It looks like since the real forces behind the US beef protests are beginning to show their true colors, more and more of the Korean public is being turned off by them:
Over the weekend, the coalition plans to hold another relay rally, and will decide Friday whether to go ahead with a full-fledged campaign to bring down Lee if his government fails to relieve public worries on various policies.
But its official Web site has started to receive criticism over “too many political issues” during the candlelit protests and many demand the rally should focus on the beef issue.
“The original theme should be protected. I hope everyone knows that,” an Internet user with the ID ‘marin’ said on the Web site.
Professor Bak Hee-je from Kyunghee University said that various political issues dealt with in the protests are some of the reasons that citizens have turned away from the rally.
“It is a transition period, definitely,” Bak said. “Those who don’t want to deal with political issues may have left the scene. They’re now waiting to see what the government will offer. But if the government comes up with a lukewarm stance again, they will come back to the streets.” [Korea Times]
I think the most disgusting example of the political nature of these protests is when the anti-US groups set up a memorial tent outside City Hall in Seoul that has blatantly linked the US beef protests with the 2002 USFK armored vehicle accident:
If you look closely at the below image you can see how propaganda images of crazy cows has been intermingled with pictures of the two girls tragically killed in the accident:
The fact that these anti-US groups did this is made even more disgusting by the fact that the families of the two girls killed in the accident clearly said they did not want these protesters to link the two girls to the US beef protests which they went ahead and did anyway.
Something else that bothers me is that an art department went to the Highway 56 Memorial for the two girls built by USFK and began painting images on it that link the memorial to the candlelight protests going on now:
It is pretty easy to see where this artist received his inspiration for the image from considering it looks just like the image on the Korean Internet site the Candlegirls which has been attacking fellow K-blogger Brian Deutsch for daring to write about the absurdity of the US beef protests:
The defacing of the Highway 56 Memorial for political purposes by these anti-US groups is nothing new and something I have written about before and I see no signs of stopping anytime soon.
The anti-US groups also made sure to bring out the kids and indoctrinate them in anti-US hate as well during the beef protests:
Bringing kids to protests is an often used tactic by the Korean left to include even having them participate in violent protests such as what everyone saw at Camp Humphreys:
For those that don’t know many of the same groups behind the US beef protests were the same ones behind the violent Camp Humphreys expansion protests that featured epic Braveheart style battles:
When you see video like this of the beef protesters attacking the police it is easy to see many of the same people are involved.
Interestingly enough the images of the two girls memorial by the beef protesters come from none other then the Green Korea site out protesting US beef. Even though this organization has nothing to do with US beef they were out dressed in their own crazy cow outfits protesting Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s grand canal project:
The sign she is holding roughly says stop the canal, which is something I could sympathize with except from these people who have been key in spreading propaganda about the US camp pollution issue in their attempts to stop the USFK transformation plan. These people care little about the environment and like many other of the groups involved in these protests are nothing more then front groups for anti-US activity in Korea. This was made quite evident when many of these groups to include Green Korea were linked to a North Korean spy scandal.
These people are predictable as well as disgusting and I hope the fact that protests numbers are dwindling has more to do with average Koreans finally seeing through the fraud these groups represent and not just simple fatigue.
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1:06 pm on June 18th, 2008 1
That’s great news!!!
1:15 pm on June 18th, 2008 2
The HPD in the Corean gene pool makes them inherently fickle, and since their protesting is just exaggerated melodrama, the decrease in protest attendance is just as much a function of warmer, wetter weather as it is of changing focus.
However, now that American beef has been equated with mad cow, this will forever stay in their heads, just like the other mythologies.
2:21 pm on June 18th, 2008 3
as this post seems to separate the anti-US groups from the majority of beef protesters, does that mean that the heart of these protest were not anti-american in nature?
2:27 pm on June 18th, 2008 4
So, when will Koreans stop falling for these idiotic (and transparent) ploys? I’ll have to agree with Mark, rainy season is coming, which always puts a damper on protesting…
3:00 pm on June 18th, 2008 5
I have maintanied that the leaders that organized these protests are manipulating the population to politically neuter 2MB and then eventually shift the protests toward their anti-US leftist agenda. The average Kim on the street is protesting because he thinks 2MB is actually importing US meat that is going to kill them and kowtowing to the Americans which is absurd as I have continuously shown to be.
Just the fact that the average Kim on the street thinks the US government would import beef to kill them with shows the anti-American sentiment lying underneath the surface of Korean society to begin with that the anti-US groups manipulated with their disinformation campaign over the internet and in the broadcast media.
3:46 pm on June 18th, 2008 6
My mother-in-law lives 2 doors down from the home of the 2 dead girls, I think next time we go visit I might do some graffiti removal on that wall. Douchebags.
7:27 pm on June 18th, 2008 7
Is defacing a memorial a crime in Korean? Where are the police? Are they also anti-american? I think the government should come down on the police for this, but I guess Pres Lee has more important thing to think about.
7:36 pm on June 18th, 2008 8
8:26 pm on June 18th, 2008 9
No, because the heart of Corea is anti-American in nature.
Clear-hold-build is the counterinsurgency strategy for Iraq and Afghanistan. We held and built Korea without actually clearing it first, so now we’re forever doomed to these periodic outbursts.
1:59 am on June 19th, 2008 10
So, as an observer from the US, am I correct in thinking that this whole issue is realy a move by the leftists to overturn the results of the last election? Given the statement: “…nd will decide Friday whether to go ahead with a full-fledged campaign to bring down Lee…” that seems to be the case.
7:00 am on June 19th, 2008 11
[...] Cows Gone Wild madness could get a whole lot worse for people living in Seoul as the subway workers may go on strike [...]
9:34 am on June 19th, 2008 12
Songtan1 defacing memorials Koreans could care less about. Case in point the protesters that spray painted and then try to tear down the General MacArthur statue in Incheon that led to a violent fight between veterans groups and the leftists:
http://rokdrop.com/2005/09/16/rok-marine-corps-veterans-defend-macarthur/
In what was no surprise the leftist group leader trying to tear down the statue was later arrested for being a NK spy:
http://rokdrop.com/2006/11/30/macarthur-statue-protest-leader-arrested-as-north-korean-spy/
Steve, the anti-US groups behind the protests are trying to politically neuter 2MB. Once he is neutered then they can again try to advance their leftist agendas which were temporarily stopped by his election without fear of 2MB trying to stop them. High on the anti-US leftist agenda is stopping the USFK relocation to Camp Humphreys.
2:02 pm on June 19th, 2008 13
“No, because the heart of Corea is anti-American in nature.
Clear-hold-build is the counterinsurgency strategy for Iraq and Afghanistan. We held and built Korea without actually clearing it first, so now we’re forever doomed to these periodic outbursts.”
it’s so ironic that you would make this comment, drawing parallels between the korean war and the current war on terror.
based on your view, success in iraq and afghanistan will come when all insurgent groups (what are insurgents by the way?) are finally cleared (i.e. killed?), which evidently was not done well enough in korea (although some folks especially in jeju may have a more informed opinion on this).
so basically your point being…the “insurgents” that resisted (simplified as communists to you) a foreign incursion and sought korean soverignty during the period leading up to and during the korean war should all have been rid of and the fact that some survived manifests itself now in these “anti-american” protests….
now i assume you are making this point in defense for the legitimacy of anti-americanism in korea, right?
8:50 pm on June 19th, 2008 14
12:44 am on June 20th, 2008 15
I have maintanied that the leaders that organized these protests are manipulating the population to politically neuter 2MB and then eventually shift the protests toward their anti-US leftist agenda. The average Kim on the street is protesting because he thinks 2MB is actually importing US meat that is going to kill them and kowtowing to the Americans which is absurd as I have continuously shown to be.
I agree with you that these protesters are willing tools of the left. 2MB has, however, made himself a target by pushing the unpopular and poorly conceived canal plan and by agreeing to import beef right after a visit to Washington, the timing of the two events setting him up to be tarred as a US stooge.
I agree with Jhaelin, Mark. Even if your “clear, hold, build” comment was meant in jest, it’s no joke that political cleansing was carried out by both sides during the post-WWII struggle for power in Korea. We don’t need to clear, hold, or build in Korea. We need to get out and leave Korea to determine its own fate, and US miltary logical planning should reflect that. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t want to see a US soldier get a hangnail defending Korea.
4:46 am on June 20th, 2008 16
Sonagi I totally agree with your comments about 2MB about how his recent actions would be interpreted on the Korean street, which once again reinforces my view about the underlying anti-Americanism in Korea.
2MB can look like he is kowtowing to China and no one cares, but if he looks like he is kowtowing to America all hell breaks loose.
As far as the US military getting out of Korea, just logistically it would take years, then you add in the time it would take for someone in Washington to have the political will to do something and it just stretches it out that much farther.
5:08 am on June 20th, 2008 17
GI Korea,
I agree that finding the political will in Washington would be a monumental task, but I disagree with the notion that the logistics would take years.
Formally returning the US camps to the ROKs might take a couple of years (mostly due to legal wrangling over clean up), but vacating the camps of troops could be easily done in 6 months.
The Surge moved 30,000+ troops and equipment into Iraq under combat conditions in 6 months, so moving 20,000+ troops out of Korea under peacetime conditions would be a walk in the park. Only the will is needed.
5:33 am on June 20th, 2008 18
The difference between moving soldiers to a combat zone and back to the US is the housing issue. When 2BCT, 2ID returned from Iraq I know guys that were living in rented out college dorm rooms because there was no barracks space for them because it was an unplanned troop withdrawal.
It is not uncommon for soldiers returning from Iraq to live in temporary housing until barracks space gets opened up when another unit deploys freeing their barracks. Look at the controversy that happened in regards to 82nd Airborne soldiers that redeployed from Afghanistan and were stuck in substandard barracks a few months ago.
The closing of US bases during the latest BRAC as well as the decision to reduce troops in both Korea and Germany has caused a housing crisis that is slowly being taken care of with new facilities being constructed on bases across the country.
More US troops will be coming home from Iraq next year in one way or another which will have priority on open barracks space, leaving any unplanned reductions of forces in USFK impossible for a least the next few years until new facilities can be funded and constructed to house all these soldiers.
5:40 am on June 20th, 2008 19
I did not say that the units had to leave Korea as units.
You could do a repeat of 1990’s Europe by deactivating the units in Korea and dispersing the departing troops according to the needs (and housing availability) of the Army.
6:02 am on June 20th, 2008 20
because the heart of Corea is anti-American in nature.
Yep, even the Canadian Kyopos hate America. Never met one that liked America. Know plenty of Canadians that like/love the States. Way too many Koreans in Canada as it is. I would take 50 arabs to get rid of one Korean.
6:04 am on June 20th, 2008 21
(I should have said “real” Canadians, because in the heart of every “Corean” their only loyalty is to “Corea”)
8:52 am on June 22nd, 2008 22
South Korea’s Brummagem Civil Society…
A good number of South Koreans seem to confuse democracy with truly mindless mass protesting based on blatantly false information that could easily be debunked but rarely is, at least by South Koreans themselves. The uproar, this time, ostensibly bega…
4:59 am on June 26th, 2008 23
[...] these groups’ real agendas which are anti-US and pro-Pyongyang. However, this strategy may have backfired because since the shift in message attendance at the protests has fallen and there are signs [...]
5:07 pm on June 29th, 2008 24
[...] protests against the importation of US beef into Korea (that really has nothing to do with US beef) broke out once again in downtown Seoul. The conflict began yesterday when the Korean police gave a [...]