I always loved the looks on my students’ faces when I told them “If you do not want the US Army in Korea, tell them to go.” I could always see a kind of difficult though process going on becuase they were so indoctrinated with dogma regarding the issue. I had a class last summer that, after my prodding, realised the Americans were on the way out. A whole value system of hatred and xenophobia was in question and a new scapegoat was a difficult thing to find for them. They also realised their hatred and protests, while fun at the time, were the cause of USFK’s departure….and thier unemployment.

There also appears to have been some kind of a learning curve because the powers that be in Korea have realised that the 2002 Race Riots led directly to the departure of USFK.

One can be sure that the “negoiations” going on between Korea and the USA in Hawaii are very much a “America talks, Korean listens” kind of thing.

Korea will never be a mature nation until every single US soldier is gone. But then again, Korea will blame all its problems on departed US soldiers.

.. which might be a good reason for them to try to manipulate public opinion. Let’s say USFK refuses to give the guy up because the anti-Americans stir up a mini-2002, following your thinking.

Does OMN lose? Of course not! What a fantastic excuse to bring back the anti-SOFA bleating!

Pointless, especially when it seems a significant portion of the USFK force is leaving anyway.

Have you been there, Gerry? Hostage-taking with a military knife against a bunch of Korean passers-by? Has Seoul become a urban warfare area and a free-stabbing zone? Accidentally? How about a mindless, alcohol-powered stabbing of a weaponless (maybe also drunk) Korean, who’s interference was badly unwelcomed and unwanted. Mr. Park, stabbing victim, might have been a pompous fellow at this moment in Shincheon, but nobody deserves a cut at his throat. Didn’t the drunk GIs had hand-to-hand combat training to defend themselves against real “enemies” on a battlefield? How about the exchange of little punches and some kicks and that’s it… clean, old traditional street brawl after a night of heavy drinking.

KimcheeGI, as a professional military serviceman, commented at Oranckay’s comments section, that the group of US soldiers and one KATUSA had already violated the internal USFK rules of night curfew and off-limit areas before the unfortunate incident. And one of them jumped deliberately on a taxi cab top, before some passers-by tried to stop the drunk idiot and his friends.

A bunch of drunk soldiers act like jerks. A dozen or more Koreans see an opportunity to confront some obnoxious Americans and take it. The Americans are scared by the number of Koreans confronting them, which prompts one of them to pull a knife and grab a hostage to try to keep them at bay. The hostage is accidently cut in the process by the drunk American. The Americans run, are chased down, and are kicked and punched by two dozen angry Koreans.

The guy who pulled the knife and cut the Korean definitely needs to go to jail, but the reporters at Ohmynews also need to get a few punches to the head for trying to imply that the incident was some kind of act of revenge for the American who got his head cut off in Iraq.

Much more serious crimes than a fight that results in someone being cut happen in Korea everyday, yet are rarely mentioned in that rag of a newspaper, which, in its defence, is simply telling the anti-American, Korean public what they want to hear.

The Seoul High Court yesterday overturned the conviction by a lower court of a 49-year old taxi driver who had been charged with the rape of a 19-year old U.S. female soldier.
The man had received a 10-month prison term in the original trial after being convicted of luring the newly-arrived servicewoman from Incheon International Airport to a hotel near there where the woman said he raped her.
The woman reported the incident to U.S. military authorities, who asked for assistance from Korean prosecutors.
The appeals court ruled that the woman had shown no evidence of having refused the man’s advances, and that he used “not enough violence to constitute rape.”
The prosecution said it would take the matter to the Supreme Court. The U.S. servicewoman returned to the United States in February; the defendant’s appeal was decided without her presence.

What exactly constitutes for enough biolence in a rape anyhow? hmmm, protest anyone?

How often do you see stories of Korean citizens grabbing Korean criminals in the street and holding them until the police come? I’ve seen it happen in the US on the news, but we think those guys are nuts.

But the good citizen Koreans jumping in is common.

Taxis are also common. A citizen stepping in to stop the GI outrage then getting attacked is also common.

The knife is not.

And the knife basically kills any counter argument the GI might want to attempt unless there is something about the Koreans whipping out steel pipes or bats like in the Korean movies.

I hope those of you in Korea will give us an idea of how the average Korean is taking the story. I’m not there anymore, so I can’t tell.

I’ve seen murders that leave no question about guilt hardly make a dent, but then I’ve watched the 2000 water dumping case go so bat crazy it was truly stunning.

Usually, I think the reaction is based more on other things in the environment like the NK-SK summit or the World Cup.

Maybe the Iraq troop dispatch question Korea has been dragging out will be the fuel that the spark of this fight will ignite.

I really can’t tell…..

I’d never checked the USFK site before so went there out of curiosity. They have an English language version, with about a 4 month backlisting of press releases; the most current one is April 30 so they presumably haven’t released one in English yet on this incident. (Will they ever?) There appears to be no English language bulletin board for commenters, to parallel the one for Korean language posters.

Seems like it would be smart for them to at least acknowledge the incident immediately and say what steps US authorities are undertaking, since I imagine it’s playing like wildfire amongst the Korean media and right now the Korean posters are free to post whatever version they wish to.

I’ll also mention here (from my personal knowledge of the US Army recruiting standards in the appropriate regulation) that had this soldier had a serious criminal record in civilian life he would not have been allowed to enlist in the US Army (I presume he’s a young Army soldier). Regardless of whether’s he tried by a Korean or a US military court, if he’s found guilty he will certainly end up being dishonorably discharged from the military on top of whatever jail time he gets.