I thought about writing this post yesterday when I deleted the graphic images of the Abu Ghrad (sp?) Blue Shark put in his next to last post.

You know --- the images he used to justify his point of view about the US military in Korea.

It is (again) more true the closer the individual is to puberty, but Korean society as a whole has shown some interesting willingness to use questionable images to boost the anti-US feeling at a given time.

Here is a video edit of the anti-Free Trade / APEC "lesson plan" the Korea Teachers Union had done to show Korean school kids (younger than university students) the true meaning of globalism directed by the US.

There was a welcome backlash against the KTU when the video made the news.

But ------ interestingly enough - for this post ----- I never heard any of the complainers mention the disgusting, amazingly offensive use of images of 9/11 and Katrina.

They did bash the liberal use of the word "f*cking" in the satirical portrayal of President Bush.

But, I guess the showing clips of the planes flying into the skyscrappers and other images of America's pain --- like with images of flooded New Orleans - didn't raise an eyebrow.

You can check out this site to see other times and ways in which different parts (and levels) people used 9/11 to "strike at American pride" ---

---but, in reality, it isn't an effort to strike a blow.

They don't want Americans to see these images. They don't want it shown in the American media.

It is directed at Koreans --- because for some reasons it boosts Korean pride or sense of national worth to use even the most vile images to attack their image of the US.

If you look at the last site linked, you will notice it is not just the radical university students or every day anti-US civic groups that have used 9/11. They do it in the most disgusting way, and they are the most willing to use it, and the most willing to view it, but it is not limited to them.

For example, in 2002, I used to ride the subway every day, and I would stand in across from one of those television screens they have hanging off a column inbetween the tracks to run ads.

I would watch one of these ads.

It showed a Bin Laden cartoon character behind the wheel of a passenger plane. He was endlessly circling the World Trade Center towers.

The idea was that if he had used Korean technology that goes into products made by the company paying for the ad, he would have been able to smash into the American buildings.

Other examples of this mainstream use of vileness to beat up on the US for all Koreans to see.

Here is a pop music video that Koreans I talked to couldn't see a problem with.

I have even received emails from a couple of expats saying they don't see it as anti-American or similar. One said he was part of the video, and the girls who made it just wanted to deal with male chauvinism.

This is an example of a good hearted expat trying too hard to keep the good vibes feeling with Korea as someone getting to know a foreign land.

It is so easy to see ---- I really can't understand how it can be missed - unless there is a will to ignorance.

Foreigners in Korea make up less than 1% of the population - I believe a recent news story stated ----

---but EACH ONE of the males the Korean female singer tortured and/or killed --- were non-Koreans.

In fact, they were all white men in unmistakably American stereotype characters.

And they were shown humiliating Korea (the singers) and then getting their just deserts --- tortured and/or killed ------ in a song that was about love and had absolutely nothing to do with the video images.

But, it was made and aired and nobody saw a problem with it. (Except expats)

It is this same kind of "anything goes" when Korea's "righteous rage" is kicked up that allows violent demonstrations (again the US and elsewhere against internal Korean elements - like labor disputes) to rage each and every year.

It is the same thing that allowed protesters in 2002 to carry around blown up images of the crushed bodies of the two middle school girls.

I have a strong stomach. Horror movies have never bothered me much. But, I had trouble sleeping the night after I first saw those images promoted on the anti-US websites. You could imagine the horror of such a death when you saw the bloody guts of the one spreading out from under her lifeless toroso or the still intact muslce and other parts of the bloody calf sliding out of the long gash in the other's leg.

But, a ESL instructor in a hakwon posted over at Dave's ESL Cafe her elementary school students brought in large baseball card like images of those crushed, morbid bodies with a text message on back explaining this and other crimes GIs have gotten away with in the past.

You also have a groups of Koreans travelling around to cities all over the nation with posterboard signs with such images --- like the Markle murder case where he raped the corpse with a beer bottle --- strown out in a long line on the sidewalk near a train or subway station or anywhere else where many Koreans will come or go. ----- The anti-US groups are particularly proud to put up video clips of kids reading about how horrible the US in Korea has been. Necessary evil --- perhaps ------ but damn sure evil....

Here is a video demonstrating this. It appears a university has decided to perpetuate the message in more than their classrooms by cutting the ribbon on a permanent display of how evil the US has been in Korea --- and families brought their kids to see.

Back before the two girls were crushed, but after an Australian judge disqualified a Korean skater and the gold went to an American ---- a large Hate US festival was held -- specifically geared to families - where kids could do such fun field day things as shoot water pistols at images of Uncle Sam.

If you look at the variety of issues covered on my www.usinkorea.org site and you look at the common means of expression of Korean grievance against the US, you will get some idea of the will to anger and the will to mind-block.

What I mean is ----

Korea society gets into such an angry state if Jay Leno makes a Korea dog eathing joke, it is prime time news material for several nights, and even members of the National Assembly get on its floor to denounce NBC and Leno and American society.

But, all this stuff used to symbolically strike a blow against the US in Korea -- that is put out mostly by the fringe anti-US groups, but witnessed by mainstream society - and less vile things not infrequently put out by mainstream institutions ------- is just seen as natural.

And one last telling example.

The beheading of Nick Berg was available online in Korea. More of it was seen on the Korean media than in many other places.

But, when a Korean had the same thing done to him sometime later --- the Korean government went out of its way to attempt to block it from Korean websites and internet servers and punish those who sought to get around the censoring of it. The Korean media also condemned viewing of such a horror as wholly unrighteous.

But, if it is an American.....

So, Blue Shark put up a lot of disgusting images from Abu Garad and I deleted them.

As I wrote to him --

if he wants to link to one of the many sites that have the images
and he wants to use that event to "make his case" about what the US means in Korean society -- that is fine.

It just further illustrates for all to see how hopeless the US situation in Korea is --- when arguments like this are used to justify Korean misinformation about things like GI Crimes inside Korea.

But, what Blue Shark really wants to accomplish is what Korean anti-US civic groups do all the time --- and what mainstream Korean society does when it is in a particularly good mood to vent at the US --- like with the Pop music video or the family festival ----

He does not want you to think.

He does not want you to examine the validity of his argument or look into his logic or ----- and this is terribly important ---- as questions about points of fact -----

he wants the shock value of the images to dull the mind and already formed will to view the US in Korea in a bad light to simply make the images --- a perfect example of how the US is bad for Korean society - even if necessary...

...even if the images are from Iraq....

Trying to reason with the type of thinking that makes anti-US culture thrive year to year --- in the majority of Korean society ----

is endlessly hopeless.

But, if you just leave it out there without picking at it or exposing it ---

it does spread beyond Korea........

Some people need to combat it.

Over the last few years, the expat bloggers and other sites have finally given some help at this.

I am sorry he feels the way he does but if he put the effort into checking facts and actually verifying information before he spouts it he would be better informed. You are correct, in that his posting and subsaquent answers or lack of facts to show his point did more to demonstrate what you are trying to communicate than anything else could have.

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Just my humble opinion!

Don’t know what’s worse, pre-contemplating something or being ambivalent about it.

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BOOM, BOOM. Out goes the Lights

Being ambivalent !

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Just my humble opinion!

One item Blue Shark conveniently forgets to mention that around the same time as the dumping, there was a Korean man charged with raping an underaged girl; I believe she was 12 or 13 years old.

What wasn't reported was that the convicted Rapist received less jail time that the American convicted of the dumping.

Nationalism? Typical Asia Male Pride?

Or, just more America-bashing?

Obviously the writer has absolutely no knowledge of this subject, other than to "bash" the U.S. continually with his worthless ravings and North Korean-style propaganda.

The GI's have their own jail cell.

Why, should anybody ask?

The answer is because the South Korean Government (not the U.S. requesting) sets the standards for jailing foreigners.

Their Cells are like Hotels?

Why, should anybody ask?

The answer is because the South Korean Government (not the U.S. requesting) sets the standards for jailing foreigners.

The GI's receive PX items by the "truck-full" you say?

Why, should anybody ask?

The answer is because the South Korean Government (not the U.S. requesting) sets the standards for jailed foreigners receiving the same amount of care equal to the care they would receive in their own country, if jailed.

Blue Shark, your hatred of Americans seems so total, that the North Korean-style propaganda you spew blinds you to the truth, as handled by the South Korean Government, in accordance with SOFA rules approved and signed by both Governments.

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Just my humble opinion!

Land being "taken" by the government has been an accepted practice across the globe in nations everyone considers to have a civil society.

They buy the land and make other concessions to the people involved in return for having the authority to remove people from an area deemed of significant importance to the state.

My Korean wife's family has been moved off their land --- the home which they had built but the land owned by someone else --- twice since 2000 --- once for a highway spur - something that would happen in the US - and once just to expand the edge of the city by making yet another cluster of high rise apartment buildings --- something I don't think would be legal in the US.

It is very difficult and an uncertain time for families who are going to have their land taken by the government, and the Korean government could help ease these concerns by being better at taking care of its citizens ---

----but considering how national security in a cold war environment is considered crucial for the well-being of all the people in the nation, the Pyongtaek protests led by the constant anti-US leaders is full of poo.

It appears Blue Shark has left the blog. I believe he has been seriously mislead and is regurgitating what he hears others repeating. It is similar to the fan deaths. Once a Korean hears something more than once it is gospel. I recall on several occasions over the years attempting to explain to my wife the real deal after friends had convinced her of a wide variety of policies.

I recall there was US soldiers in the Suwon prison in the early 70’s therefore I am not surprised with the 1967 conviction. I am quite sure that most everyone posting in this blog as well as most soldiers believe in allowing the judicial system to work and if they have committed a crime than they do the time. I have posted this previously; however, for those who may have missed it.

Over the number of years I have been in and out of Korea I have read the reports in the news and official government documents. I have seen soldiers where soldiers committed crimes that they would have received a life sentence in a military courts-martial or the US judicial system. When some of these individuals were tried in the Korean courts they received a light sentence or were acquitted when all evidence pointed against them. This also occurs in the US as well as anywhere else. The Korean judicial system is not very harsh on sentencing anyone.

I recall one USFK Cdr commenting on taking away some of the privileges the inmates were receiving. His perspective was these were criminals serving time not on a vacation.

Several younger KN’s also have selective memories when it comes to soldiers who have committed crimes and Korean’s who have committed similar crimes. In Daegu there were 2 Korean males who disguised a car to look like a taxi. They picked up unsuspecting younger females, take their money, credit cards and execute them. When they were finally caught they had 5 bodies in the trunk of the car. One of them committed suicide and the other was prosecuted. If you ask some of the younger people they will not recall the incident. Now mention any of the soldiers who has committed murder in the past 20 years and they will probably tell you more than you want to know about the individual to include shoe size.

The Korean media is very inaccurate. The primary focus is the more the sensationalism the better. There is very little regard to the accuracy.

I am a little concerned with the tempo of the anti US thread though. I earnestly there is not an hidden agenda in some of the postings. It is my personal experience that I have seldom experienced any discrimination bc of my heritage. I go everywhere in Korea and on several occasions alone at all hours. I would not try this in the US.

Hiker I have to agree as I was there in the 70's and again in the 80's. There has always been an Anti-US Sediment but there are also many Koreans I have met who have been life long friends and would give you the shirt off their back. Young people will be young people and if they find something to be Nationalistic about they will and not research the facts or think of repercussions. I realize that the Korea I knew in 77 and 83 has changed a lot, but I would hope that their narrow site would widen with them becoming an economic power. Well we can all hope!

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Just my humble opinion!