USFK commander Gen. Leon J. Laporte and U.S. Pacific fleet commander Admiral Thomas Fargo did their best to put a remarkably positive spin on anti-Americanism in Korea, the current political situation in Seoul and the state of the alliance:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — USFK commander Gen. Leon J. Laporte and U.S. Pacific fleet commander Admiral Thomas Fargo attended a U.S. House Armed Forces Committee session Wednesday and took pains to calm nervous lawmakers who questioned the two about the steady increase in anti-Americanism in Korea and the impeachment of President Roh.
Rep. Kurt Weldon (Rep., Pennsylvania) asked Laporte about public opinion surveys that revealed that most South Korean citizens consider the U.S. a bigger threat than North Korea. The general replied that there are many such surveys being conducted, but if you actually talk with Korean citizens, they firmly support the U.S.-Korea alliance.
He also said Koreans want U.S. troops to remain in Korea even after some form of reconciliation has been effected with the North. He said that young Koreans, who have not experienced the horrors of war and have grown up in a time of peace and prosperity, have a different point of view from older, conservative Koreans. This is not necessarily a bad thing, he said.
Rep. Ike Skelton (Dem., Missouri) cited public opinion polls that reveal that feelings of good will toward the U.S. have fallen from 53 percent in 2002 to 46 percent last year. About this, Laporte said Korean citizens treat American military personnel with dignity and respect, the alliance under the Combines Forces Command is rock-solid, and the relationship receives much support from Korean leaders.
Read the rest on your own, or if your feeling so inclined, read the good general’s and admiral’s testimony over at the U.S. House Armed Forces Committee’s homepage — scroll down to March 31.
4 Comments
M:
between Fox News channel, MSNBC, CNBC, and CNN, I’ve got news on practically all day, and yet your blog is where I find out about this Congressional testimony. And that’s the case even for someone with my interest in this subject.
Between Clarke, events in Fallujah (& Iraq in general), Afghanistan, and the missing college girl in Madison WI, not a peep made to my eyes and ears. I guess that’s an indicator for you of stateside “interest”.
I recommend you remind your Korean friends and blog readers, though, that stateside disinterest can change at the drop of a hat, if something significant happens to our servicemen in USFK. I suspect that’s why these lawmakers appeared to be “nervous”, and if the US public ever gets seriously engaged on this it won’t be so easy for folks such as Mr. Cheong Wook-sik (blog entry next above) to do their “triangulation” routine.
But for now — no problem for the triangulators, admittedly.
Maybe I’ll be able to find a rerun of the officers’ testimony on one of the C-
Spans.
BTW I hope you’ll keep posting on the status of the land acquisition for the new base areas to the south, where the Americans are due to be relocated eventually (can’t remember the names but you blogged on the land acquisition problem a few weeks ago).
I’ll be interested to see what happens, if/when:
a) Rumsfeld keeps the pressure on to make the move on schedule;
b) the local landowners continue to resist;
c) ROK politics continue in tumult, and
d) the US election approaches and it becomes increasingly clear that Bush will be re-elected.
(Last is just my opinion, naturally, and I suppose hope springs eternal for those opposed to him. And I was sure wrong about Clinton.
If you’re a South Korean hoping for Kerry, though, I recommend a lot of time devoted to traditional Korean spiritual/prayer practices for his electoral welfare — or the Christian church of your choice).
I realize it might be a long time between developments on the new base areas, but a regular periodic update (even if there is no further news to report) would be a positive part of your contribution to more focus on this issue IMO.
I also read this story and looked up the hearings on Thomas.gov. My intent was to fisk the suspiciously rosy spin on this article for my site, http://www.onefreekorea.net. It’s too bad the Committee didn’t publish anything but the prepared statements; I would have loved to have heard the questions from the Committee members. Instead, we’ve got spin and diplospeak.
Yes, I made my first comment above before going to the dot gov web site link M provided, and finding there wasn’t any of the questioning, only the prepared report-type statement to the committee from the CINC’s.
I guess we’d have to go to the Congressional Record to get the questioning? I suppose there’s usually a delay before that’s transcribed and printed; I don’t know if it’s published on the internet but don’t see why not.
Joshua, I wouldn’t discount the prepared statements. I just skimmed the one in html format. It looks like something required by the Congress of the CINC’s annually or semi-annually. These will have a lot of info in them (i.e., details I didn’t know about ROK’s exact force commitments to the Persian Gulf/ Afghanistan/ Iraq). Also there was mention of the ROK committment to East Timor peacekeeping, for which they should get credit.
Surely you don’t think that a 4 star is going to go in front of the Congress and cry in his beer about how everything with him and our allies is all screwed up and woe is me, etc. Call it “spin” if you like, but is doom and gloom what you’d do with your boss in making a report?
The problem with the US–ROK alliance is a political one, and it’s for the Congress and the Executive Branch to deal with their ROK counterparts to resolve it. If the South Korean troops were glaring at their American counterparts and fingering their weapons, then the generals/admirals would be duty bound to report that type of thing, but we’re not there yet.
(A more realistic example might be if South Korean rioters were throwing fire bombs into US residential housing compounds and the problem was escalating to the point where the CINC’s had to withdraw American families–but again we’re far from there yet, or at least I hope so).
I agree I’d like to see what the Congress-people asked and the 4 stars answered, without the outlook filter of the presumably Korean reporter & editor at the Chosun Post link M provided. I’ll look for it in Congressional Record and on C-Span, if I can find it.
Paul, While I expect diplomatic language from general officers, there are diplomatic ways to express concern about escalating violence against Americans, and about open and widespread discrimination against them. I have posted a chronology of just the violent incidents here:
http://www.geocities.com/onefr.....ology.html
If readers, soldiers, or others can provide links to other incidents of this nature, I’d appreciate you providing a link so that I can post it. Incidents that threaten the lives or safety of our soldiers do deserve mention by the CINC.