By SHELTON BUMGARNER
Marmot’s Hole Guest Blogger
The weather is warm and the thoughts of Korea-oriented bloggers obviously aren’t on, well, blogging, but here are some of the highlights of our blogosphere from those who resisted the temptation to soak up some rays.
The Lost Nomad gives us his view on the latest round of the six-party talks and the DPRK’s demand that the United States withdraw its nuclear umbrella over the ROK.
Up to now, nothing the North Koreans have done shows that they can be trusted. I think the onus is on them, not the U.S., to make the 6-way talks work and I hope the U.S. doesn’t back down from the demand of complete and verifiable (key word) nuclear disarmament. A nuclear-free Korean peninsula means just that - nuclear free. It doesn’t mean that the rest of the world thinks so while clandestine research and development is going on behind closed doors and that’s where the international inspectors come into play to verify on a regular basis that the NORKs are sticking to their part of the bargain this time around.
The Wrecking Machine, written by an “above average G.I. Jane,” touches on the subject that is of growing importance as the U.S. military finds it ever more difficult to get new recruits — what if recruiters told the truth?
The Flying Yanbang writes about the August 3rd meeting of LiNK and how to get there. It’s something anyone interested in human rights in the DPRK might think of attending. One Free Korea also touches on human rights in the DPRK and how citizens of the ROK view it.
Never believe anything you desperately wish to believe.
I desperately wish to believe that South Koreans will eventually give the benefit of their compassion and outrage to the people of North Korea, even if their policy prescriptions might not necessarily match my own.
Park At Circle writes about the inability of Koreans to visit the United States without a visa.
Compare:
For an American tourist to travel to Korea, a passport and onward/return ticket is all that?????s required. A visa is not required for a tourist stay of up to 30 days. Pretty simple.
For a Korean tourist to travel to the USA, it is a complicated procedure. 27 countries qualify for the US VWP (visa waiver program), but South Korea, the 3rd largest coalition force in Iraq and America?????s seventh-largest trading partner, does not. Not so simple.
Over on Migukin, I wrote a bit about how I ended up in Korea.
And how could we end this round up without mentioning Nature Boy Ric Flair’s trip to the DPRK, that G.I. Korea Blog writes about?
Are you tired of reading BS analysis of North Korea from all the pundits out there? Well you can always count on pro-wrestlers to tell it the way it is and that is what Ric Flair does about his 1995 trip to North Korea in his new book, To Be the Man:
The second we arrived in Pyongyang, our passports were confiscated. Then each of us was assigned a “cultural attache” to follow us everywhere; these guys even sat in the dressing room while we went over our matches. In the dining room where the wrestlers ate, there was a camera in each corner, monitoring every movement. When Scott Norton called his wife and said, “This place sucks,” his phone line suddenly went dead.
4 Comments
Shelton, there’s a wayward period at the end of the address in your “August 3rd meeting” link.
just a silly comment by me about teh wrestler’s quote “these guys even sat in the dressing room while we went over our matches.” I guess “went over” meant while they choreographed their matches.
Kushibo:
Fixed.
Thank you for the headsup.
“If recruiters were honest…”
According to her entry, GI Jane first enlisted in 1987, which means that she has “re-enlisted” at least twice (probably more) since then (assuming continous active Army enlisted service…).
Her first “hitch” probably obligated her for four years, then she could “take six” as a maximum each time she “re-enlisted” after that.
She had to take positive action to affirmitively intiate such re-enlistments, to include re-taking the oath. Even senior NCO’s over 20 years who are trying to serve to 30 still have to formally “re-enlist”.
She doesn’t spell out any specifics about exactly why the soldiers she heard grousing really want to “go back and kick their recruiter’s ass”. So I would take these comments as sardonic humor along the lines of normal soldier grousing, rather than as a indicator that the Army is about to fall apart.
It’s my understanding that re-enlistment rates for Army units serving in Iraq are higher than usual. It’s the “initial entry” rates (the bringing in first- time soldiers) that have fallen off some, probably a reflection of the way the mainstream media constantly emphasizes the negative aspects of the war in Iraq.
Her complaint about the lack of teamwork (too many “new soldiers” constantly moving into more senior positions) has been true for almost all armies since the beginning of time. We don’t have career private soldiers and junior NCO’s in the US Army (nor career lieutenants and captains); the personnel assignment philosophy is known as “up or out”, which means that senior NCO’s like her have to think of themselves as “teachers” who are constantly in this mode.
When viewed in this light, complaining about too rapid “turnover” in the Army is as pointless as a grade school teacher complaining about having to start all over with a new class of students.