Zaytun to Stay in Iraq?

The Korea Times is reporting that President Roh may actually be thinking about extending the Zaytun deployment to Iraq:

A summit between President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush in Sydney last Friday has produced expectations that South Korean troops will stay at least for one more year in Iraq.

In his talks with Bush on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, Roh said he will look for ways to help the United States as a coalition partner in Iraq, Roh’s aides said.

Roh made the remarks in response to Bush’s praise for the Korean troops’ humanitarian and reconstruction operations in the Middle Eastern country.

“I will seek ways to contribute (to the stability in Iraq) through consultations with the National Assembly as the troops’ mission expires at the end of the year under a parliamentary motion,” Roh said.  […]

The state-funded Korea Institute for Defense Analysis has already submitted a report calling for extending the troops stay in Iraq, while reducing the their size to 400, citing the alliance with the United States and economic benefits in the future. [Jung Sung-Ki, Korea Times]

Just for the record I have been against the Zaytun deployment since before the unit was ever deployed because I figured the unit would not be allowed to do much of anything meaningful which is evident by the fact they can’t even go to a local market place to buy supplies in the highly friendly and secure Kurdish region of Iraq.  They did do a good job with the toilets though.  Plus if there was a mass casualty attack or as we saw with the Taliban, a pro-longed hostage crisis, the anti-US groups, politicians, and media would waste no time capitalizing on it.  Additionally, the Korean government would expect unrealistic political benefits from the dispatch. 

I’m not the only thinking this way either; Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki has already hinted that he would prefer 2,300 Korean businessmen instead of 2,300 Zaytun soldiers.  The Kurds are literally laughing at the Zaytun "occupation force".  Plus soldiers that have served in the Zaytun unit have voiced their frustrations with the deployment, which has been echoed by the Korean media as well. 

The Korean "occupation force" has out lived it’s usefulness and the American government should allow the Zaytun unit redeploy.  The hostage crisis should have been a wake up call to the US government that the Korean participation in Iraq is not worth the potential negative side effects we saw of such a participation in Afghanistan.  Let them go home. 

More over at the Marmot’s Hole.