US officials get pissed at Seoul, the Hani gets fisked (again), the Last Samurai gets fisked (!), rude McDonald’s employees, and more…
- Over at Oranckay’s blog, we have a link to this Reuters report on Pentagon officials lashing out at South Korea for some serious shenanigans during talks on moving the Yongsan Garrison. According to Reuters:
“We are disappointed and frustrated with the delays on key decisions,” said Deputy Assistant U.S. Defense Secretary Richard Lawless, a key emissary in negotiations on withdrawing U.S. forces away from the North Korean border and valuable land in Seoul.
“We recognize that if we don’t reach agreement in the next few weeks, the beginning of the entire realignment process will be delayed by at least a year,” Lawless added in an interview.
Other senior officials, who asked not to be identified, accused the South Koreans of asking the United States to keep nearly 1,000 of the 7,000 troops in the Yongsan garrison and then accusing Washington of demanding too much of the extremely valuable land to support that remaining number.
“It’s an incredible dilemma for us, because they have spun this as us using our threat to leave Yongsan as a bargaining chip to obtain what they call an outrageous piece of land,” said one official.
Note to DoD — don’t realign. Pull out. Entirely.
Also at the Oranckay’s, and strangely enough, also on the Yongsan move, we have some brutally honest talk from the Hani:
…the government should be pretending as if it does not want to give into the idea of a complete move from Yongsan, as desired by the U.S., this while wanting that kind of move the whole while, and use that to change the unequal directions of the negotiations, which leave the entire cost of relocation with us.
- In case you wanted to see that Hani editorial fisked in full, check out Mr. Rathbone’s treatment of the piece. A sample:
But you cannot be “independent” and “dependent” at the same time. Either you go for complete “independence” and ask the USFK to leave and increase spending on the Korean military, or you you foster good relations with the US. Fostering good relations does not require accepting everything Uncle Sam says, but it does require according some respect and acknowledgment of the benefits that the US presence has brought South Korea. Above all, fostering good relations mean bargaining in good faith — not playing mind games and promoting lies.
I disagree somewhat — allies play mind games with each other all the time. Still, some of the rhetoric employed by the Hani is extremely annoying, especially when you know that deep down, they don’t want USFK to go.
- The Flying Yangban has a pretty interesting take on The Last Samurai. Here’s some of it:
“Yes, but what of the beautiful traditional Japanese culture that was corrupted by Western culture and Western imperialism? Wasn’t that lost cause worth fighting for?”
As a southerner, I know all about lost causes. My ancestors fought bravely for their own set of archaic values and got the tar smacked out of them just like Saigo’s Samurai. And you know what? Both had it coming.
Read the rest on your own.
- The Big Ho gives us a much fuller blog roundup that I ever could.
- Brian seems to be having a bad run with the Korean service industry.
- VANK wants Kirk
