The Marmot’s Hole

As one can imagine, the killing of two Korean civilians in Iraq is causing quite a stir - as if the pending dispatch of troops to Iraq wasn’t causing enough controversy. Let’s start with official statements. President Noh, during a meeting with aids, including members of the National Security Council, condemned the attacks, saying “This incident, differing from attacks on soldiers or embassies as it was directed against civilians, was an inhumane act that cannot be tolerated.” And in case no one heard him the first time, he repeated, “[These attacks] will never be tolerated.” And on how this attack will effect his government’s decision to send troops to Iraq, Noh explained that the incident will have no affect, “The citizens can say many different things, but as a government that must act in a responsible fashion internationally, we cannot speak irresponsibly.” Damn Churchill-esque - even I have to admit it.

Meanwhile, at a press conference, Yun Young-gwan, our insanely young-looking Foreign Minister, said, “We will take this incident into account, but it will have no affect on the dispatch issue.” Does that sound somewhat contradictory to you? Meanwhile, National Security Adviser Na Jong-il (which the Chosun thankfully spells “Na,” rather than “Ra”) stated for the record, “Linking this issue with the dispatch of addition troops to Iraq is undesirable.” OK, not quite as Churchill-esque as the President, but it works for me.

The government also recommended placing travel restrictions on Korean citizens going to Iraq.

Coincidentally, according to the Chosun report, the two Korean injured in the attack were first attended to in a US military hospital near Tikrit, and are currently being moved to another US military hospital in Land Stuhl, Germany. One of the injured was shot three times in the legs, while the other was shot in the head (although the injury does not appear to be life-threatening).

According to the Korea Times, lawmakers are apparently turning against the dispatch, although other news sources suggest that this thing is falling along party lines -surprise. Anyway, according to the KT:

Although political parties remain cautious about how to respond to the killing of two Korean civilians in Iraq, an increasing number of lawmakers took a negative stance, citing the need to ensure security of its troops as a precondition for their possible dispatch.

Rep. Chang Young-dal, chairman of the National Assembly Defense Committee, emphasized the troop dispatch should be postponed in the wake of the ambush of the two South Korean contract workers.

“The incident cast doubt on whether the nation’s troops can engage in reconstruction work in Iraq in a stable environment,” Chang said during an interview Monday on the television network MBC.

He went on to say that the nation’s efforts for peace and rehabilitation will be possible only under the protection of the security forces of the United States and its allies. [Marmot's note: I assume Chang does not count South Korea among those "allies."]

Rep. Kim Young-hwan of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) stressed the need to reconsider the troop dispatch and hold a national referendum to determine the matter.

Not everyone agreed, however. Rep. Cho Woong-kyu (GNP), who headed the National Assembly’s fact-finding team sent to Iraq (?), said “We need to cautiously deal with the matter, but we should not change our original position. Changing our stance will be like turning over the fate of free nations to terrorists.” Over at the Joongang, we have GNP spokesman Rep. Park Jin saying, “As a nation that believes in democracy, we shouldn’t lose focus of the necessity [Marmot's note: best translation I could come up with - if you've got a better one for "??�?�???�??� ??�?�???�??? ?????�??�," I'm open to suggestions] to contribute to the maintenance of peace and the economic reconstruction of Iraq.” Democratic Party members, on the other hand, seemed more interested (and rightfully so, I might add) in normalizing the National Assembly - roughly translated as making GNP head Choe Byung-yul eat - in the wake of the killings. However, in a heartwarming piece of outside-the-mainstream tri-partisanship, the DP’s Kim Young-hwan, the GNP’s Seo Sang-seop, and the Uri Party’s Kim Seong-ho (of course!) gave a press conference in which they called for the entire dispatch issue to be “reexamined.” Rep Kang Un-t’ae (DP) also added, “Since public opinion is divided, we should instead wait until after the general elections next year and discuss the dispatch issue in a new Assembly.”

Now, off we go to the always entertaining citizens groups. The Hankyoreh reports that while those groups opposed to the dispatch have grown even louder in the wake of the killing, other groups point to the attack as rationale for sending in the combat troops. The Citizen’s Emergency Action to Oppose the Dispatch of Troops to Iraq (shorter in Korean, and sounds better, too), composed of about 360 different people groups including the much beloved National People’s Solidarity and the Participatory Solidarity, held a press conference in front of, strangely enough, the US Embassy in Seoul and declared the incident to be an “elaborately-planned attack aimed at the Korean government’s decision to send troops,” and demanded that “the government withdraw its decision to send troops and immediately pull out the engineering and medical corps already dispatched to Iraq.”

Meanwhile, you have the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice, the Peace Network, and Women Making Peace (yes, I visited each group’s individual homepage to get those English names) issuing statements and claiming that “In this situation, withdrawing plans to send troops in not ’submitting to terror,’ but the most practical terrorism prevention policy.” Indeed it is - just ask the Turks.

The Hani, of course, talks of the shock ordinary citizens have received as a result of the attacks. They quote office worker Pak Sang-mi (25), “This incident shows how Iraqis hate for foreigners to come to their country.” Said restaurateur Cho Dul-yeon (40), “Upon hearing this news, as a parent, I thought that we must not send our young people out to die.”

In all their kindness, the Hani gave those evil “conservative groups” supporting the dispatch a two sentence paragraph at the end. The Chosun, of course, being an integral part of the vast Right Wing Conspiracy^TM, gave them a bit more respect. Citizens United for a Better Society (the Chosun didn’t feel the need to preface the group’s name with “conservative-oriented”) issued a statement saying, “The President and government must take the importance of the US-ROK relationship into consideration, and with hard determination they must not become agitated with each incident, but continue to make policy choices with the national interest as their core,” and “In a situation where terrorism is spreading and public peace is yet insecure, the government must study plans to strengthen the security of dispatched troops and reduce victims.” Meanwhile, Park Sang-won of the Korean Veterans Association said that, “As far as the political insecurity in Iraq has been revealed, the need to create a unit that can operate independently and has no weak points in its ability to defend itself has grown even greater.”

Of course, just to show that the Chosun can be just as full of shit, if not more full of shit, than anybody, they include a “Netizen response” section at the end which includes just one pro and one anti-dispatch comment left on the Blue House’s official website. This is all fine and good, except that it ignores things like a poll taken over at Naver in which “56.6 percent of the 3,423 surveyed answered that the troop dispatch decision should be reconsidered, while only 22.7 percent responded the government should stick to its original plan.”

Lastly, the Korea Herald is reporting that the Defense Ministry is leaning toward sending in more combat troops as a result of the attack:

“It may be inevitable to reinforce combat troops,” a high-ranking defense official in Seoul said yesterday, noting that recent terrorist attacks in Iraq have increasingly targeted civilians and noncombat personnel from countries other than the United States.

The latest development is expected to affect the makeup and timetable of Korea’s deployment plan in one way or another, even though the possibility of South Korea retracting its decision to send more troops is highly unlikely, the Seoul official said.

Of the two possible options devised by the ministry in connection with the government’s dispatch of 3,000 fresh troops, the idea of sending only noncombat troops such as medical staff and engineers, may well be declared impractical, given the recent violence.

The other option - sending a mixed team of combat and noncombat troops - is now being given more consideration. Such a team could conduct independent missions, allowing the combat troops to provide heightened security and keep order with their firepower, while the noncombat troops could carry out reconstruction and humanitarian missions. According to the official, if the government went with this second option, the ministry wanted to dispatch a division of 1,200 to 1,500 infantry soldiers to be able to provide sufficient security in certain assigned areas.

But wait… it gets even better:

Yesterday’s attack, however, has triggered calls within the military and government for highly disciplined specialist combat brigades to ride out the escalating terrorist attacks by the remaining Saddam loyalists.

The ROK Special Warfare Command, which formed the backbone of Korea’s effort in the U.N.-supervised peacekeeping operations in East Timor for four years until last October, was actively engaged in a range of nonmilitary community service activities and won acclaim from local people.

“Considering the gravity of the security situation in Iraq, special warfare soldiers might account for the majority (of troops sent),” the official said on condition of anonymity.

Note to President: assuming that a) you’re going to send troops and b) you don’t want to see your boys get killed unnecessarily, I’d advice you to listen to the Defense Ministry.

PS: This is just the tip of the iceberg of what’s out there as far as the press coverage is concerned.

UPDATE: Excuse the “potty talk”, but WHAT THE FUCK! I just clicked on OhMyNews, and the headline of the lead article reads “We Were Sure of Security Guarantee from American Contract Company” Leave it to OhMyNews to blame America for this one. Haven’t read it all, and it doesn’t look like I will because I’m being forced out the door by the Marmotess (readers with the skills are encouraged to summarize it in my comments - saves me the trouble of doing it tomorrow morning), but it appears that Omu Electric Company (for which the victims worked) are trying to cover its ass for rushing their workers to Tikrit (which, let’s face it, it well known for not exactly being the safest place in Iraq) even before a formal contract was signed with the Washington Group.