By It just goes to show that it doesn’t matter who is in the White House to keep this dumb idea going:
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Saturday his country will consider deploying peacekeeping troops to Afghanistan in response to a U.S. proposal at summit talks early this week.
Lee said his U.S. counterpart, President Barack Obama, asked him to send troops to the war-torn country, according to Park Sun-young, spokeswoman of the minor opposition Liberty Forward Party. His remarks came at a meeting earlier in the day in which he briefed the country’s political leaders on the outcome of the summit talks held last Tuesday.
The leader of the ruling Grand National Party, Park Hee-tae, and the head of LFP, Rep. Lee Hoi-chang, were invited to the meeting. Lee returned home Thursday after a three-day visit to Washington, where he also met with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for discussions on the North Korea nuclear issue. “Dispatching combat troops may be impossible, but we can consider sending peacekeeping forces to Afghanistan,” he was quoted as saying. South Korea withdrew its 200-strong team of medics and engineers from Afghanistan in 2007, ending several years of deployment under the U.S.-led war against terrorism. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
This issue could be a cause the Korean left could use to moblize against Lee Myung-bak if he does decide to deploy troops. I have been saying this for a while but 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?
Probably more troubling than this news is that also in the article it is stated that President Obama agreed that the war time control hand over could be delayed. Like I have continued to maintain, the hand over of operational control is something I will need to see to believe. Just like I will have to see Yongsan Garrison relocated with my own eyes before I believe it because those of us with long experiences in Korea know about the Korean governmental delay games all to well.
9:08 am on June 22nd, 2009 1
Just a thought. Couldn't LMB ask for volunteers with the understanding that they would, to a moral certitude, see combat?
If 80% of a unit agreed then they would be sent to Afghanistan. Perhaps with a few months at 29 Palms for CI training.
It seems to me that SK's elite units would volunteer en masse for the chance to put their training to work.
Or at least reconstruction units with their own security, able to respond to threats "robustly".
11:25 am on June 22nd, 2009 2
Most people who volunteer to join militarizes, especially into elite and special force units want to put their ability and training to the test. But the choice is not up to them. It's a political concern and decision, usually driven by popular public opinion.
Similar issues were involved in the debate about allowing women in front line combat units had been in our country.
11:33 am on June 22nd, 2009 3
If new Afghanistan strategy is a Surge-like clear-and-hold in wider areas of the country outside of Kabul, then there will be a need for more humanitarian and civil affairs troops to go into those areas to provide aid and development after those areas are secured.
There should be plenty of work for our non-combatant Korean and NATO allies in that case.
1:20 pm on June 22nd, 2009 4
Afganistan, of vital interest to the US? Sure why not, we need a war somewhere. Its really of vital interest to Iran and Pakistan, who bear the brunt of an unchecked Taliban and Al Qaeda. Then it becomes a problem of China and India who are much closer. They can nuke it out to our advantage.