A South Korean Viewpoint on the Missile Crisis

Here is an excerpt from the leading South Korean daily newspaper the Chosun Ilbo that best describes why South Korea gets highly concerned when US government official start talking about bombing North Korea:

The precariousness of the security situation in Korea is expressed in an op-ed column in the Thursday issue of the Washington Post, written by William Perry and Ashton Carter, who were secretary and assistant secretary of Defense under president Clinton. "If North Korea persists in its launch preparations, the United States should immediately make clear its intention to strike and destroy the North Korean Taepodong missile before it can be launched," they said. "North Korea could respond to U.S. resolve by taking the drastic step of threatening all-out war on the Korean Peninsula. But it is unlikely to act on that threat. An invasion of South Korea would bring about the certain end of Kim Jong-il's regime within a few bloody weeks of war, as surely he knows."

Perry and Carter casually mention "a few bloody weeks of war," but that could indeed turn the Korean Peninsula into a "sea of fire." Millions of people in the two Koreas could be killed. It is unbelievable that Perry, who served as North Korea nuclear coordinator under Clinton, could make such an irresponsible remark.

Drum Roll, Please....

Just in time to respond to John Murtha's latest outrage, at long last the top 5 John Murtha Inscription Contest entries are in and listed below. To atone for the tardy announcement, all five entrants below will receive an inscribed copy of Home of the Brave.

And now, drum roll, please....

1. To John Murtha,

Semper Fidelis

Posted by SSG K at 1904Z

2. Dear Rep Murtha:

Shut up and read.

Posted by kat-missouri at 2239Z

3. Mr. Murtha,

Let these stories be a reminder of the bravery of those that defend your Freedom of Speech. You know -- the ones that fight to protect your Right to wrong.

Posted by Some Soldier's Mom at 2208Z

4. To John Murtha,

An unhung zero.

Email entry

5. Dear Mr. Murtha,

" It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.

...and it is the soldier, who braves enemy fire to defend freedom, who provides you freedom to fire upon him with political propaganda.

Posted by I. Ronnie at 1434Z

***Winners: email me your preferred mailing address and the name(s) you'd like your book made out to.

Iraq Word Power Quiz

Here's your Iraq media vocabulary quiz for the day. Ready?

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's efforts to end terrorist violence in Baghdad are best described as:

a. Bold
b. Belated
c. Effective
d. Draconian

The answer to today's quiz comes from the LA Times:

Khobar + 10

The trick question about the Korean War - one that used to be taught to all newcomers, wasn't "when did the war begin?" It was "when did the war end?" The answer, of course, was "it hasn't - we're in a lengthy ceasefire" (in which American soldiers have died). I'm not sure how many people are aware of that.

Likewise few people are aware that the US Air Force has been involved in a shooting war, quite literally, since 1991.

Another anniversary occured in that war today, June 25 1996:

No one in the 58th Fighter Squadron could go home from Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, until all rooms were clean. The contract airliner was to arrive on June 27, 1996, to fly most of the main body of 100 people home to Eglin AFB, Fla. Six of the squadron's F-15Cs would make the hop across the Atlantic, while the others were to join an Air Expeditionary Force exercise in progress.

It was Tuesday evening, June 25. For two days, personnel from the 58th had been swapping desks and packing their personal belongings, preparing to hand over duties to the incoming 27th FS. Lt. Col. Doug Cochran, the 58th FS commander, was scrubbing the bathroom in his quarters in Building 127, where most squadron members lived. Others lived in Building 131, at the north corner of the Khobar Towers complex, sharing it with a rescue squadron from Patrick AFB, Fla., and people from other units.

Brig. Gen. Terryl J. Schwalier, commander of the 4404th Wing (Provisional), was already packed, ready to leave after the change of command ceremony planned for the next day. Then came the blast. At approximately 9:50 p.m., a truck bomb exploded, throwing the force of more than 20,000 pounds of TNT against the concrete structure of Khobar. By the next day, the Air Force knew the worst. Nineteen Americans had died in the line of duty.

Within weeks of the bombing, the US would launch a "decisive" response - dubbed "Operation Desert Focus" - in which US forces "redeployed" from Dhahran and Riyadh to the remote Prince Sultan Air Base.

At approximately the same time as that "redployment", Osama bin Laden, enraged by the presence of US troops on sacred Saudi soil (there to enforce the UN "no-fly zone" in southern Iraq following Operation Desert Storm) issued a Fatwa...

Remembering the Start of the Korean War

It took 56 years, but at least now we know the South Koreans didn't start the Korean War:

The study published ahead of the 56th anniversary of the Korean War by Prof. Jung Byung-joon of Mokpo National University is titled, "The Korean War: Confrontations at the 38 parallel and the formation of the War." It concludes that the Korean War started indeed as a sudden surprise invasion of the North in accordance with a directive from Stalin. The academic says the Haeju attack had been drawn up as part of regular defensive planning in March 1950 by the Korean Army in accordance with Operation Command 38. The directive ordered a decisive offensive to the north of Haeju to disperse North Korean forces if they attacked in the direction of Seoul but was not an order for a preemptive attack on North Korea.

Saddam Delusional

via Alertnet

But Saddam clings to hope, believing the way out is to become the United States' "last resort; they'll knock on his door," the lawyer said. "The United States will use this sentence to pressure Saddam to save it from its mess."

Saddam even believes the United States might reinstall him as president of Iraq, al-Dulaimi told the Times.

Army Wives Receive Threats From Terrorists

The Telegraph is reporting that the wives of British soldiers are receiving threatening phone calls from terrorists in Iraq.

Wives and family members of soldiers fighting in Iraq have received telephone calls, believed to include death threats, from insurgents, according to military documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph.

The "nuisance" calls have been made with increasing frequency over the past few weeks after insurgents managed to obtain home numbers from soldiers' mobile telephones.

The growing number of calls has led to an investigation by the Royal Military Police, which has issued a warning to all soldiers in Iraq to take great care when using mobile telephones to call home.

Apparently, the terrorists are electronically intercepting phone numbers dialed from the cellular phones of soldiers.

The extent of the problem emerged in a restricted Army document issued to soldiers of the London Regiment, a Territorial Army unit, which has soldiers from its ranks serving in Iraq.

The document warns soldiers preparing to take part in operations that insurgents in southern Iraq have managed to obtain the home telephone numbers of soldiers by using electronic intercept devices to hack into mobile phone systems.

It is understood that the threats range from claims that a husband or son is dead or will be killed fighting in Iraq, to verbal abuse. Many of those who have received calls say that they were made by people with a poor command of English or with a Middle Eastern accent.

The military document states that there have been "many instances in the last weeks of relatives and friends of personnel serving abroad on operations getting nuisance phone calls" from Iraq.

That's one way to really tick a soldier off. Though I'm sure these phone calls are frightening, it's not wise to mess with Army wives, they're a tough lot.

West Point Has a New Cadet

His background is very interesting.

Domestic Spy Case?

Here I posted about a intelligence gathering operation, but obviously did not post about it in the approved New York Times manner. What I should have written:

A large government intelligence collecting operation involving the Defense Intelligence Agency was exposed when a American agent admitted that he had passed sensitive domestic information to government authorities. While the agent denied that he remembered all the information submitted, he did admit that "it included both 'secret'and 'top secret' data."

Once again thie Bush administration is involved in a matter in which information of vital import was passed to agencies that could use that information to the detriment of the well-being of all Americans. Congress should immediately investigate this shocking abuse of power through a clearly illegal and unauthorized program that, it can safely be assumed, was authorized at the highest government levels in callous disregard of the U.S. Constitution.

Of course, the NYT would never cover the story that way.

Especially since the government involved is People's Republic of China and the sensitive information was US military secrets.

Know what I mean?

The Dreaded PCS

I'm out for a while, as I'll be moving out of North Korean missile range to the beautiful Rocky Mountains.

Final evaluation on Tuesday, graduation on Wednesday, start driving on Thursday, operational squadron Saturday!

You know, granted this is only my second permanent change of station, I would have thought my summers spent working at a moving company would prepare me for the suck that is the military PCS. I'm oh-so-slowly learning that there's no real substitute for having to navigate the obtuse beaucracy of Air Force outbound assignments and dealing with movers who make my packed clothes smell like a fifty-cent 7-11 cigar.

Will report back sometime next week. Zoom.