controversy with civic groups criticizing the Incheon district office in charge of Freedom Park, in which it stands, for violating human rights by placing security cameras around the statue.
Last month, the office spent 30 million won ($31,055) to place two cameras in front and behind the statue in order to prevent it from being defaced.

An official said yesterday that the measures were taken after a request by police, but also to protect the facilities of Freedom Park.
Civic organizations argue that citizens visiting the park are being considered potential criminals and that too much money has been spent on the precautions.

Left-wing activists here have called General MacArthur a war criminal and tried to remove the statue, clashing with authorities and conservative groups who argue that the general played a pivotal role during the Korean War.

This is to bad to see because Damyang is actually the best place in Korea to see bamboo forests and purchase bamboo products:

Damyang is known as Korea’s “home of bamboo” but these days, shriveled yellow leaves fill its once green groves. Research conducted by the county found that 90 percent of the total 14.87 square kilometers (4,447 acres) of land in Damyang County used to cultivate bamboo includes such withered specimens.

One grove in particular, 98,329 square meters near the Yeongsan riverbank, was being considered last month for listing as a natural monument, but it too is dying. Damyang County resident Kim Jong-tae said, “The trees at the outer boundary of the forest started to dry up towards the end of last month, but now it has spread to the rest of this area.”

Experts said that snow and cold weather this winter caused the problem, as snow melted on the plants, then froze during the night.

I know somebody wants to say it, it must be global warming.

Families of sexual abuse victims are now suing the government because of the treatment sexual abuse victims have received by authorities along with the soft sentences to the perpetrators:

“I will file a suit for damage claims on behalf of eight children, who were victimized from the investigation, for 30 million won each against the government within this week,” said Lee Myung-sook, a lawyer for the families yesterday.

According to Lee, one five-year-old child was sexually harassed by a woman who lived in the same town, and the sex offender was charged with sex crimes in September 2003. But the first investigation was carried out after six months had passed. On the first day of the investigation, the child was interrogated over seven hours and even took part in a cross-examination with sex offenders.

Another victim was sexually abused by her teacher for two months when she was a fourth grader in elementary school.

Lee said, “The prosecutor who was in charge of that case argued that if the offender quit his job, he would be unlikely to make a living,” and that a court of justice only fined him five million won.

And I thought Vermont was soft on sexual abusers.

I reported before about how Japanese car makers are targeting Korea for hybrid car sales. Well this may be in response to the Japanese attempt to corner the hybrid market in Korea:

South Korea will spend 144.9 billion won (US$149.5 million) this year to introduce emergency robots and boost demand for fuel-efficient hybrid cars, the government said Tuesday.
In a meeting of government officials and business executives, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said that it will help public companies buy a total 418 hybrid-engined cars by year’s end.

The cars will have fuel economy rates more than 50 per cent greater than the Hyundai Verna sedan that can travel 12.3-kilometers on a liter of gasoline. This translates into vehicles traveling 22-kilometers for the same fuel.

The ministry said it will offer each public company 28.0 million won for each vehicle that it purchases. The cars have a price tag of 33.6 million won at present, but actually cost the manufacturer 100 million won to produce.

Basically what I’m reading from this is that the Korean government is going to subsidize and protect the Korean car market from the Japanese attempt to corner the hybrid market. If it sells more hybrids overall I’m all for it.

More fuel efficient cars will mean in the long run that there will be less money in the hands of idiot dictators such as the rulers in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela not to mention the environmental impacts that hybrids will have, especially in a city with such heavy traffic as Seoul.