SEOUL — China is quietly inviting tens of thousands of North Korean guest workers into the country in a deal that will provide a cash infusion to help prop up a teetering regime with little more to export than the drudgery of a desperately poor population.
The deal, which has not been publicly announced by either Beijing or Pyongyang, would allow about 40,000 seamstresses, technicians, mechanics, construction workers and miners to work in China on industrial training visas, businesspeople and Korea analysts say. Most of the workers' earnings will go directly to the communist North Korean regime..................read more>>
 |
Ed Herman on "Humanitarian
Imperialism" Edward Herman Pt2: The development of humanitarian intervention as a concept is essentially an overthrow of international law Go to story | Go to homepage |
One of my first duties in Korea on the dmz was to guard the tactical operations command, the t.o.c, a fancy word for the colonels crib at the front. I got my security clearance from some black-ops work I did for the cavalry. The north Koreans then, like today, are nuts. There wasn't any news crew there when they shot at us or provoked us. Even in 1977 the cease fire and demarcation line at the 38 parallel was three kilometers or so? wide, with minor small-arm firefights daily, somewhere. The north routinely sent infiltrators through the American lines just to test and embarrass us. Our rules for engagement was if they threw rocks, so could we, threw sticks, us too, match them all the way to thermal-nuclear devices, huh, just like today. But if I bumped into him on patrol I couldn't do nothing to him unless he killed me first. Like hell. Just a few months before I got there a colonel got stomped to death, crushed throat, by a north Korean officer, in the joint security area, under the united nations command(whom just happened to be French soldiers providing security, don't get me started) at Pan-moon-jon. I got tired of sitting around the toc listening to patrol debriefings, me and the colonel were good. I asked him if I could go on patrol as I came from the cav scouts. There was a kind of a weird mash ambiance there, that cast of unique characters. I volunteered when everyone else in my platoon were trying to keep from getting volunteered. I believed I wasn't going to sit around and wait for those dinks to come get me, I wanted to go looking for them, the tslagi way. My commanding officer captain Geoffrey J. Wilhelmy, was more than just a little pissed at me for going to his boss and I would spend the rest of my time in Korea paying for that fatal error, actually I jumped two spaces. My platoon guide and; company XO, 1st lieutenant Wyatt, he liked me when he realized my value to the platoon, meaning he thought I could possibly save his ass someday. Chain of command is important as long as leaders keep their heads out of their asses and clouds. But I got to go on patrol, and as customary I carried the radio on my first mission, the radio for the enemy is the best target, get more points if you kill the radio and the operator, we do too for the bonus brownie points system. Nothing was going to happen to me I had saint Christopher with me. I logged ..... or so patrol/ambush missions, I have been the point man on a fire team wedge deploying interlocking fields of fire. We set ambushes, cleared mine fields, mooned the bastards. blared black sabbith and ted nugent at those kooks from the north. when we captured or killed them we gave the south Korean army credit for enemy killed in action(koa) or pows, helps with the press and politics. Each of our squads had a ROK republic of Korea soldier attached, mine was named Suh, he got credit for a few kills. The guys we lost to enemy fire, were I suspect sent home as training accidents, technically they were. Couple of our people stepped on anti-personal mines but no one died. I feared mines more than getting shot. Every time I had to take cover and jump out of a swept area I knew my limbs were in jeopardy . Our mine sweeper was just a renamed metal detector that could pick-up some plastic. There were still more mines left over from the 50s war that were randomly scattered about. I loved it there. Danger Will Robinson, danger. I liked the rush. I'm sure Jimmy Carter didn't know what we were doing. I was given an Im-jim scout patch for my patrol work, even though i was serving in the 2nd infantry division, allways inside I am a Cherokee scout, the advance party, drawing enemy fire, forward observer, tactical target acquisition, find and protect the best hunting ground for all. But that crap(military) didn't matter to me. I would probably have done everything for nothing, still do........stand up for those that cannot to minimize/mitigate suffering. I am finding it hard to believe how gung-ho I was back then. Today I am such a pacifist, man I don't even kill bugs, hell, I put them outside. Sometimes I feel guilty about cutting the grass too short and killing it. I finally satiated my bloodlust. I had camped-out and blowed enough shit-up by the time I left to last me a lifetime and so far so good. Half the country is enslaved and the other half..consumers? of the slavery.........Korea, America............... what the hell was I fighting for? For the pakistani to be surly to this veteran at the local bodaga? My fight gave you your Right to be rude....here. respect not gratitude
...........................keep fighting the good fight, with your minds as weapons..............................
………………………………...............................Kosmicdebris............
No comments:
Post a Comment