General Bell to "Fight" Any USFK Relocation Delays

We had some hints before that USFK was not happy about the announced Camp Humphreys delay and cutting of funds by the South Korean government and finally, the USFK commander has come out fighting:

The top U.S. military commander in South Korea said Friday that he would “fight” any move to delay the much-awaited relocation of U.S. forces to a base south of Seoul.

“I am opposed to any decision to stretch this out for any reasons, whether it’s political or it’s fiscal… or whatever it is,” Gen. B.B. Bell, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) told a news conference at his office at the Yongsan Garrison in Seoul.

He stressed that the expansion of Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 70 km south of Seoul, should be completed by 2008 as scheduled.

The commander was responding to media reports that the South Korean government has decided to postpone the relocation move until as late as 2013 due to a backlash by residents and financial constraints.

All I have to say is what took so long?  I’m figuring the anger had been building up inside of General Bell since the delay was first announced and had just been itching to unload on the Korean government, but has been waiting for authorization from the Pentagon.  The Pentagon recently got their Defense Secretary transition and the Iraq troop surge plan completed and now can focus some attention on Korea.  I don’t really think the relocation will be completed by 2008 but is just using this date as a starting point for negotiations.  I am willing to bet that he would accept a 2009 relocation with a simultaneous hand over of operational control to the Korean military.Â

General Bell also wanted to focus attention on USFK living conditions:

The four-star general became emotional, saying U.S. soldiers here, who now total around 30,000, badly need new facilities to live in with their families for a “normal life.”
“We hope … that this consolidation effort corrects a wrong that we have tolerated for years, and that is lousy living conditions and lousy facilities,” he said. “I don’t want my families and my service members to live in those conditions. I want them to be normal. I am fairly emotional about this.”
He added that the deadline was fast approaching and he didn’t care if the problems were political or financial, saying “I will fight this (delay),” and urging the South Korean government to show its firm commitment to the project rather than being swayed by other conditions.

I will have to assume he is talking about the conditions in 2nd Infantry Division which living conditions have improved in recent years, but still do not meet living conditions in the states and most importantly soldiers cannot receive command sponsorship to bring their families to Korea with them.  He is probably also referring to the Hanam Apartment ghetto in Seoul where some of the few soldiers stationed at Yongsan Garrison who do receive command sponsorship, live.

If you read the actual press release General Bell brings up the living condition issue mainly because he feels strongly that soldiers shouldn’t be serving one year unaccompanied tours in Korea.  He wants this to end.  He is absolutely correct on this account. In the past sucking up one year away from your family in Korea wasn’t as bad as it is now when you have so many soldiers that have already served a year or more away from their families in Iraq or Afghanistan and are then asked to go to Korea after that.  I had an E6 who was with the 101st Airborne and deployed to Afghanistan and then came back after a year in Afghanistan and then deployed to Iraq to fight Operation Iraqi Freedom with the 101st and then came back to the states again after a year in Iraq to get orders to Korea. This E6 had a wife and three kids and came to Korea extremely demoralized because his wife wanted a divorce. He eventually ate his way out of the army by becoming overweight and out of shape so he could be chaptered so he could get back home.  He loved his family more than the Army, can you blame him? Â

Unaccompanied tours in Korea for one year are becoming increasingly unbearable for military families and many are instead picking up and moving to Korea on non-command sponsored basis which means living in a Korean ghetto apartment outside a US military base subject to the many Korean landlord predators that prey on these non-command sponsored families with illegal rental contracts, over priced rental fees, unsafe housing conditions, poor water quality, and the siphoning of electricity from the family’s home to name a few common complaints.  Plus the non-command sponsored families do not receive the same level of medical care, education, and other military services compared to command sponsored family members.  Non-command sponsored family members are truly put on the back of the bus in Korea.  General Bell wants to end this segregation between non-command and command sponsored families by getting the facilities built at Camp Humphreys that will allow all families to move to Korea similar to how all families are allowed to move to Germany.

By also building the family housing at Camp Humphreys it will not only improve quality of life for US service members, but also save the American tax payer millions of dollars due to ending agreements with Seoul landlords that rent their apartments at inflated prices to USFK at fixed rates well above their market value.  It is all part of the USFK gravy train in Korea that has been operating for years that General Bell is trying to end.

General Bell also talked about the recent US-ROK cost sharing agreement:

Bell also reiterated his complaints over a recent agreement between Seoul and Washington on sharing the expenses for maintaining U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula.

Last month, South Korea agreed to pay 725.5 billion won (US$789 million) to Washington next year and the same amount in 2008 with an adjustment for inflation, which Bell said is far short of the U.S. military’s minimum demand for 832 billion won.

He said the USFK may be forced to lay off South Korean employees at its bases and cut the number of contracts with local construction firms to offset the shortfall.

Mentioning laying off of USFK workers is a way to get the USFK labor union to begin taking action against the Korean government.  This has happened before where the union began protesting the Korean government because of prior South Korean USFK budget cuts.  However, I wish that General Bell would have mentioned the over $1 billion dollars in aid budgeted for next year to be sent to North Korea compared to the much less money budgeted for the US-ROK alliance.  This would have been a huge body blow to the Korean government because of the increased media attention to the subject that few people know about, that the South Korean government is more willing to pay more to the gangsters up North than pay for their own national defense.

Here is what General Bell had to say about the operational control hand over issue:

The commander expressed hope again that Seoul and Washington will soon fix a date for the transfer of wartime control of the South Korean military back to Seoul.

The U.S. is pushing to return control to South Korea in 2009, while South Korea wants a few more years to prepare for it.

“I am sure, as cooperative allies and through close consultations, we will be able to determine a transition date satisfactory to both sides. I hope that we can reach an agreement on that by this summer,” he said.

The Rumsfeld Pentagon was dead set on the 2009 hand over of operational control, hopefully Secretary Gates stays committed on this issue to keep the hand over to 2009.  If you read the actual full press release General Bell says himself that he believes the hand over can happen by 2009.  I highly recommend you read the whole press release, available on the USFK website.  It provides much context and better meaning of what General Bell was trying to convey than what the media reported.Â

If the Koreans continue to delay then use the words of their own President against them:

President Roh Moo-hyun on Wednesday said Korea is capable of exercising sole wartime operational control of its troops even if we get it back now. In an interview with the Yonhap news agency, the president said, The South Korean military’s capability is sufficient and it can get U.S. military support.”

So the bottom line is will this hand over happen by 2008?  General Bell was asked that by one of the reporters.  Here is his answer from the press release:

Building stuff is a function of two things. It takes money and time to put brink and mortar in place. If you mess with either one of those, it’ll take longer. What I’m looking for is a commitment to do this as expeditiously as possible. I realize there have been many complex issues surrounding the Camp Humphrey’s move. Politically, there have been protestors, some wonderful Koreans have been displaced, and I regret that. But this is an agreement between two governments. And now that we’ve made the agreement, and now that the citizens have been displaced and now that the land has been prepared or is being prepared, I think that it would serve both nations well to allocate the money necessary to do this as quickly as our construction companies can do it. I think that if we stretch it out because of money it won’t serve our purposes. So it’s not only about the physics of building with brick and mortar.

The physics do take some time but it’s also about commitment, frankly by both countries, to get this done. And if they don’t commit to an aggressive building program it will take decades. In the mean time, the quality of life for the military members and their families here will continue to degrade. Don’t forget, as I’m looking at Camp Humphreys, nobody will let me spend any money on the old facilities because they see that as a waste. So I’m caught in a soft seam here. I’m caught. I can’t fix up the old places and I can’t build the new places. That’s not fair. So I think we ought to build the new places. We’re great allies. We have a great alliance. We’re going to sit down and figure this out. We’re not going to debate this in the press. We’re going to find a way to go ahead and we will. We will sit down through the correct processes, both our Status of Forces Agreement process and our political processes where necessary, like Strategic [Security] Policy Initiative meetings, and iron this thing out and figure out where we are. I hope we will be able to do this sooner than later. I can’t offer you anything else today because I don’t have any other facts right now. All I know is what I read in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago.

General Bell is analyzing this correctly and wants money for construction to be authorized as soon as possible.  I have seen entire cities built in Korea in 2 years, a military base can be built in 2 years as well.  General Bell makes it out to be a matter of money which it really isn’t and he probably knows it.  Korea has money to make this happen which is evident by the over $1 billion dollars in aid being sent to North Korea next year.  Money is not the obstacle, it is a question of will power.  The Korean government does not want the USFK transformation to happen and I have outlined my reasons for this before.

Is General Bell being undiplomatic by openly criticizing the Korean government in a public forum like this?  For anyone that is concerned about the undiplomatic tone of General Bell’s comment I highly recommend you read the entire press release followed by reading this brilliant posting from OFK about South Korean diplomacy towards the United States and then tell me who is not being diplomatic.

In a normal country General Bell’s words may be seen as undiplomatic, however South Korea is not a normal country.  Remember this is still a country that decides liability of fender benders with fists fights and debates in the Korean parliament often turn into wrestling matches.  General Garry “Give Me My Damn Bombing Range” Trexler openly threatened the Korean government with the removal of the entire US Air Force in Korea if his air crews were not given a bombing range to replace the one they lost due to totally unreasonable and ridiculous anti-American protests.  Guess what his threats worked and within days he was given his bombing range.  General Bell hasn’t reached the point of ultimatum time yet, but after reading this press release the time may be coming closer than we think.

Finally, isn’t it some what amazing that the commander of US Force in Korea, a four star general to boot was not given any fore warning from the Korean government about the Camp Humphreys delay?  He found out about it like the rest of us by reading it in the newspaper?  Is this still an alliance?Â

You can read a whole lot more on this over at:

Marmot’s Hole

Lost Nomad

One Free Korea