It’s a weird, weird world we live in when we got President Roh and Lee Myung-bak siding with one another against Chung Dong-young, in this case with extending the deployment of Korean troops in northern Iraq.
I have to say, at this point, I don’t even know why President Roh bothers. Nobody actually believes him when he says, “Of all America’s allies, Korea is the one which most closely cooperates with Washington in the economic and security sectors.” Korea’s troops do absolutely nothing in northern Iraq, save for installing toilets and providing potential targets. Countries providing much more useful services are pulling out, so it’s not like Seoul’s contribution will be missed. Just pull the troops out and be done with it.
Again, if I were more conspiratorially minded, I’d say Roh — despite his documented differenced with Chung — was “gifting” an election issue to his former Unification Minister just ahead of the elections, an issue Roh knew Chung could get a decent amount of cheap support for while Lee Myung-bak would be be forced into the unenviable position of having to a) publicly support the president, and b) back the extension of an unpopular troop deployment.
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Did he really say that????
Despite their leftist anti-US tendencies and the pandering to nationalist and leftist groups, the current government is also at the same time afraid of offending the US government, or in Korean terminology, 미국 눈치를 보고 있다.
That’s why you have Roh pulling out half of the remaining troops while making an empty gesture of support for the U.S. effort in Iraq, by keeping the remaining half until the end of next year.
Yes, this may sound weird, but Robert said it for all of us when he said “It’s a weird, weird world we live in”
At this point Korean troops are really more of a liability more than anything else. Especially if Turkey invades north Iraq or if Koreans are captured there by militants for whatever reason.
They’ve made their statement of support for the US by sending the troops, mission accomplished. Korea, thanks you can go home now.
I like the headline in the Joongang even better:
“Roh apologizes for leaving Korean soldiers in Iraq”
http://joongangdaily.joins.com.....id=2881876
And this line says it best: “According to government calculations, the troops helped Korean corporations earn $350 million worth of projects in Iraq this year.”
Perhaps if Turkey invades northern Iraq to hammer the Kurds, and if America doesn’t back up the Kurds as much as the Kurds think is needed, the Kurdish soldiers might take the Korean soldiers hostage, to press their demands for support…
When new president, Lee MyengBak, enters the Blue House, Korea will do 180-degree turn around.
Korea will send more troops to aid US Forces.
Korea will become the number one friend of the US.
baduk, I really doubt that will happen during the course of Lee MB’s presidency, if he wants to keep his popularity intact. He seems more of a pragmatist than an ideologue, as evident in his embracement of certain aspects of Roh’s policy towards North Korea.
I really enjoyed the picture in the paper (Times or Herald I can’t recall, but what’s the difference, right?) showing a member of the Zaytun Division teaching local Iraqis (Kurds, I presume) how to bake. What’s next, gayageum lessons and karaoke nights?
“When new president, Lee MyengBak, enters the Blue House, Korea will do 180-degree turn around.
Korea will send more troops to aid US Forces.
Korea will become the number one friend of the US.”
I wouldn’t count on any of the above happening. The alliance and relations in general probably won’t deteriorate to the extent or rate of speed they have over the past few years, but the good old days (if they were, in fact, all that wonderful) are a thing of the past.
Roger that. All that will happen is that the GNPers will have another chance to do what they do best: posture and blow some smoothing smoke up Uncle Sucker’s ass in an effort to get him (to forget The Great Pretender’s verbal abuse and) loosen his tightening grip on the cash bag.
I can only think of one reason why an American would want the Korean troops out of northern iraq. That is, only if they think overall troop reduction (cut and run) is in America’s best interest.
They may not be combat troops, but you don’t think hospitals and civil engineers are important? I would like to think that America’s priority should be reducing the role of Blackwater-esque entities in Iraq.
I will be an @ss and point out that sometimes you have to look past Roh Moo Hyun and look at the bigger picture.