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Getting screwed by our 'Allies' once again
Thanks to Korea blogger The Marmot, I managed to catch this Danziger cartoon:
http://www.gocomics.com/jeffdanziger/2008/07/08/
Good
work, Mr. Danzider. South Korea has been a US ally for over 50 years,
but its people are some of the most anti-American I've ever met. I
lived there for 7 years, and have been to over a dozen countries, but
even I was surprised when 100,000 Koreans came out to protest importing
US beef because they believed rumors on the Internet that it had Mad
Cow disease and eating it was sure death.
I've written about this madness on my blog,
but it never ceases to amaze me that despite all the obvious
anti-American sentiment in South Korea, and its obvious ability to
defend itself against its northern neighbor, we still keep US troops
there, at the cost of $3 billion a year. If the "surge" works so well
by adding 20,000 troops, why not kill two birds (or more) with one
stone by moving troops out of South Korea and into Iraq, or better yet,
Afghanistan?
I like Koreans a lot individually (hell, I'm
married to one), but if Koreans are to be respected, shouldn't South
Korea's continued insistence that it is a victim of American
imperialism be taken seriously, and we withdraw troops, and play
hardball on trade deals?
That's what Democratic presidents have done, incidentally, far more often than Republican ones.
Comments (4)
So, their health is more important to them than their "ties" to US...and I don't blame them...I'd do the same thing too.
And besides, they (and Japan) are tired of US GI's raping thier young ladies!!!
July 9, 2008 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
When products from Samsung, Kia, etc. are shown to have potentially fatal defects which the South Korean government refuses to inspect for, I'll get mad.
Our beef industry will not inspect adequately for mad cow disease. In fact, some US beef producers want to inspect every single cow they slaughter -- and the federal government will not allow them to do so.
Why? Because the regulatory agencies have been "captured" by agribusiness. The big producers don't want to be forced -- even by fair market competition -- to inspect all their cattle. So they make sure that the USDA forbids smaller companies from voluntarily checking all their cows!
That is why the South Koreans don't want to import our potentially tainted beef. Makes perfect sense to me.
July 9, 2008 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Aji - wow. Okay, let's get this straight:
US forces in Korea have a lower crime rate than the overall population. Furthermore, rape is a shockingly common crime in Korea. Now, who is raping whoms' young ladies?
Maximus -
Koreans eat Korean beef, believing it's safer. Actually, the OIC (that's the enforcer of food safety for the world) accepts American beef, and won't accept Korean beef. Why? Because Korean standards are so low they won't pass basic health tests ANYWHERE.
It's not a safety issue. Korea has nothing comparable to the FDA. It's a protectionism issue, linked with anti-Americanism. They're happy exporting to us, until we ask them to return the favor.
July 9, 2008 7:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Given our advanced technology and ability to project forcefull dipomacy anywhere in the world on short notice, I am at a loss understanding why we need cold-war forces based all over the fuck'n third world. On CNN yesterday I saw where an Airforce officer commuted through traffic in Las Vegas to his work sitting at a computer sceen controlling a drone attacking "the terrssts" somewher in Iraq. He said it was really weird; it took some getting accustomed to killing bad guys half way around the world and then getting in his car and going to Taco Bell for his lunch break before going back to complete his shift.
Fuck those fucking fuckers. We should be taking better care of our own society right here. Bring the troops home.
July 10, 2008 10:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
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