By The Hankyoreh doesn’t like the fact that President Obama is sending an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan:
United States President Barack Obama approved a plan to send an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan yesterday, marking the beginning of a greater military presence in that country, as promised during his election campaign. Once those additional troops arrive in the summer, the United States will have more than 50,000 troops in Afghanistan.
The United States’ hasty Afghanistan troop surge will very probably repeat the same mistakes of its long-term occupation of Iraq, which has turned out to be a failure. [Hankyoreh]
It sound like the Hankyoreh has totally missed the peaceful Iraqi elections from two weeks ago along with the dramatic drop in violence that has seen living in Baghdad safer then living in Mexico. It is pretty much widely accepted now that “the surge” was a success and Obama is trying to repeat that success in Afghanistan.
Anyway here is what was of interest in the article:
Ahead of the arrival in Seoul of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the GNP is said to have drafted an internal document considering the possibility of sending Korean troops to Afghanistan and affirming what the United States would do in return. GNP Supreme Council member Gong Sung-jin says the document was never submitted to an official party, probably body, but that Korea could demand high-tech weaponry from the Americans as payment for sending Koreans.
As shocking as this may be, I am in agreement with the Hankyoreh, there should be no Korean troops sent to Afghanistan for reasons I have outlined before. Doesn’t the US have enough allies doing little or nothing in Afghanistan, why add more?
It is the sad reality. No mistake...
11:38 am on February 19th, 2009 1
I agree, we don't need to send troops whose only purpose will be to take up space. Its really too bad as I see direct involvement as a way for South Korean troops to gain experience and test their training. I'm sure SK has any number of special operations troops who would be glad to have a chance to see what they can do.
11:25 pm on February 19th, 2009 2
I think that any additional troops we need in Afghanistan should come from our troops in Korea. Send them and there equipment. When it is time for them to depart Afghanistan, leave the equipment for use by the next unit, and rotate them back to the States with the unit that replaced them.
1:01 am on February 20th, 2009 3
Thats the best idea I have heard so far. Tell South Korea not to send any troops (who will end up doing nothing) and that we will send our own troops in their place. And when our troops are done they will rotate back to the conus. Therefore the troops Korea would have sent can be used to replace US troops in Korea. Everyone wins.