I really hope General Sharp isn’t advocating USFK being involved in any counter-insurgency operations either north or south of the DMZ:
The top U.S. military commander in South Korea plans steps to ensure U.S. forces are ready to counter any Iraq-style insurgency tactics that North Korea might try to use in a conflict on the peninsula.
In a brief interview with Stars and Stripes on Friday, U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Walter Sharp said he thinks it’s likely North Korea has been keeping close watch on the tactics used by insurgents in Iraq and would no doubt hope to use them against South Korea and its American ally.
“I do believe that North Korea is taking lessons out of Iraq, and they will change and adapt tactics,” Sharp said.
“I greatly worry about IEDs showing up in this theater,” he said, referring to homemade explosives used with devastating effect against U.S. and Iraqi forces. [Stars & Stripes]
I think it is safe to say the days of North Korea launching an armed insurgency in South Korea are long over when tactics such as this, this, and this are more effective.
Popularity: 2%
3:16 am on June 30th, 2008 1
This has me worried- the USFK commander is thinking about Iraq strategies for Korea. WTF?
Excuse my ignorance, and his, but is he fresh off the boat or what?
Is he so insolated from the day to day workings of Korea that he doesn’t know that the Norks, as has been pointed out by you and many others, have long changed their strategy from armed insurgency to eroding the faith in the ROK government and ripping apart the ROK/US alliance with a very successful covert propaganda campign of lies, smear tactics, anti-US movements that are dressed up in nationalist, patriot slogans, etc?
First, and formost, the USFK has to work on preparedness against the propaganda steamroller:
-Training programs for all USFK personnel to act professional when out on the town, so they will be well taught to stay out of sh*t.
-Thorough review and adherence to strict safety standards to prevent further accidents.
-Media handling strategies with Korean speaking mouthpieces to get out in front before the rumor mongering and lies spread from even the slightest ‘incident’. Also, knowing how to deal with problems in ways that can’t be twisted by the lefties against us, ala your lessons from the 2002 tank accident post.
-Base security preparedness, so when they try, and they will try again, to use a front gate protest as a diversion while they secretly cut holes in the fences to infiltrate, then have cameras ready to try and portray it as “innocent democracy activists being assaulted by evil US soldiers”.
These are the issues that USFK command should be concerned with!
Sorry, but I’m not in the military, so this post may sound a bit silly. I have been in Korea a long time and have seen how the USFK and ROK governments fail to properly deal with these more and more successful anti-US smear campaigns and propaganda lies.
3:18 am on June 30th, 2008 2
PS- this reminds me of officers applying strategies from previous wars in Vietnam and failing miserably.
If you don’t adapt strategies and tactics, you know what happens!
6:02 am on June 30th, 2008 3
You all have missed what he’s talking about.
The US got its ass handed to it for more than 3 years by relatively untrained, unfunded, and uneducated bomb makers in Iraq. What has North Korea, with its extensive SOF program (thousands of guys trained to go deep into the south and dissolve amongst the populace) learned?
If you’ve been to Iraq and then you come to Korea, it’s really shocking to see how underprepared everyone here is. From equipment to training, the US is not ready for the sh*t. How many HMMWVs in Korea are armored? How are people training?
Go to Iraq and then come here and participate in a Convoy Live Fire Exercise. They still have people firing from the windows of soft-skinned HMMWVs. They have people stopping HMMWVs to dismount and bound across rice fields for an assault. What is this, 1995? You never do that in the real world.
Hey, I’ve spent a lot of time in Korea, but I left for 3 years and went to Iraq. Now I’m back, and there’s a lot of people who were here when I left and are still kicking it on the AIP.
6:30 am on June 30th, 2008 4
It is one thing to say that soldiers need to be trained in counter-insurgency tactics and IEDs to prepare them for Iraq but it is another to say North Korea could launch an “Iraq style insurgency” inside South Korea. In the article General Sharpe said he wanted to implement counter-insurgency doctrine in South Korea.
If North Korea tried to launch an armed insurgency in South Korea (extremely unlikely) the US should stay totally out of it and not be involved in any counter-insurgency work. Could you imagine soldiers patrolling hillsides for insurgents and accidentally shooting some civilian hiker? The anti-US groups would go absolutely nuts.
Counter-insurgency should be handled exclusively by the ROK Army which just like after the Korean War the last remaining communists guerrillas in the mountains were handled by the ROK Army.
IED training got it, my unit did that the last time I was stationed in 2ID using lessons learned from guys like myself that had served in Iraq. Being involved in implementing an counterinsurgency doctrine in case of an armed insurgency in South Korea is something I don’t agree with.
11:13 am on June 30th, 2008 5
IEDs are only one aspect of Iraq. Suicide bombers are another. Anyone want to comment on what a suicide bomber in SK could do to the Blue house or any other government agency? How about a crowded market? Subway? Labor dispute? Anti government rally? Its something to think about and make plans for. Maybe the SK government should do the same.
7:50 pm on June 30th, 2008 6
Can you say 2000 hr curfew. Leon Laporte was just testing the waters. The most recent regulation concerning contractors now lumps them in with the rest of USFK (sans the benefits). This is just a ramp up for the next lock down.
8:10 pm on June 30th, 2008 7
Ron Elvis, can you throw a link as to what you are talking about? What regulation?
11:47 pm on June 30th, 2008 8
Some of the contributors to this trail (and the questions they present) may benefit from added knowledge:
- Benicio974, you asked if GEN Sharp is fresh off the boat. I think the better question is “what is his background, and where did he come from?” GEN Sharp is an armor/cav guy who most recent jobs were in Joint Strategy, Force Structure, and Resources. So let’s see, his background is an Army job specialty that has had to redefine itself around counterinsurgency operations (COIN), and he recently came to USFK from a job where funding priorities have been clearly established to support COIN. Policy has this strange tendency to follow the money, especially when you are under the gun to appear relevant.
- Getchuself Some Egicashun, you adapt your tactics to meet the demands of the operating environment that you find yourself in. You don’t adapt your operating environment to meet the demands of tactics from somewhere else. In summary, Korea is not Iraq and never will be. But to your observation credit, this principle hasn’t stopped 8th Army units from conducting silly and poorly resourced “OIF style” training events. This goes back to following the money to stay relevant.
6:19 am on July 1st, 2008 9
LOL, didn’t Bush just take NK off of the State Sponsors of Terrorism list?
Frankly, I think the idea of NK launching COIN attacks in the south is just laughable. But hey, if we’re going to maintain a military presence in a country where it’s not really wanted, we need a bad guy to justify it, right? And until some other evil despot in the region raises his ugly head, Kim Jung Il is it.
My guess is that he (Kim Jung Il) will continue to be the bad guy until the issues of command transfer, troop relocation and strategic flexibility are worked out. After that, I predict that we will see a miraculous thaw in tensions on the peninsula and General Bell will return to walk across the DMZ into North Korea with his Granddaughter.
1:57 am on July 2nd, 2008 10
[...] while SKorea is concerned of NK preparing insurgent attacks on their soil. [...]
5:28 am on July 11th, 2008 11
9:35 am on July 11th, 2008 12