It looks like the Zaytun Unit will be staying on in Kurdistan:
Pro-government and opposition presidential contenders reversed roles Tuesday over President Roh Moo-hyun’s decision to extend the country’s troop deployment in Iraq for another year, with the front-running opposition candidate offering rare support for the government.
Roh said Tuesday in a televised speech that the government has decided to extend the operation until the end of 2008 while halving the troop level to 600. The plan needs approval from the National Assembly and tough debate is expected ahead of December’s presidential election.
In a rare show of support for the government, Lee Myung-bak of the major opposition Grand National Party called for his party to approve the envisioned extension bill in consideration of Seoul’s alliance with Washington, a key reason Roh had cited. [Yonhap]
I have been against the Zaytun deployment since before the unit was ever deployed because I figured the unit would not be allowed to do much of anything meaningful which is evident by the fact they can’t even go to a local market place to buy supplies in the highly friendly and secure Kurdish region of Iraq. They did do a good job with the toilets though. Plus if there was a mass casualty attack or as we saw with the Taliban, a pro-longed hostage crisis, the anti-US groups, politicians, and media in Korea would waste no time capitalizing on it. Additionally, the Korean government will expect unrealistic political benefits from the dispatch of the troops.
I’m not the only thinking this way either; Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki has already hinted that he would prefer 2,300 Korean businessmen instead of 2,300 Zaytun soldiers. The Kurds are literally laughing at the Zaytun "occupation force". Plus soldiers that have served in the Zaytun unit have voiced their frustrations with the deployment, which has been echoed by the Korean media as well.
The Korean "occupation force" has out lived it’s usefulness and the American government should allow the Zaytun unit to redeploy. The hostage crisis should have been a wake up call to the US government that the Korean participation in Iraq is not worth the possible negative side effects we saw with their participation in Afghanistan. I have nothing against the ROK Army and I think they are a fine fighting force, but they have no mission in Iraq and should be sent home.
Popularity: 3%
12:00 pm on October 24th, 2007 1
If Koreans want to Show The White Feather, that’s up to them. I’m certain their plumbers can still be useful in the safer parts of Iraq. Heck, by now we should have enough Iraqi units stood up to defend the brave 300, er, um I mean 1200…
10:18 pm on October 24th, 2007 2
The only reason Roh is doing this is because he royally f**ed up in Afghanistan by paying $10MM to the Taliban in exchange for the surviving hostages.
Funding the Taliban with millions of dollars was not a smart move when you’re supposed to be part of a coalition.
7:36 am on October 25th, 2007 3
I think the Marmot made a good point on his site that maybe Roh is keeping the troops in Kurdistan in order to give his buddy Chung Dong-young an issue to campaign on against Lee Myung-bak. Chung is being smashed in the polls right now by Lee so possibly by being the anti-war candidate even though Korea isn’t at war in Kurdistan, Chung can pick up some cheaps votes against Lee.
8:28 am on October 25th, 2007 4
Personally, I think Roh thought he would be hailed as a hero when he bought the release of the surviving hostages. It was a calculated political decision. The thing he didn’t anticipate was that the ordeal left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth in Korea as well as in the US. It blew up in his face: Roh was laughed at by the Taliban, he looked impotent in front of his own people, and he sold out his allies by funding their enemies. The only people who won anything from the affair was the newly-enriched, newly-legitimized Taliban.
Even afterwards, Roh was so completely impotent that he couldn’t even dole out justice to the kidnappers. That had to be done by the US.
So what else could Roh do at that point but back-peddle as fast as possible with the Coalition and promise to stay and dig toilets awhile longer?
6:41 pm on October 25th, 2007 5
i wonder what the korean troops are thinking now that the turks are bombing rebel positions in kurdistan????
7:59 pm on October 25th, 2007 6
mcnut:
The Koreans are in Irbil which is a good distance from the Turkey/Kurdistan border. Turkey will not invade or bomb as far south as Irbil. I have some experience dealing with the Kurds and the PKK which I write about over at Forward Deployed:
http://forwarddeployed.com/2007/10/23/is-turkish-invasion-of-northern-iraq-imminent/
knickerbocker:
Roh was a joke internationally over the hostage crisis but really little outrage domestically seem to come from him paying off the Taliban. There isn’t probably a whole lot of people in Korea who care if the Taliban bomb and kill more people with the money.
11:19 pm on October 25th, 2007 7
GI,
You misunderstood me. I agree with that you say about most Koreans not caring about the Taliban (or the War on Terror, as a whole). And Roh was undoubtedly seen as a joke by the world in that crisis.
My point was that Roh alienated the Coalition with the ransome and, at the same time, he didn’t achieve the political victory he wanted at home by paying the ransome that freed the surviving hostages. He lost on both fronts.
6:47 am on October 26th, 2007 8
11:34 am on October 30th, 2007 9
[...] seems a bit ironic that Chung wants US troops to stay in Korea, but just last week called Korean soldiers conducting plumbing operations in Kurdistan American "mercenaries". Wouldn’t [...]