Possible complications to this summer

In late March, the South Korean naval destroyer Cheonan sank under mysterious circumstances, claiming 46 lives. And as an international investigation concludes, it appears that not surprisingly, a North Korean torpedo is most likely to blame.

BBC

As I prepare for what may become several more months of life in Seoul, it bears remembering that the war never ended on the Korean peninsula, and only a 57-year-old cease-fire is keeping the hostilities from resuming. Having made the border areas part of my 2008 road trip, I have seen things first-hand.

This despicable development, according to those in the know (including, according to another BBC analytic article, a North Korean lieutenant who defected south and claims to continue contacts with his former colleagues north), is a way for North Korea to respond to South Korea's cutoff of unconditional aids, and to pressures from the US and the international community to return to nuclear disarmament talks. There is also a need for North Korea to "demonstrate" that even in the midst of a power transfer from Kim Jong-il to his third son, things remain "in control." Though methinks a deadly form of provocation like this is very likely to backfire badly.

Any sign of open hostilities would easily put my meditation plans into chaos, for sure. But on the other hand, even sitting in the US will not be a guarantee of safety. The South Korean far-right and the Korean-Americans, having already successfully convinced half of America that President Obama is a Muslim extremist, do need their excuse for more despicable McCarthyist activities after all, and there is no better excuse than northern hostilities. I will be vigilant wherever I am - and I am staying away from far-right propaganda-laden Korean restaurants (that's all Korean restaurants in the US, except for Brothers in San Francisco), until further notice. (I'm also boycotting fellow McCarthyists of Vietnamese restaurants for the same reason.)

Update on President Roh

More news trickles in via BBC and other sources in the aftermath of Roh's funeral and cremation. Currently, Roh's ashes are temporarily interred at his hometown, while the family decides on a worthy permanent resting place for him. Meanwhile, over 5 million people were known to have paid their respects to Roh at official altars, including many outside South Korea, including a few hundred people in major US cities. (Of course, as Roh was completely despised among Korean-Americans, I was surprised that anyone actually paid respects stateside.)

Analysis comes in in the form of what the South Korean people will make out of Roh's legacy, and it appears that a consensus is forming. Many believed that 2MB's prosecution of Roh's corruption charges was politically motivated, and now that Roh is dead, there will be serious backlash against 2MB. (In fact, when 2MB paid respects to Roh's coffin, he got many boos.) Many prominent people are giving opinions that Roh's ideals of bringing unity to the South Korean society, and opportunity to its working class, are to be revered - even if Roh did not exactly do a good job of carrying out those ideals himself - and that 2MB's policies have served to really fracture and divide the South Korean society.

Based on my observations in Seoul, and based on what other Americans on long-term assignments in South Korea have shared with me, I am very well convinced that the 2MB presidency is all about taking South Korea several decades back, into outright oppression and outdated McCarthyism. Even stateside, I have paid for this - in the form of all the false rumors about my own current President, and in the form of Proposition 8 in California. If Roh's death finally spurs the better South Koreans to take a firmer stand to defend their democracy, restore South Korea's rule of law (and sovereignty), and ensure that their taxes are spent on themselves rather than far-right special interest groups stateside, then South Korea will end up doing a huge favor to itself and all the freedom-loving people of the world, like it did before through its democratic struggle.

Thanks to regulations which require a current South Korean resident registration to apply for memberships at South Korean websites, I am not able to join pro-democracy groups, much less contribute to them. But I do want to help out with this new phase of democratic progress in any way or capacity I can.

Of course, the fresh round of very raw belligerence from Pyongyang complicates things further. But I've read the analyses on this as well, and nothing is unpredictable. North Korea must remember that any hardline actions on its part will only serve to legitimize the 2MB rule that it detests so much, and more importantly, they go completely against its rhetoric of serving the entire Korean race. 2MB must also remember that his policies have, in turn, have legitimized the North's belligerent actions. If the Confucian model of diplomacy, long held standard in the region, is to be put into action again, South Korea must be able to take the high road as the more mature, more affluent of the two regimes, and treat North Korea as any mature older brother would treat a younger, impoverished brother throwing temper tantrums. (Read: a good mix of sticks and carrots.) And most importantly, I do hope for good decisions stateside as well; while open hostilities will certainly result in more income for the US defense contractors, the US will more than pay for it with massive loss of goodwill, and must do everything it can to broker permanent peace. A new war in Korea is certainly bad news for China and Japan as well - and definitely extremely bad news for the world economy.

Many people in the US and around the world have pointed out to South Korea as a role model to look up to when it comes to people-powered democracy. It's time for that reputation to be upheld - and to hopefully spark other democratic movements around the world, including the US. (The Obama Presidency was only just setting the stage - the people now MUST speak up and tell Obama what to do.) This is a time of crisis, but if handled correctly, the results will be more than worth it. Even for me, I'll be happy once the circumstances change to the point where the Korean-American community will have to choose between changing and becoming irrelevant.

Seoul: Brrrr...

A bitterly cold, but pretty nice day. I've had good chats with both my relatives and my fellow meditation practitioners, regarding a number of issues, mostly current events. One of the practitioners was the wife of a South Korean commander who was severely injured in Vietnam during the war, and had her children currently living in the US and France; she mightily complained that the South Korean authorities have neglected the veterans while rewarding the defense contractors, and I told her that the US is doing the exact same thing in Iraq today. Through these conversations, I continue to connect with everyday South Koreans, reaching beyond the official propaganda and ideology of the government. This is priceless.

Some people are even telling me that I should be invited over to college campuses and other places, so that I can spill the unbiased truth about the US (especially the neocons), the Korean-American community, and how South Korea's government is too busy taking orders from both to really tend the needs of everyday South Koreans. If I can enlighten even just one more person, and therefore help prevent the rotten ways of the current political establishment from surviving another generation, that alone will be worth it, they say. I always tell them that I agree, except that under the current political climate, I'll probably be reported as a Communist sympathizer, and arrested.

Today was even colder than yesterday; I don't think temperatures ever rose above 20F today. I didn't feel like making the long trip back from downtown Seoul to Seongnam immediately after my business, so I decided to head for COEX Mall which sits about halfway, just to have lunch in a warm setting. I ended up with yet another omurice! As I don't ever intend to drive to Koreatowns stateside to buy omurice again, I'll take as much omurice (and other stuff that I can easily find in Seoul, but not in Los Angeles outside Koreatown) as I can right now.

Getting to COEX Mall is possible using the subway system's Lines 5 and 7, though it's a half-mile walk over a steep, windy hill from Line 7 to get to the mall. I didn't want to do that, so I was forced to throw out my principles, and patronize Seoul Metro. Line 2 has several stops in downtown, and its Samseong Station has a direct connection to the mall, so it was the most logical choice. Besides, pretty much all possible routings from downtown to COEX Mall, short of the long walk from Line 7, involve at least some Seoul Metro anyway, and Seoul Metro gets my money no matter what; keeping myself protected from the chill was much more important than making a toothless political statement.

Some more subway notes, now that I had to take Seoul Metro again. Seoul Metro's slogan, not as official as SMRT's but still often used, is 행복을 싣고 달리는 4色열차 (four-colored trains carrying happiness). The four colors are dark blue (Line 1), green (Line 2), orange (Line 3), and blue (Line 4). Also, these four Seoul Metro lines are the only lines in the Seoul subway system that have official English-language color names. On both Seoul Metro and Korail trains, Lines 1-4 are identified in English announcements by both their number and their color, while other lines use numbers/names only (except for Jungang Line, which never uses its name, but is simply referred by "you may transfer for XXX or YYY..."). On SMRT trains, all lines use numbers/names only, no colors, and Jungang Line remains nameless as well (though on visual displays, it's simply depicted as "Korail"). Of course, SMRT and Korail lines have official colors as well, but the colors do not have official names; also, Korean announcements never use color names, as only foreigners - no Koreans - ever refer to subway lines by color.

This is a Seoul Metro public announcement, and yes, the green stripe indicates that I am on a Line 2 train. (Mercifully, this was a rare Line 2 car free of Sun Moon University ads.)

Sexual harassment remains a major issue in South Korea, where machismo, though not at Latin levels, is very real. Sex crimes often happen. The poster above asks passengers to do the following:

• If feeling uneasy over unwanted body contact, speak up immediately.
• Let those around you know, and ask for help.
• Use the emergency interphones located at the ends of each car.
• Report the crime to the 112 police hotline, and to the nearest subway police patrol team.
• Take a snapshot of any evidence you come across.

Seriously, the authorities need to take sexual harassment seriously, and go after that, instead of "adulterous" women in dead-end marriages.

Speaking of crimes in South Korea, the US State Department now advises Americans to be careful around Hongdae and Sinchon, as violent robberies targeting Americans and foreigners supposedly occur in those places. In reality, locals tell me that a far more likely scenario would involve drunken American GIs beating up a South Korean civilian and geting away with it, as South Korean penal system does not have jurisdiction over American GIs. It is very true that in US-South Korean relations, South Korea has always gotten the short end of the stick, but that's the price you pay when you would rather keep electing the likes of 2MB, who consider themselves not to be the President of a sovereign republic, but a colonial governor of the neocon movement.

It was nice to walk around COEX Mall once again, and I saw plenty of restaurants that I hadn't noticed before. There is even a Todai seafood buffet, just like back in California. I made sure to duck into a few clothing stores while at it too, if only to pick up a few extra style inspirations. Two things I newly found today were quite interesting. One was a store selling plastic and other miniature models made by Academy, a local model manufacturer; its models require assembly, and often depict military equipment, and almost every South Korean boy grows up assembling an Academy model. The other was a sizable casino, though I couldn't enter it, as I didn't carry my passport with me today. Except for a remote casino in Gangwon Province, all South Korean casinos are for foreigners only, though "foreigners" do include South Korean nationals who hold special passports issued only to emigrants. I'll be sure to check it out before I go home.

Another sightseeing destination I am considering is downtown Incheon. At the Line 1 terminus, I can expect to find a small Chinatown - the only official Chinatown in South Korea. It does maintain a website (ichinatown.or.kr), and looks promising; I'll love extending the Chinese theme of the past week. Chinatown also neighbors Freedom Park, South Korea's first Western-style park, which showcases Incheon's history as Korea's gateway to the world; its notable sights include a 100-year anniversary monument of US-Korean relations, as well as a statue of General Douglas MacArthur. A few thugs had vandalized the MacArthur statue a few years ago, and that is used by the right-wing colonial supporters as "proof" that Communists have taken over all aspects of South Korea's society. I'll explore Incheon when things thaw a bit; both Chinatown and Freedom Park are in the ward of Jung-gu, which also encompasses Incheon International Airport, several miles out in the middle of Yellow Sea.

Incheon even has a museum dedicated to Korean emigration to the rest of the world, opened in 2003, the 100th anniversary of the first official Korean migrants to Hawaii. It's a short bus ride from Chinatown, and I'll make sure to stop there too. Indeed, many early Korean migrants, including the 1903 wave to Hawaii and the 1905 wave to Mexico's Yucatan, left from Incheon. Places like Kiel, Germany maintain similar museums honoring their emigrants to the New World, and it's nice to know that South Korea now does the same.

Before I leave for Hong Kong

In less than six hours, I'll be gone from this cut-rate Republican colony. I never thought I'd feel more free in Chinese territory than in Korea, but tonight, I probably will. The next several days in Hong Kong will be absolutely great, I am sure.

Here are two photos that pertain to my last few posts, taken from a Korail subway train.

For some reason, this older poster survived the changeover to the new ones. This is from the National Intelligence Service (NIS), formerly the Korean Central Intellgence Agency (KCIA), which is South Korea's state thought police. Up until a few weeks ago, this was what I could expect to find in every subway car, from three (SMRT) to six (Seoul Metro) in each car.

Its message says "National security is national competitiveness." The lower left lists the hotlines: 111 for NIS, 113 for local police, and 1337 for the military. The lower right lists the rewards: 150 million won for spy ships, and 100 million for spies. "Spies" include those from North Korea, as well as industrial espionage from the likes of China.

In a highly publicized case, Chery Motors of China sent industrial spies to GM Daewoo, stole the engineering specs for the Matiz microcar, and ended up manufacturing an unauthorized clone named QQ. The QQ is a death trap in crashes, but is much cheaper than the real Matiz, and as a result, GM Daewoo can't sell the Matiz in China, and is at a competitive disadvantage in other Third World markets where both the Matiz and the QQ are available.

Here is the current poster, which started popping up overnight, and replaced the design above just about everywhere.

Its message says: "Please stay straight - national security awareness in the Republic of Korea." The hotlines and the rewards stay the same; however, there is an additional reward of 30 million won for reporting domestic left-wing activists.

South Korea, using its confrontation with North Korea as an excuse (a valid excuse, technically, as the war never ended with a peace treaty), maintains the National Security Law, which allows severe punishments for any and all seditious activities, including and up to death. The list of seditious activities has varied over the years, depending on the ideology of the government. In recent years, merely being left-of-center was protected under the constitutional guarantee of freedom of conscience, and in any case, nobody in South Korea has been executed since 1997. However, 2MB has vowed to put an end to all of this, use the death penalty extensively for seditious activities, and include leftist political leanings as part of that.

This is exactly the same police state that the US neocons, the colonial masters of 2MB, have always dreamed of, and almost made reality in the US.

I was very tempted to cross out the "Republic of Korea" portion and scribble "Third-rate colony of the discredited US Republican neocons" in instead. And while SMRT trains have lower ceilings, and therefore fewer places to post these thought police posters, the higher-ceiling Korail trains feature a few more of them, though neither match Seoul Metro's enthusiasm.

Travel around Seoul today: I traveled to downtown for meditation. I made sure to stay away from Seoul Metro at all costs; my routing involved Line 8 to Line 5 into downtown. After meditation, I took a bus, then Line 1, to Yongsan for a cheap Thai lunch, before taking the Korail Jungang Line to pick up Line 5 again and retrace my route back to Seongnam. Given that my farecard is scanned only at the origin and destination stations, my fare is always calculated based on the most efficient route possible between them, regardless of my actual route taken; if the "best" routing includes Seoul Metro lines, Seoul Metro will get a cut of my fare. It stinks, as many downtown routings make most sense using Seoul Metro. But I am still avoiding Seoul Metro if only to feel a bit more empowered. For the Line 1 section into Yongsan, the most logical routing would've involved getting off the bus at Seoul Station, whose subway station is Seoul Metro; I refused, and traveled another stop to Namyeong, the first Korail station south of downtown, and entered it using Korail turnstiles. A train pulled in, but it was a Seoul Metro train - actually, the very rare one made up of old extra insert cars; I refused to board it, and waited for the next Korail train, even though I only needed to go one stop, wholly on Korail tracks, and Korail would've gotten all my money anyway.

I felt much better as I returned to Seongnam, but I still don't feel line taking another lengthy ride to the airport, using the subway and staring at the thought police posters. I'll shell out a small fortune and take a deluxe bus instead; thanks to the colonial currency depreciating like there's no tomorrow, I can afford the bus ride anyway.

Other items:

• There is a bill under consideration (probably from the Republicans) which would allow taxicabs to drive on bus-only lanes. Cabbies welcome it, as they consider themselves to be part of Seoul's mass transit network. Bus operators and drivers oppose it, as Seoul has way too many cabs - even more than places like New York or London - and the cabs will jam up the bus lanes. Every Seoul bus now carries a banner expressing strong opposition to this bill.
• Throughout downtown Seoul, there are many television displays, sort of like the ones from Times Square. Most are owned and operated by Chosun Ilbo - which I now consider to be as much of a propaganda organ as North Korea's Rodong Shinmun. The City of Seoul likes to use them as well to spread city news and propaganda. They make me sick to the stomach.
• Seoul certainly saw some poorly-executed but nevertheless beneficial traffic and other improvements. I'll give 2MB, the former mayor, credit. However, he was trying to do this not to serve the citizens of Seoul, but to (1) buy crucial support for the presidential run, (2) build up his resume while at it, and (3) ensure that his hand-picked successor, current mayor Oh Se-hun, would succeed him. Oh is pretty much wrecking the entire city as I speak.
• A decal on a Bundang Line train showed strong opposition to widespread standardized testing in public schools, part of 2MB's plans which echo his master W's "No Child Left Behind"program. No Child Left Behind was a program with a great premise, as it vowed to improve schools and keep them accountable to students and parents, but instead, it ended up creating an examination hell just like the ones here in South Korea. Students are no longer learning; they are just preparing for meaningless tests. South Korea currently devotes its entire public education curriculum to such meaningless test preparations, and 2MB's plans will only worsen it.
• Another aspect of 2MB's education agenda is school choice. Standardized testing will allow parents to pick the most desirable school for their children. Sounds good, but as school choice is really a means for America's Christian extremists to send their children to propaganda schools at public taxpayer expense, it's also a means for South Koreans to kill off the public schools they don't like. In conjunction with this, the numbers and lists of all unionized teachers at each school will be made public. The connotation: schools with lots of unionized teachers will feed your children leftist propaganda - so stay away, and force them to close, and force other schools to fire their unionized teachers.
• Speaking of fears of leftist propaganda, the textbook publishers have agreed to roll over dead and cave in to the demands made by the colonials, for a more right-wing history textbook. News reports I am hearing clearly identify the Republican colonial government and the various New Right organizations as the main driving forces, though the "Ministry of National Defense" (which is more like a subdivision of the US neocon command, as it will defer to the US in wartime, and even though the US would like to relinquish command, it doesn't want it) is also strongly behind this. It looks like "New Right" doesn't just refer to the New Right Foundation, but rather the entire South Korean-style neocon movement, where it's patriotic to sell out to Japan and the US Republicans, and treasonous to be an independence fighter or a nationalist.
• Speaking of the military, South Korea's Marines, whose first major accomplishment is "quelling the Communist uprising of Jeju Island in 1948" (which wasn't all that Communist at all, in real life), is truly a subdivision of the United States Marine Corps. The slogans are merely Korean translations of the USMC ones, including "Once a Marine, always a Marine." The colors and the decals are identical as well. I know the USMC - it is certainly the most reactionary of the military branches - and the "ROK" MC can only be worse.
• The international crises - a terrorist bombing in Mumbai, and a pro-democracy uprising in Bangkok - do make major headlines. This is NOT a time for 2MB to terrorize his subjects, but rather, to respond appropriately and ensure stability and democracy to prevent future events like this. Sure, Thailand has a long tradition of modern democracy, and a streak of sovereignty that remained unbroken through the colonial era (only China and Japan can claim that elsewhere in Asia), but the military and corrupt politicians have been too vocal. Over here in South Korea, the military had two major coups in recent memory, and even though democracy has been safe for the past two decades, it's now destroyed thanks to 2MB, and the reactionary military commanders may get emboldened to again start killing the very people they are sworn to protect.
• Last, but not the least, Seoul's extensive subway system can be too much for some. I had to give directions to some fellow passengers - and Seoul isn't even my primary home anymore. (And I don't want it to ever be one again - and it looks like my next return to Seoul can wait a few months.) But it felt good to interact with the good everyday South Koreans again. I was also reminded of other overwhelmingly complex subway systems around the world - namely the New York Subway and the London Tube, both of which I know well. The major difference is that both New York and London are run by one agency (though New York used to be three separate systems), while Seoul uses two city companies to run the system, thanks to the utter ineptitude of Seoul Metro. If Seoul Metro were actually any good, it would've gone on to oversee Lines 5-8 as opposed to having to create SMRT just for those newer four lines.
  
• As I progressed back toward Seongnam, another leggings salesperson came on board - but this was a man in a business suit, with a trousers leg rolled up to reveal that he is wearing what he's selling. Same 4,000 won price. As the quality appears very good, and as it's getting bitterly cold in Seoul, I may have to grab a pair at the next opportunity.

Hong Kong, here I come.

Seoul: Assorted downtown pics

Here are a number of photos I took today, as I walked around downtown Seoul, primarily to visit the nation's main post office to look into options for sending the Happy Buddha statue to Christy Cole in Louisiana.

A bit of a time warp. This subway entrance sign looks a lot like it did in the 1980s and the 1990s. The subway symbol, a stylized S, is that of Seoul Metropolitan Subway Corporation; it changed its symbol in 2005, and shortened its name to Seoul Metro as well. The station number is simply a green 2, denoting the second stop on the Green Line (Line 2); every Seoul-area subway station has a number assigned to it, but those numbers are now all 3 to 4 digits and unique to each station, to incorporate line number information as well. Last, but not the least, the romanization is done as "Ulchiro," which follows the old McCune-Reischauer system, currently in use in the US and North Korea, but no longer in use in South Korea; the new South Korean government guidelines specify "Euljiro" and that's the spelling used in all current signs.

This entrance connects the subway station to Samsung Fire Insurance building. I had just had a Chinese lunch at Lotte Department Store, across the street. The lower levels are opened to the public and occupied by other tenants, while the upper levels are for Samsung Fire employees only. Strangely enough, United Airlines' city ticket office here in Seoul is located on the 15th floor of the building - in the Samsung employee-only area. I wanted to go in to see if I could get some temporary documentation of my Star Silver status, but decided not to.

I am now passing in front of the UN Commission on Refugees' local office, as well as South Korea's own Human Rights Commission.

Apparently, the Human Rights Commission had recently made some rulings in favor of gay rights, and some people are NOT very happy. The left banner, put up by a group claiming to represent North Korean defectors, demands the resignation of the entire commission, saying that it is too busy coddling the destructive homosexual lifestyle to really look after the real struggle in human rights in the Korean Peninsula - the plight of the North Koreans.

Behind me, there are a few more banners with extremely homophobic messages, put up by other right-wing groups in solidarity. The North Korean defectors certainly are the prime recruiting targets of the right-wing extremist groups within South Korea, the Republican Party and the neocons in the US, and the Christian extremists of both South Korea and the US.

The homophobes have the upper hand for now, as the Human Rights Commission's rulings are always nonbinding recommendations, and the homophobic 2MB government will certainly never obey them. They are even rejoicing at their successful intervention in California politics, in the form of passage of Proposition 8.

However, the vast majority of South Koreans do not share this homophobia. Regardless of religious or personal moral beliefs, they believe that equality and the pursuit of happiness are rights to never be denied, regardless of sexual orientation. And just like in the US (outside the Korean-American community, anyway), the South Koreans of my generation and younger are even more strongly in favor of gay rights. I do expect gay marriage to be legal in both the US and South Korea in about 30 years. I must remember that just a few years ago, transgender people had absolutely no rights here - but now, they have full legal recognition and the right to marry the opposite sex of their new gender, more than what some Americans can claim.

My intention to replace my BMW with a Hyundai remains unchanged. I will fight homophobes of ALL nationalities and stripes, including German ones (BMW) and Korean ones (as shown above) as well as American ones. Moreover, buying a union-labor-built Hyundai will help out even more in terms of declaring who my allies and my enemies are, both within South Korea and worldwide. In the meantime, I'll upload this photo to Facebook if I can figure out how to do the notes thing.

This fountain near the main post office marks the start of Cheonggyecheon Stream, which runs east before turning south to flow into the Han River.

Many people did laundries here and played here during the royal era. In the 20th Century, this creek turned into a shantytown, especially in the wake of the war. In a sign of progress, the increasingly polluted creek was paved over in 1959, and an elevated highway was built over it in 1976. In a further sign of progress, the paving and the elevated highway were both torn down in 2003, and the creek was cleaned up and restored in 2005.

This was a grand project that Mayor 2MB (now President) claimed credit for, but due to the crummy environment of the paved-over creek, it had to be done sooner or later anyway. Moreover, 2MB did a poor job of compensating storeowners and other tenants along the creek who had to be relocated as a result of the construction and the restoration.

I'm just outside the Gwanghwamun Post Office, the largest in South Korea. This tent is housing a hunger strike, with loudspeakers blaring out labor union fight songs. The reason for this: mail delivery accidents (lost mail, misdelivery, etc.) are rising, but the management are doing nothing to solve the problem, and blaming everything on the rank-and-file. At least that's what the protesters tell me. I need to look into this further, certainly.

South Korea and Hong Kong are issuing these joint postage stamps, according to this display at the entrance to the post office customer service area. I love the idea, as I am about to use South Korea as my springboard for my excursion into Hong Kong.

Once inside, I found a number of counters, including ones dedicated to international letters and packages. I got some rates for US-bound air packages, and even found a vendor inside doing packaging for a nominal fee. I'll surely return before my road trip, so that I can mail the Happy Buddha off to Christy.

Cheonggyecheon is now very clean. A number of fishes are swimming in the clear water, including a goldfish.

Most of the buildings lining the creek were built in the 1960s, as part of the development of the area that also involved paving over the creek and building the elevated highway.

This is the Samil (31) Building, completed in 1970. Its name commemorates the March 1st movement of 1919, which was a grassroots driven campaign calling for independence from Japanese colonial rule. Sure enough, this building has 31 stories. And it was the first true skyscraper in Seoul and all of South Korea.

A look east along the creek, showing its native plants and 1960s buildings.

A few weeks ago, I came to this creek at night for a dinner, and the lighting and the ambience here reminded me of a canal in Amsterdam's Red Light District, minus the prostitutes. I absolutely hated Amsterdam, primarily due to its inability to control the racism and homophobia of the Surinamese immigrant thugs. (And now, I am just as fed up with Los Angeles, for its inability to keep the Korean-American homophobes in check.) Nevertheless, I need to start traveling to other nations again. My upcoming trip to Hong Kong will certainly be a step in the right direction.

This is the Se-un Electronics Market, built as an elevated structure over a thoroughfare. Built in 1968, it is very typical of the mass markets of Seoul dating from the industrial era.

I emerged from the creek to finish off my walk. I am now passing in front of the US Army Corps of Engineers' Seoul office. South Korea is considered the Far East District under the USACE jurisdiction system, as a partially obscured sign at the bottom says. The last time I was here, it was three years ago, and security was very tight due to all the anti-W feelings (not to mention W's presence in Busan); today, no unusual security anywhere.

I need to discuss my family history a bit here. My father first started his compulsory military service like any other South Korean Army recruit; however, by some miracle, he was transferred to the US Army, as a liaison between the two armies. Even after the required service was over, my father remained with the US Army as a civilian employee, doing all sorts of crazy jobs. This place would've been one of many US military installations throughout South Korea where he put in his time. This is how my family built up a tie to the US government - and when the liberal-led democracy protests erupted in 1987 and fascism started crumbling, the Reagan Administration was more than happy to bring us into the US, to protect us from a possible Communist takeover of South Korea, and to hopefully turn us into grateful future Republicans. Of course, I let Reagan down severely on that count, and I am very proud of that.

Just around the corner is my birthplace, the National Medical Center. Now, it's surrounded by Cyrillic signs serving the Mongolian population in the neighborhood. If I get the special two-year visa that I am entitled to get as an immediate descendant of a Korean, I will be entitled to use the services of the National Medical Center once again, at reasonable costs. I hope I will stay healthy enough and never have to go back in there again, however!

Declaration of War

It's my 800th post, and it will be a DECLARATION OF WAR. Despite watching How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, I am NOT in a good mood.

Please read a recent post over at Silenced Majority Portal. McCain and Palin are determined to win the presidency at ANY COST, and now that even generous contributions and propaganda from the Moonies and the South Korean government are NOT helping, it's time to start threatening Obama-Biden supporters with physical violence and vandalism.

I will not let this go unanswered. It's a shame that the Moonie motherfuckers can destroy American democracy, threaten voters, and install their favorite government all they want, while a legitimate American like myself finds it difficult to even vote at all.

Obama is not the perfect candidate. Nobody is. And he will never solve the grave problems that America and the world face, in the four or eight years he will spend in the White House. But he is the best hope, nevertheless, and will get the process started. Most real Americans realize that - unlike some moronic non-Americans, namely the Moonies and 2MB, with their twisted, incorrect idea of what America ought to be.

If the Moonies keep up their crap, Obama, when inaugurated, must consider using the CIA to carry out the overthrow of 2MB. After all, the CIA has removed far less anti-American heads of state overseas for much lesser reasons. 2MB has clearly funded the ongoing death threats against Obama, and Obama has every right and obligation to respond. The South Korean conservative establishment must be taught that spreading false smear rumors about the next President of the United States does NOT count as "Confucian deference." I sincerely hope that Obama will point a nuke or two in the direction of Seoul, so that these bastards will get a clue and shut up.

From now on, it is WAR against the South Korean government, elites, and right-wingers, as well as the Korean-American community. They asked for a war, and a war they shall get.

Two Updates

First, MBC News reports that South Korea is withdrawing its troops from Iraq at the end of the year. The US has not asked for an extension, and even if it did, it won't be possible to get National Assembly approval in time. I do know that the current government would love to keep South Korean troops in Iraq forever - as long as the US keeps asking.

Second, although I will be in Busan for a bit, I will take my laptop, and see if I can log on. If I can, daily blog updates/photos will continue.

Revisionist History

As I was out and about in and around downtown Seoul, I came across another banner, courtesy of the Korean Railroad Workers' Union. It read: "Mad cow-tainted American beef threatens Korean families and farmers, and as such, the railroad workers refuse to transport it." Of course, this is a continuation of the American beef hysteria - and more importantly, the people's disapproval of Lee Myung-bak and his coddling of the US Republicans.

But that is not my biggest concern today - a bigger news item popped up on today's Joongang Ilbo (published as The Korea Daily in major US cities). As if naming 23 books as "subversive" (including designating patriotic American books as "anti-American") was not enough, South Korea's Ministry of National Defence now wants the nation's textbooks re-written, to stamp out what it calls the "leftist bias" in the public education system. (It also ties into Lee Myung-bak's plans to reveal the number of unionized teachers at each public school.) Some details of the proposed changes are as follows:

• President Park Chung-hee, who collaborated with the Japanese colonial rulers under the name Masao Takaki, and who was the nation's unitary executive from 1961 to 1979, is currently described in textbooks as "a man above the Constitution," but the Ministry of National Defence wants him described as "the visionary who masterminded the nation's industrialization."
• The inaugural President Syngman Rhee, an autocratic Korean-American who led South Korea during the war, is currently described as "a dictator who used the division and the war as excuses to consolidate his grip on power." It is generally well agreed among Koreans of all political stripes that Rhee didn't get much done during his 12 years in power. The proposed changes will describe him as "the founder of Korean democracy and a patriotic anticommunist fighter." No mentions whatsoever will be made of his war crimes.
  
• President Chun Doo-hwan, a Reagan puppet who seized power in a 1979 coup and killed hundreds of pro-democracy protesters in 1980, and ruled until 1988, will be described in much more positive terms, including his winning the rights to host the 1988 Summer Olympics, overseeing an economic boom, and being the first South Korean President to peacefully step down at the end of his term. His negative aspects, including the coup, ties to Reagan, support of the Unification Church, and eventual death sentence for his coup (later commuted by a leftist regime), will be left out altogether.
• Currently, North Korea is described as "an autocratic personality cult of Kim Il-sung, succeeded by his son Kim Jong-il." The proposed changes will change that to simply "an extraordinarily evil regime, even by communist standards."

South Korea is currently up in arms over Japan's own right-wing revisionist history books, which describe the Korean-administered island of Dokdo, or Liancourt Rocks, as the Japanese territory of Takeshima, as well as Japan's World War II-era war crimes as "liberation of the Asian peoples from Western powers," and even the Comfort Women as "voluntary sex workers." But given that South Korea wants to teach revisionist history of its own, the cries against Japanese revisionist history are starting to sound a lot more hollow - especially given that the very conservative forces that want the revisionist history taught in South Korea tend to be soft on Japan (to a point where they want to thank the Japanese colonizers for industrializing and modernizing Korea - never mind that Japan was really exploiting Korea instead).

I do believe that democratic traditions, which developed despite the decades of dictatorships, will triumph over the military in the end, here in South Korea. The children of South Korea need to learn facts, not propaganda. I strongly denounce the Lee Myung-bak government for putting its own selfish goals (including meddling in US politics) above the well-being of the South Korean people.

And in the wake of this news item, I have decided to strike the War Memorial, with its McCarthyist propaganda galore, off of my list of place to visit during my stay. I had wanted to go there to study military history, to pay homage to my 11th Century ancestor General Seo Hui (whose bust is at the memorial), and to look at some pro-peace artwork, but I cannot, in good conscience, support the South Korean military and its mentality anymore.

The Korean DMZ

As I prepare for my latest Seoul visit, I went through some photos from my previous visits. These photos, from my June 2004 trip (which had started very nicely, with a free upgrade to business class on United Airlines), stood out, as it marked my visit to the world's most heavily armed border (and North Korea itself, for a few minutes).

I had to reserve three days in advance through an authorized travel agency in Seoul, so that the United Nations command would be able to put together a list of visitors, and share it with the North Koreans. South Korean and Chinese visitors need to apply 60 days in advance for background checks. Nations that have been blacklisted by the United States (the leader of the UN command), such as Cuba and Iran, cannot send their nationals on this tour. As I reserved, I was informed of strict dress codes in effect - for example, my trademark miniskirt suits were not welcome.

This is a memorial at Imjingak Pavilion, on the shores of the Imjin River. On National Highway 1, which used to be the main road between Seoul and Pyongyang, this is as far north as most people can get without special permission. Lots of South Koreans, mostly the elderly who had left their families behind in North Korea, linger here. I felt fortunate to be able to go a bit further north than them.

Imjin River. A restored railroad bridge (on the left) leads to Dorasan Station, South Korea's last station on the Seoul-Pyongyang-Sinuiju-Beijing rail line. Dorasan Station was made famous for W's visit there in February 2002. My tour, which covered the Panmunjom Joint Security Area (JSA), didn't include Dorasan Station, and due to W's presence, I am in no hurry to go back.

Since last December, South Korean freight trains have been running into North Korea once a day, to serve a South Korean industrial park in the city of Kaesong. The industrial park is also served by a new South Korean road as well as South Korean electric power; South Korea's then-President, Roh Moo-hyun, used that road last year to drive to Pyongyang.

At Imjingak, I could also find this "Peace Stone" collection. These stones were collected from noteworthy battlefields all over the world, and put on display to wish for a peaceful unification of Korea. Barring any nasty surprises, most people believe that the Korean unification will follow the German model, with North Korea gradually opening its society up and integrating itself into South Korea. The hard part is the opening up, as the cult of Kim Jong-il is much harder to maintain in an open society.

Crossing the Imjin River, I had to go through a checkpoint, on the Civilian Limit Line. A soldier checked my passport against a list of authorized visitors for the day, before letting me through.

This United Nations-owned Hyundai Aero City bus, with US Army plates, took me into the actual demilitarized zone (DMZ). Only UN vehicles are allowed on the southern side of the DMZ.

A short drive on the UN bus brought me to Camp Bonifas, right outside the DMZ and administered by the US Army. Here are the flags of the sixteen nations that contributed troops to the United Nations command to defend South Korea during the Korean War; a further five nations sent non-combat personnel.

Ballinger Hall at Camp Bonifas, where I was briefed on what to expect at the JSA, including how to identify UN and North Korean personnel and buildings. I was warned not to gesture at the North Koreans, as they could use my gestures for propaganda purposes. Finally, I was required to sign a waiver, in English and prepared by the UN, US, and South Korean forces, stating that my safety could not be guaranteed in the unlikely case of enemy hostile action.

After the briefing, I re-boarded the bus to enter the DMZ itself, after passing through some of Camp Bonifas' facilities, such as a swimming pool and a one-hole golf course. No photos were allowed for any of these. The DMZ looked deceptively lush and peaceful, even though it was covered with thousands of land mines. The DMZ also featured a South Korean agrarian village, Daeseong-dong, with a small population exempt from income taxes and military draft. The village is best known for a 100-meter high flagpole, the highest in the free world. I also noted that inside the DMZ, speed limits were posted in miles per hour, due to the US Army administration.

I arrived at the JSA, where I was required to leave all bags on the bus for security reasons. I was led into a Military Armistice Commission (MAC) building right on the border. This frame has the flags of the US, UN, South Korea, and the other pro-South participants of the Korean War; the flags are now plastic, because when they used to be cloth, North Koreans used the American flag to wipe their shoes.

A South Korean military policeman stands guard inside the MAC building. The table in front is placed right on the border. By the way, I have crossed into the northern side of the border. This is the first time since my parents' families fled North Korea in the 1940s, that someone from either family has ever returned to North Korea.

The concrete hump is the border. I am still on the northern side, hastily covered with dirt, while the southern side is nicely covered in gravel.

Inside this MAC building, I can freely cross the border at will. But outside the building, crossing the border is an extremely bad idea, sure to cause at least a gunfight and leave a few soldiers dead. That's exactly what happened in 1983, when a Soviet tour guide, on a northern tour, defected south and asked to be taken to the US; several North Koreans and a South Korean died during the gunfight.

I returned south, entering South Korea's Freedom House and its pagoda. Here is a look back north from the pagoda. In the back is North Korea's main building here, Panmungak, very wide but very shallow. It tries to be imposing with its Stalinist architecture, a hastily added third floor, and its location at the highest point of the JSA, but it can't keep up with South Korean buildings. Note a North Korean soldier at the top of the Panmungak staircase.

In front are the MAC buildings. Blue buildings are UN-owned, while gray ones are North Korean-owned. Southern visitors, like me, may enter only blue buildings; conversely, northern visitors are allowed only in gray buildings.

A view southwest from the Freedom House pagoda. To the right is the UN bus and a portion of the Freedom House itself. Ahead is the Peace House, another South Korean building. To the left in the distance is the North Korean town of Kijongdong.

A North Korean watchtower, as seen from the Freedom House. I can't see the North Koreans, but they are in there, watching my every move.

An American soldier and a South Korean military policeman on duty at the Freedom House.

A better look at the North Korean village of Kijongdong, which has no residents at all and is maintained purely for propaganda value. The flagpole stands 160 meters tall, and is the tallest in the world.

A propaganda sign on the North Korean side. It reads: "Hail General Kim Jong-il, the Shining Sun of the 21st Century!" Never mind that Kim, like W, never had real military service.

In the foreground, a rusty sign marks the border. Lots of land mines in this landscape.

In the background to the left, another North Korean propaganda sign is visible. It reads: "Our General Is Number One!" The General, of course, is Kim Jong-il.

This marks the spot where two American soldiers, including Arthur Bonifas (the namesake of Camp Bonifas), were axed to death by North Korean soldiers, in August 1976. The two had been trimming a tree standing on this spot, as part of Operation Paul Bunyan, to improve visibility. Prior to this incident, all of the JSA was open to both sides; afterwards, each side had to stay on its side of the border. The North Koreans had reported to their posts through southern territory, using the Bridge of No Return (see next photo); no longer allowed to do so, they put up the 72-Hour Bridge further north. In the meantime, the tree in question was completely cut down.

The Bridge of No Return, site of the POW exchange after the end of the war. The bridge got its name because the former POWs were allowed to pick one side, and once the choice was made, never allowed to go back. The border runs through the middle. President Bill Clinton walked all the way up to the border. W attempted to do the same, but visiting on the heels of his "Axis of Evil" speech, was advised not to.

I returned to Camp Bonifas to buy a few souvenirs, and to sign the visitor log wishing for a peaceful unification of Korea. A South Korean group, from conservative Busan, was also visiting - and their visitor log comments emphasized less peace and more freedom in Korean unification. Afterwards, I hopped back on the civilian bus, and passed the Civilian Limit Line again to return to the civilian world. From there on, it was only 20 minutes to the suburbs of Seoul - a very disturbing thought.

The JSA is only 10 kilometers from the historical city center of Kaesong, a former capital and a city full of sights. The next time I go up to the border, I want to go all the way to Kaesong. Of course, North Korea needs to open up a little more, and pledge that the money I spend on them will be used to rebuild the economy instead of fattening its military. Bus tours from Seoul to Kaesong have been running for a few years, but are currently suspended after a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean guard in the Diamond Mountains on the east coast, and attempts at investigation have only led to finger-pointing (partly because North Korea is as fed up with South Korea's current President Lee Myung-bak as I am).

"Subversive Books"

Despite the apparent democratization of South Korea, it appears that its Ministry of Defence still runs on a Cold War mentality, and maintains a list of "subversive books" which are banned in military facilities.

There are three categories under which these books can fall. The first is books praising North Korea in some form - politically, culturally, socially, otherwise. The second is "anti-government or anti-American"; remember that the definition of "anti-Americanism" in South Korea is really that of anti-Republicanism. The third is "anti-capitalist," and an example would be a book criticizing the management policies of the Samsung neoliberal empire.

Most books are Korean, but there are two Noam Chomsky books as well.

With the advent of the Internet and the democratization of the civilian world, however, being deemed "subversive" may actually improve a book's sales figures significantly.

Wikipedia's Korean-language article on subversive books (English not available)

Nevertheless, it bears remembering that the South Korean military is dominated by a Cold War mentality infused with Confucian and Christian extremism, like the rest of the nation's conservative mindset. The military, and US Republicans, are glorified as the protectors of South Korea's sovereignty, democracy, and prosperity, never mind that US intervention in Korean War was the idea of Harry S Truman, a Democrat. The US, like the Chinese Empire before it, is an enlightened older brother nation to be revered at all costs - in particular, when the Republicans are in power, especially since the US was responsible for starting South Korea's Protestant revolution. (A corollary: buy F-15's for the Air Force, instead of buying a European fighter more suitable for South Korean conditions. Or buy the outdated Ford Taurus for the highway patrol, instead of better cars made by companies in Korea and elsewhere.) Any deviance from this program is a hallmark of Communist leanings. This is the same prevalent mentality in the Korean-American community, as well as the Unification Church, which is busy corrupting US politics.

I'll be as outspoken as ever in Seoul, in opposition to the rampant McCarthyism among South Korea's conservatives and Christians, well personified in the landslide victory of President Lee Myung-Bak and the Grand Nationals. After all, the future of US democracy may depend on keeping them in check. I will gladly follow the footsteps of Medea Benjamin and Cindy Sheehan, fellow Americans who have protested against the South Korean brand of conservatism.

On unrelated notes, my 90-day multiple entry visa is approved, and should be ready anytime now. Also, I tracked down a copy of Korea Fantasia (mentioned in the last post) at YesAsia.com, and placed an order; it should be in my hands in time for my flight to Seoul.

A quick-and-dirty guide to fascist victory

As appeared in a TruthOut editorial by Rob Kall:

Italics are my emphasis. Brackets are my comments.

Tips to fascists, dictators, corporatists, militarists, imperialists, neocons, right-wingers, theocrats, theofascists and terrorists.

1. Kill the strongest opposition candidate and then pretend that elections should go on as normal, without allowing the opposition party to reorganize. Examples:
• Benazir Bhutto: strategy - hamstring security abilities to the extent that the candidate actually writes a letter accusing the government leadership of intentional sabotage of security.
• Paul Wellstone: rush through a replacement candidate and politicize the funeral. Get the mainstream media "partners" to portray the funeral as despicably political to eliminate sympathy for the new candidate. (Expect something like this with the candidate who replaces Bhutto.
2. Steal elections using e-voting with nonpublic software code, no paper ballot records, purges from lists of eligible voters, phone-bank jamming and fraudulent registration drives, where you throw away the registrations of opposition party registrants. Multiple examples in US - Florida and Ohio, particularly. Essential: this only works with weak, cowardly candidates who fail to aggressively work to prevent these actions and then fail to challenge questionable outcomes. This has been relatively easy, since even when candidates do get tough in response to rigged elections, there are plenty of weak, compromised legislators who will enable the election theft. Clint Curtis's campaign is a good example. The Dems in Congress allowed the theft.
3. Erode constitutional rights. Violate laws and treaties. Make excuses that there are imminent threats to national security, or that the treaties will hurt the nation's economy. Take the most horrific of these and get the media to boost hysteria and fear, then get the most fascist members of the legislature to push through laws retroactively making violations of the law legal. The majority of sold-out legislators will work with your lobbyists, avoid your media mockery and pass the legislation or approve appointees who allow or refuse to not condemn the assaults upon the Constitution and international law. Example - Mukasey approval, FISA approval, continuation of Iraq war (started on lies). [And make new laws and treaties, such as the new free trade agreements, without the knowledge and consent of American people. Thank you, Samsung.]
   
4. Gradually destroy the economy. Engage in "Shock Doctrine" disaster capitalism, so the nation's citizens are more worried about survival than maintaining democracy. Naomi Klein has documented how fascist neocon Milton Friedman economists have used this tried and true approach to destruction of democracy in dozen of nations - usually with the help of the USA's CIA. See Naomi Klein's book, "Shock Doctrine," for detailed examples. [This works so well.]
   
5. Corporatize the nation. Maximize laws that give corporations human rights as persons. Allow corporations to pollute the election process, so their money is the primary factor in deterring the ability of candidates to reach voters, as is the law and policy in the US. Have legislators you own create bogus, chimera laws that look like and call themselves election reform, that are really so full of loopholes that they actually improve the power of corporations while taking away the power of citizens. See US policy for excellent examples.
6. Deregulate the media so a handful of corporate owners control most of the message. Then filter the news so viewers/readers/listeners are turned off to paying attention. Do this by using the same footage over and over again, and numb the viewers' minds with focus on coverage of morally impaired and stupid celebrities, tabloid news such as weird surgeries, kidnappings, horrific mass murders, strange diseases, detachment of Siamese twins.... And when you do cover real news, mock the most serious defenders of democracy. Attempt to embarrass them, to get viewers and readers to think of them as fools and kooks. Especially, use this mockery approach to sabotage and attack any candidates not "with the program" who are surging in polls.
7. Infiltrate alternative media. Hijack comment threads with negative, cynical remarks, or distract commenters from staying on focus. Provoke incivility among regular readers of pro-democracy media.
8. Widen class differences. Keep as many people as possible hungry, without health care, worried about where they will get the money to pay for housing, clothing, education, food and medicine. [Sell the jobs to the lowest foreign bidder - it's great, because domestic labor unions have no counter.]
   
9. Take advantage of natural disasters to weaken democratic factors. Allow floods, hurricanes and fires to "cleanse" unwanted voters in selected regions. Replace them with high-end real estate and corporate assets. Use the disasters as opportunities to spend taxpayer money to reward political allies.
10. Pretend that everything you do is the patriotic support of Democracy, even if it is directly opposed to democracy. Attack the pro-democracy party and organizations as being communist, socialist, fringe, kook, even dangerous to democracy. Depend upon anti-democracy mainstream media allies to help pound this message so the fools produced by the dumbed-down, "most children left behind" educational system buy these messages. Use talk radio to nail this down. See US education laws and policies for examples. This is already working quite effectively in the US as low international scores indicate.
11. Allow candidates to run repeatedly, without term limits. Eventually, candidates who do not toe the anti-democracy line in all parties will burn out or run out of funding. That will leave, even in the supposed liberal parties, reliable legislators who will keep the anti-democracy program going. Eventually, they will get themselves into key leadership positions, either at the top of the party or just below the top. Consider Chuck Schumer, Stenny Hoyer and Rahm Emanuel as excellent examples. [Or until recently, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.]
    
12. Build fear into the culture. Say you are fighting terrorism, but engage in international policies that foment and encourage terrorism, helping terrorists to massively expand recruitment and even training of operatives. See Iraq for Islamic terrorists. See the US for anti-abortion Christian terrorists. [Think South Korea and Taiwan of the Cold War era as well.]

I would also love to add #13 in the form of "bring as many immigrants who support your anti-democratic agenda as you can, and keep out/deport as many immigrants who oppose it as possible." That will explain the special treatment doled out to the Cuban and Korean communities, and the human rights violations occurring against members of Mexican, Chinese, and most other communities.

Any questions?

TruthOut

A Moral Case for War?

I've meant to write this post for the past week, but I've been extremely busy with a project, and was unable to spare any time - beyond the few seconds needed for "I'm tired and exhausted" status update on Facebook.

A frequent visitor to this blog, who identifies as a liberal Republican, recently left a comment, saying that while he also desires peace, the conduct of certain dictators - such as Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - toward their people cannot be forgiven, and a war is needed to liberate their subjects. I promised a reply in the form of a post (as opposed to another comment), and here it is.

Very few people doubt the pain and suffering caused by Saddam and Ahmadinejad. But first, it bears remembering that Saddam once was a key US ally in the region, keeping the Iranians in check (after Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew a pro-US regime in 1979). Saddam got a lot of help from the US during his war against Iran, and bought lots of American weaponry - the very weaponry that was turned against American troops during the 1991 Gulf War. Saddam's hideous conduct was well-known to the US government well beforehand, and the US should have never helped him in the first place. The same holds for Iran - blatant intervention in the Iranian internal politics by the US in 1953 planted the seeds of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Even Afghanistan isn't much different - the Taliban were US-backed resistance fighters against the Soviet occupation.

In fact, the US has not only failed to act against some of the most hideous dictators around the world, it's actually helped many of them for strategic reasons. The House of Saud in Saudi Arabia, notorious for its primitive moral laws and human rights violations (not to mention breeding terrorists), is a valuable US ally. Outside the Middle East, Latin America has seen dictators such as Chile's Pinochet, whose disastrous privatization of government pension plans now is a template for the US neocons' own plans to privatize Social Security (not to mention the disappearance of many political dissidents). In Asia, there were South Korea, the Philippines, and South Vietnam (and arguably the Chinese Nationalist government in Taiwan); South Korea's Park is now the US template for the Unitary Executive Theory. While the Cold War standoff with the USSR made many of these alliances a necessity, many of these US allies were as horrible in their human rights records as the Soviet Bloc nations.

Even outside the US sphere of influence, human rights violations continue to happen, notably in Darfur, Sudan and northern Nigeria.

If the US is to play the moral enforcer, not only does it need to have invaded ALL of these nations, but its human rights record needs to be exemplary, which is simply not the case. Racial injustices were fact of life just half a century ago (even as many of these foreign interventions were happening), and even today, American women and LGBTs enjoy far fewer rights than their European and Canadian counterparts. The increasing gap between the rich and the poor, and the resulting deplorable living standards for many Americans, also take away from American moral authority. And more importantly, the US simply doesn't have the resources to invade all these nations - and these resources are better used fixing the problems at home, like an improved healthcare system.

The only thing that makes Iraq and Iran higher-priority targets for war is... PETROLEUM. The oil companies have been the biggest beneficiaries of the war, thanks to ever-rising oil prices and the bigger profits. Meanwhile, someone else is getting rich as well, as the Iraqi oil revenues are disappearing into the hands of shady contractors. Defense contractors, and mercenary firms such as Blackwater, are making a killing, even as American troops, many of whom had signed up for scholarships and other perks, find themselves either traumatized or dead (or at least demoralized). These wars are not being fought for national security, they are being fought to make money at the expense of lives. And American policies in Iraq, such as Blackwater getting away with killing Iraqi civilians at will, serve not to make the region safer, but create more enemies of the US and make the job harder for the troops.

Yes, dictators need to be overthrown. But it bears remembering that war is costly, both in human and economic terms. The best war victories are won without ever firing a shot. Diplomacy and a sound foreign policy do much better in terms of making America - and the world - safer and more democratic.

As for Republicans being more inclined than Democrats to start a war to liberate someone or protect freedoms: don't count on it. Contrary to what you may hear in Koreatown and Little Saigon, American military involvement to protect South Korea and South Vietnam were launched by Democratic administrations. Even as recently as the Clinton era, American peacekeepers were being deployed to Somalia and Kosovo, the latter in consultation with UN, NATO, and other international framework.

This pretty much is my rebuttal to that thought provoking comment.

US Military - becoming Crusaders

The Muslim world has known this already for ages, that the US military's ultimate goal in the Middle East is to impose Christianity on behalf of the evangelical nutjobs that have taken over the US government.

And the following TruthOut article is the proof. An atheist soldier stationed in Iraq is suing the DoD for retaliating against him, when he refused to join coercive Christian activities for Thanksgiving.

As much as I want to support the troops, it's very difficult to do so, when they are busy forcibly spreading a religion, one that I strongly disagree with, and one that I see as being so weak that it must pound itself as being "the only truth" all the time.

TruthOut

Odds and Ends

Good news today - the torture czar, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, is gone. Even then, Gonzales is being spun as an immigrant success story, which disgusts me greatly.

On the subject of reactionary immigrant Republican whores, W recently compared the Iraq War to the Korean and Vietnam Wars, calling it a struggle for freedom of a nation. Empty rhetorics can only say so much - W has destroyed many cherished American freedoms, and it bears remembering that South Korea AND South Vietnam were dictatorships that happened to be fighting commies, not democracies in their own right. South Korea's democratization, in fact, happened despite American prop-up of its fascist dictators (and massive admittance of the fascist supporters into the US when the fascism finally crumbled).

Besides, W never believed in nation-building, accusing the Clinton administration of overextending American troops in Somalia and the Balkans; nation-building became his interest only after 9/11, a convenient excuse to be linked to his former buddy Saddam Hussein. Moreover, he turned from a small-government president to the leader of the largest expansion of US government in history.

Disgust is an understatement.

CIA jails "confirmed" in Poland

The CIA, which the Black Eyed Peas describe as one of the "terrorists livin' here in the USA," has been rumored to be running secret torture prisons in certain European countries, in violation of US and international laws.

The newest news articles say that a Swiss senator by the name of Dick Marty has proof of those activities, in Poland, including documented landings of a well-known CIA-registered jet at Szymany.

Poland is not only a major human rights abuser in its own right, but a collaborator of the Nazi, the Soviet, and the W regimes. It was also home to Pope John Paul II, who yanked the Roman Catholic Church hard to the right, and reduced it to the US Department of Faith. And W is handsomely rewarding this rogue state, with participation in the US missile shield program, and with Rummy's rhetoric of a "New Europe." I'm also pretty well convinced that the Poles are enjoying special perks in US immigration laws, much like the Cubans since 1959, the Vietnamese in the 1970s, the Nicaraguans and the Koreans in the 1980s, and the Ukrainians and Venezuelans today.

This is one European country I am in no hurry to visit.

BBC

Cindy Sheehan leaves the Democratic Party

After the Democrats passed the new Iraq War funding bill without deadlines, Cindy Sheehan felt so betrayed that she has chosen to leave the party, and resign from the Democrat-led peace activism.

Information Clearinghouse

When I was meeting with activist Marianne Wood in Chicago last weekend, we saw the Democrats' passage of the bill, which did require W to submit progress reports, as an incremental step toward something bigger and more substantial, later on. While I still feel that way, the truth does remain that some Democrats are beholden to the war machine, and are completely gutless.

I will keep watching. The media conglomerates must be overthrown, and the people need to reward good politicians and punish those who don't represent them, in order for American democracy to work again, regardless of political party affiliation.

Democrats chicken out again

The Democrats have decided, once again, to cave in to W's tactics, and withdraw any hint of a deadline on the Iraq bill.

This is despite strong support in favor of withdrawal deadlines from the people of the US and Iraq.

Maybe the Dems smell just as much money in this war as the Republicans. This is NOT what the people asked for, when they voted the Republicans out of Congress last November.

As this disgrace progresses, I will make sure my Democratic Senators will hear on this issue. My Republican Congressman, with no viable opposition, is a lost cause.

BBC

Another surge to Iraq

It looks like there will be a surge of another 12,000 National Guards, to support the announced surge of 21,000 troops to Iraq.

Iraq is a sinkhole that is consuming US resources, to a point where the US itself is becoming vulnerable - to another natural disaster or foreign attack. And for all of this to have been based on lies is even more obscene.

Americans must be pulled out of Iraq as soon as possible, and re-deployed to places where they can truly do their job of defending American well-being and interests. But then, as long as Big Oil controls the US government, I don't expect much improvement...

MSNBC

Disrupting Nancy Pelosi

Jodie Evans and Gayle Brandeis of CodePink

Back to my work PC for now.

Last weekend, CodePink disrupted speeches by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congresswoman Hilda Solis here in Southern California, in order to pressure them to cut funding for W's disastrous war plans. The two who were at the front line were co-founder Jodie Evans and communications goddess Gayle Brandeis (who, of course, is my writing mentor).

Gayle's account of the event was posted at the CodePink website, and now has been picked up by a number of major progressive blogs, a check on her blog revealed.

The Democrats have been put in charge of Congress for a reason. The American people are sick and tired of W's war plans that lead nowhere, and do nothing to make America safer. Now, the Dems need to stand up to the popular sentiment and cut off funding for W's war schemes, and redirect it toward middle class tax relief, infrastructure improvements, or social programs. The Dems are scared of appearing weak on national defense, but it will be even worse to let the war go on unchecked, and leave domestic homeland security weak. Pressure tactics like this are a very good thing.

I look forward to a day when I will be in a better neighborhood with a better living arrangement, free to participate with the likes of CodePink and other great progressive groups. For now, the best I can do is to send my writing mentor warm wishes, as she keeps sending out more CodePink email alerts.

Another poignant letter

From the parent of a soldier who died in Iraq.

Richard Landeck, who lost his son Kevin six weeks ago in Iraq, sent a pointing letter to W, which has not been answered. Frustrated, Mr. Landeck shared the letter with Eric Zorn of Chicago Tribune, who made it public on his blog.

W's misadventures are just becoming too costly to bear, especially for people like Landeck and Cindy Sheehan.

Chicago Tribune - Eric Zorn

And here is the letter itself:

Feb 4, 2007

Dear Mr. Bush:

This will be the only time I will refer to you with any type of respect.

My son was killed in Iraq on February 2, 2007. His name is Captain Kevin Landeck.

He served with the Tenth Mountain Division. He was killed while riding in a Humvee by a roadside bomb just south of Baghdad. He has a loving mother, a loving father and loving sister.

You took him away from us. He celebrated his 26th birthday January 30th and was married for 17 months. He graduated from Purdue University and went through the ROTC program. That is where he met his future wife. He was proud to be a part of the military and took exceptional pride in becoming a leader of men. He accepted his role as a platoon leader with exceptional enthusiasm and was proud to serve his country.

I had many conversations with Kevin before he left to serve as well as during his deployment. The message he continued to send to me was that of incompetence. Incompetence by you, (Vice President Richard) Cheney and (former Secretary of Defense Donald) Rumsfeld. Incompetence by some of his commanders as well as the overall strategy of your decisions.

When I asked him about what he thought about your decision to “surge” more troops to Baghdad, he told me, “until the Iraqis pick up the ball, we are going to get cut to shreds. It doesn’t matter how many troops Bush sends, nothing has been addressed to solve the problem he started.”

Answer me this: How in the world can you justify invading Iraq when the problem began and continues to lie in Afghanistan? I don’t want your idiotic standard answer about keeping America safe. What did Sadaam Hussein have to do with 9/11? We all know it had to do with the first Iraq war where your father failed to take Sadaam down.

Well George, you have succeeded in taking down over 3,100 of our best young men, my son being one of them. Kevin told me many times we are not fighting terrorism in Iraq and they could not do their jobs as soldiers. He said they are trained to be on the offensive and to fight but all they are doing is acting like policemen.

Well George, you or some “genius” like you who have never fought in a war but enjoy all the perks your positions afford you are making life and death decisions. In the case of my son, you made a death decision.

Let me explain a few other points he and I discussed. He said when he and his men were riding down the road in their Humvees, roadside bombs would explode and they would hear bullets bouncing off their vehicle. He said they were scared. He thought “why should we be the ones who are scared?” He asked permission to take some of his men out at night with their night vision glasses because as he said “we own the night” and watch for the people who are setting roadside bombs and “take them out.” He said, “I want them to be the ones that are scared.” He was denied permission. Why? It made perfect sense to me and other people who I told about this.

When he was at a checkpoint he was told that if a vehicle was coming at them even at a high rate of speed he could not arbitrarily use his weapon. He had to wave his arms and, if the vehicle did not stop, he could fire a warning shot over the vehicle. If the vehicle did not stop then, he could shoot at the tires. If the vehicle did not yet stop he could take a shot at the driver. Who in their right mind made that kind of decision?

How would you like to be at a check point with a vehicle coming at you that won’t stop and go through all those motions? You will never know!

You or Cheney or Rumsfeld will never know the anguish, the worry, the sleepless nights, the waiting for the loved one who may never return. If the soldiers were able to do their jobs and the ego’s of politicians like you, your “cronies” and some commanders had their heads on straight, we would be out of this mess which we should not be involved with in the first place.

My family and I deserve and explanation directly from you……not some assistant who will likely read this and toss it. This war is wrong.

I want you to look me and my wife and daughter directly in the eye and tell me why my son died. We should not be there, but because of your ineptness and lack of correct information I have lost my son, my pride and joy, my hero!

Again, you, Cheney and Rumsfeld will never understand what the families of soldiers are going through and don’t try to tell me you do. My wife, my daughter and I cannot believe we have lost our only son and brother to a ridiculous political war that you seem to want to maintain. I hope you and Cheney and Rumsfeld and all the other people on your band wagon sleep well at night….we certainly don’t.

Richard Landeck
Proud father of a fallen soldier