Category: Uncategorized

It is good to see that our soldiers in Ramadi are able to keep a good sense of humor while in a combat zone. (Hat Tip: Greyhawk)

Does anyone think this news will make any national headlines?:

Army recruiters hit their enlistment targets for the seventh straight month, while the active Navy, Marine, and Air Force all hit their recruiting goals, too, according to figures released Wednesday by the Pentagon.

Army recruiters signed 5,684 recruits in May, compared with their goal of 5,400, a 105 percent success rate for the month.

Seven months into fiscal 2006, the Army has now recruited 37,053 of its goal of 80,000. Recruiters will need to average more than 10,737 recruits each month between now and September. Last July, August, and September 2005, recruiters brought in well over 8,000 new soldiers each month.

The military once again has met their recruiting goals.  Does everyone remember just over a year ago when the military wasn’t making their recruiting numbers it was highly publicized as being a reflection of the War on Terror being a failure.  Now since the military continues to recruit strongly does that mean the War on Terror is now a success?

USinKorea has his latest video montage footage of the Camp Humphreys expansion riots.  Click Here to see the anti-US hate groups conduct their self proclaimed “peaceful” protests for yourselfs

Citizens in the Pyeongtaek area continue to turn against the hate groups:

The umbrella organization, comprising of 62 civic groups in Pyeongtaek, said, “Residents’ lives have been significantly disrupted because anti-American and anti-government groups have been staging illegal rallies for the last 20 months, claiming that they are fighting for the interest of residents.”
The group demanded an immediate end of the rallies and vowed, “We will not allow the rallies to happen anymore.”
Three representatives of residents of Paengsung, Daechuri and Doduri in Pyeongtaek, who had agreed to sell their lands on the relocation site for the U.S. army base, in a separate press conference yesterday said, “Outside activists are taking advantage of residents to make their anti-American protests. Without them, there would not have been such violent conflicts and the negotiations with the government over compensation would have worked better.”

I am willing to bet that the farmers of Daechu-ri who are protesting now, will end up ultimately being the big losers once this whole thing is said and done.  Once the hate groups have no more use for them, they will be kicked to the curb.

What does “legal boys of major age” and “highest quality hardwere” have in common?  Well click here to find out.

I have been contacted by a group of journalism graduate students from the University of California, who are in the midst of sending student journalists around the world to report on the lives of soldiers in the US military.  Here is the mission statement from their News21 website:

News 21 is a reporting project at UC Berkeley¿s Graduate School of Journalism, designed to generate original broadcast television and multimedia reporting on the US military abroad. The American military is in the midst of a profound shift in strategy that is reshaping the military¿s presence, and in many cases, its mission, around the world. Older, permanent bases are downsizing or being restructured; newer, smaller and more flexible bases, in places new to American troops, are being created. We are looking for ways to tell stories¿cultural, economic, political and environmental¿about the nearly half million men and women serving the security interests of the United States overseas.

They will be in Korea for the month of June and will be teamed up with two students of Oh Yeon-ho who K-bloggers may know is the founder of OhmyNews.  I know, Berkeley and OhmyNews working together would seem on the surface not to be a good thing for the US military, but this group really seems interested in getting out stories from US soldiers themselves.  So they are looking to contact soldiers and those knowledgeable about USFK affairs when they get to Korea in June.  So if anyone out there is interested  in helping out they can be contacted from their News21 website.

Korea is in the middle of an alarmingly disturbing decline in birthrate with a birthrate of 1.08 which is the lowest in the world.  Anyway here is one idea from Japan on how to stop the declining birthrate.

Here is an interesting poll from Yonhap (Hat Tip: Nomad) that shows that the general Korean public is turning against the anti-US hate groups leading the violent protests and attacks on South Korean policemen and soldiers guarding the annexed land for the Camp Humphreys expansion:

More than eight out of 10 South Koreans surveyed oppose violent protests against the expansion of Camp Humphreys, a U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek, a government survey said Thursday. Most of those surveyed also said it was not right for anti-U.S. groups to intervene in the dispute between residents of Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, and the government. The survey was conducted on about 1,000 adults across the country by poll specialist TNS Korea at the request of the Office for Government Policy Coordination last Sunday. According to the poll, 17 percent of the respondents said the expansion plan must be blocked if necessary, even if the rallies become violent, while 81.4 percent said violence should not be used to resolve the matter.

About 66 percent said it was not right for civic organizations to meddle in the matter with the excuse of helping locals defend their livelihoods. Thirty percent said the intervention is needed to effectively frustrate the Humphreys expansion project. Most people viewed the intervention as politically motivated with 58.1 percent, saying it was intended to use regional opponents to instigate anti-American feeling in South Korea. About 35 percent said they believe the organizations have pure intentions for helping the rural residents. In addition, 74.5 percent said it is too soon to demand U.S. troops withdraw from the Korean Peninsula while 22.2 percent answered in favor of such demands by anti-U.S. activists, the poll said. More than 84 percent of those polled said the U.S. troops play an important role in ensuring security on the peninsula.

These results are very interesting and a good sign that the Camp Humphreys expansion will happen. These results are even encouraging enough that I wonder if the Korean President Roh Moo-hyun might actually make a comment on this issue any time soon. It is really despicable how he has left an issue of great national importance solely on the Defense Ministry to deal with while he hides and sucks up to Kim Jong Il.

A number that the anti-US hate groups are sure not to like, is that 74.5% of people surveyed believed that it is to soon to withdraw US troops from Korea. Remember Korean polls can be very dubious, but I still find this to be an encouraging sign.

This will do nothing to stop the anti-US hate groups activities however. If anything they will become even worse because they now don’t have to worry about trying to garner public support. They haven’t come out in full hatred mode yet because they have been trying to win the battle of public opinion. They have lost that battle but not the war over the expansion project. They will now do everything possible to delay the project in order to frustrate America enough to say forget it and pull troops out instead. So expect even more violent attacks on the police and soldiers.  I also expect them to intimidate and threaten workers that begin constructing the base as well. During all of this also expect President Roh to keep his head in the sand and hide.

This is far from over.

No surprise here, the anti-US hate groups will be out in force attacking 20 year old mandatory service draftees just trying to serve their country again:

Another violent showdown looms as groups protesting against the relocation of U.S. military bases to Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province are gearing up for a massive 10,000-strong protest this weekend. According to the police, the opposition groups will stage a demonstration in memory of the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising, with which they have compared their movement, on Friday and continue their protests in Pyongtaek until Sunday. Police said the activists are looking at demonstrations in Daechu-ri, from where they have just been evicted, Dodu-ri and Pyeongtaek City.

I will be surprised if they get 10,000 people to show up. The hate groups are overplaying their hand and IMHO are slowly losing support within the greater Korean public. People are getting fed up with the violence against the riot police and soldiers:

The military has already started equipping the soldiers, who were violently attacked by protesters on May 5, with equipment to protect themselves.

Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung visited Pyeongtaek on Tuesday, partly to encourage the troops. “It would be nice if they would hold the protests in Yeouido or in front of the Government Complex in Gwanhwamun or somewhere like that,” Yoon quipped. He also promised the unpleasant conditions the troops stationed at Pyeongtaek face ¿will get better little by little.”

I am with the Defense Minister on this one. Minister Yoon has been left by himself to deal with these anti-US hate groups while all the other politicians hide. Where is Roh Moo-hyun on this? At least I know where Chung Dong-young is at; he is hiding on Dokdo. Wait a minute I almost forgot, Roh is hiding in Mongolia. Anyway I think it would be great if the riot police loaded up all these people and dumped them in front of Cheongwadae. Maybe if these rioters attacked Roh and his cronies with metal pipes and bamboo poles than they would do more to protect the riot police and soldiers just trying to serve their country in Pyeongtaek and show some leadership on an issue critical for the future of the US-ROK alliance..

Is it any wonder why the Defense Ministry wants to prosecute these rioters themselves when the civilian courts continue to let these violent hate group activists go free:

In a hearing, the Suwon District Court’s Pyeongtaek branch gave orders to set free the activists “deemed to have not participated in demonstrations actively.”
The ruling dealt yet another blow to prosecutors and police who could so far officially arrest only 10 of the hundreds of anti-U.S. activists detained following last week’s bloody protests against plans to expand a U.S. base south of Seoul.

“There is no direct evidence to suggest that they wielded bamboo sticks or damaged wire fences even though they staged illegal protests inside the fences,” Ma Seong-young, presiding judge, said.

Prosecutors will consider whether to again attempt to formally arrest those released after they study court rulings, according to prosecution officials.

As part of stern measures against anti-U.S. demonstrators, South Korea is seeking military trials for protesters who trespass on the planned site for expanded U.S. military facilities in Pyeongtaek.

Just another example of how the civilian authorities continue to let these hate groups assault and injure the mandatory service draftee riot police with no punishment.  Why doesn’t the court identify these people with the bamboo poles and metal pipes by the all the video and pictures of the riot?  It is because they don’t want to.  That is why the Defense Ministry wants to prosecute the rioters themselves.  Normally I would be against military arrests and trials of civilians, but Korea has such an ineffective civilian court system, I am willing to make an exception in this case.  Someone has to stand up and defend the rights of the policemen and so far only the Defense Ministry is willing to take the measures necessary to do that.

I still find it amazing that the Korean President or anyone high up in the ruling government hasn’t addressed what is going on in Pyeongtaek yet.  You have all these injured policemen and the ruling government says nothing to dissuade the hate groups from continuing to attack the policemen?