Also, the girls working in the clubs are mostly Filipinas. Their jobs don’t make them stupid or somehow bad. My own relations haven’t been able to secure the best of jobs either in countries outside the US.

You really should do a little research before making your remarks.

Let’s take a common rank - an E6 with 10 years service makes 2687.10
a month base pay (http://usmilitary.about.com/od.....asepay.htm). Now, if he/she is married (or living off base), add in separate rations (food allowance) at $267.18 per month (http://www.defenselink.mil/militarypay/pay/bas/). If married, living off base and stationed at Eglin AFB, Fort Walton Beach, Florida (just as an example), add in another $1071 per month for rent (https://secureapp2.hqda.pentagon.mil/cgi-bin/bah/bahsrch.pl).
Now we’re up to $4025.28 per month, which is $48,303.36 per year.
We haven’t even added in the benefits of free medical care, college tuition, reenlistment bonuses, hazardous duty pay, cost of living allowance (COLA), family separation pay and on and on - some of the latter depend on duty location.
$48K per year - not too shabby, eh? Still not worth getting your ass shot at so that people like you can make smartass remarks while sitting behind the safety of your monitor, but it’s a long way from your $90 per week.

I did not think Mark was a male chauvnist pig or racist. I do not know him so i can’t make a judgement on him. But I can say though, he was biased that his thought process was not sound. He is not alone in that regards. There are many people who will rather hold a streotypes against someone than exercise dilligence to really know who they are. Once I read an article written by a man who had a Korean wife, who also thought he knew all about Korea and Korean because he had a Korean wife. His article was about how Korean people were so out of control on effort to become like the westerners. He used an example of Korans’ desire to own cars although they couldn’t afford it. To prove that Korean couldn’t aford the cars he quoted “my wife saw it on Korean TV that high % of people drive without car insurance”. He didn’t have the dilligence to check the stats on how many % of drivers do not have insurace, instead he quoted his wife who happen to saw it on TV. Pretty dumb. It gets dumber, when it was considered newspaper worthy.

Regaring your opinion on U.S. military, if you think that you are not cut out for it, just leave it at that. No reason for disrespect. There are many people who do it gladly. If scrubbling the decks of USS Enterprise is only skill you have in the military, probably scrubbling the toilets in McDonalds is only choice you have outside.

Be dilligent.

Also, I think it was me, not Mark who made those disparaging remarks about the intelliengence level of GIs. I didn’t mean to be too disrepectful of the armed services when I said that a lot of GIs lacked ambition, I was just trying to squeeze out some nyuk nyuks. Obviously, ALL the ROTC/officers have an incredible amount of ambition. (Heck, I saw ROTC guys jogging at 5 am in the morning at my university AND doing engineering–my school did not hand out As–and these guys were better students!) But I’m not too sure if I can really say the same is true for.. uh.. well… I will stop myself before I get a visitation from your Green Beret husband. nyuk nyuk~~

Let me give you an example of what I mean. A friend of mine, Frank, who was a hardcore Marine, age 80-ish, served in the war in the Pacific–enlisted at the tender age of 16, lied so that he could fight. He enlisted on the day of the Pearl Harbor bombing, he was all gung-ho, and wanted to “sock it to the japs.” Is he racist? No. He actually has a strange sino-fetish. He said to me, “oh, I joined the Marines, because I was young and stupid. if you are too old, then they kick you out, because you are too smart to do stupid things like go to wars.” Now, I don’t mean to be disrespectful of courageous men/women who are defending my yellow ass. Despite what Frank says, he is obviously a proud Semper Fi man, because you see all these Marines paraphernalia all over his house. His eyes get all dewey and youthful when I ask him about his military days. Of course, this story really doesn’t reflect present reality when most enlisted people are significantly older and so many hold regular jobs and only gets sent to places like Baghdad when the collective American IQ is so low as to vote for… well, I digress. But you must admit that there was time in America when the military was the only career opportunity for some people-heck even now. Now, some are ambitious officer types. And some… some just really like that 90 dollar check a week. Or scrubbing the decks of USS Enterprise. Or maybe they REALLY like their drill sargeant. I donno. I shouldn’t ask and I guess they won’t tell me. Well, actually my marine friend was pretty gung ho stars “n” stripes patriot. But my smarter gung ho marine friend was a ROTC. and you must admit… most of the military aren’t officers. And THAT is the reason why I am a cowardly civvy. I am too smart to eat stools in bootcamp and too stupid to be an officer. For bootcamp horror stories, please refer to the “stool” eating incident on Marmot archive.

Would it be a right statement if I say American men with Korean wives are pigs because I met a Korean woman kicked out of her own house because her American husband wanted to bring 18 year old pregnant girlfriend home. How about American men are very controlling because one of the Korean ladies in my English class can’t come anymore because her husband doesn’t want her to learn English, that way he will have better control over her. American men with Koeran wives are all sex addicts because I saw an American man abandoning his wife of 45 year for a younger woman. I know these are not accurate statements because I draw a conclusion based on small number of observations.

Another assumption of Mark’s sterotype was that Aemrican military men are not so bright. I noticed that way of thinking in other posting as well, but it is bunch of bull. I have noticed that there is a very large gap between civilian and military. That gap getting ever deeper since most of the new enlistee are from military families. Civilian’s lack of understanding about militay is mind boggling.

Young men are women get into military for many different reasons. Some for college money, some for sheer duty, and other reasons. I say, these are noble reasons. If they can be trained to become a submarine crews, airplane machanics, or computer technicians in a year or so period, they can’t be too dumb. If people think enlistee do not have ambitions, need to think again. My physian was enlisted before, my neighbor is a jag officer and he also was enlisted. One of my husband’s tech sergeant was recruited by Microsoft for his computer programming skill with 6 digit salary. List goes on.

This thread sidetracked a little bit but it was a worthy subject, I must say.

No more posts from me on this topic…you are all correct, and I am absolutely wrong, as usual. You can have your Dokdo.

“All things are subject to interpretation…whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.” –Friedrich Nietzsche

But, my “side” is the one that says you’re a fool.

1. Yes, she knows. In fact, most of my ideas were borrowed from her.
2. Their intentions are to improve their current socio-economic status and that of their families at all costs. Not necessarily a bad intention, albeit sometimes a very cruel intention.

Mr. Carr,

I would hold that you represent the minority of expatriates in Korea, just as Ms. Kunbae represents the minority of Korean wives of servicemembers.

Both of you should remember that 49% is still a “minority,” and I would hope that I am on the side with you, Mr. Carr and that my wife is on the side with you, Ms. Kunbae.

Thank you.