American Traitor: Sheehan Does Seoul

On November 21, Cindy Sheehan was in Seoul taking part in a street protest against the new U.S. military headquarters. Now street protests in South Korea are almost a national pastime. The protests are regularly scheduled and will typically be cancelled if the weather is bad.

Typical Korean protester: “This is an outrage! …and I’d take a stand against it, if it wasn’t raining.”

Anyway, on this bright sunny Tuesday, flanked by about 100 comrades Ms Sheehan called on the U.S. military to end its “base expansion” in South Korea. The “expansion” Ms Sheehan was referring to was the Pentagon’s movement of troops from Yongsan, in the center of Seoul, to Pyeongtaek, about 45 miles south of the capital. This move will displace hundreds of families in the approximate 130 million square feet alloted for the new base.

As usual, Ms Sheehan doesn’t know what she’s talking about. The U.S. is actually reducing its base presence in South Korea. There was once as many as 104 bases here, and now there’re about 65 (with more reductions on the way). It wasn’t Washington’s idea to move out of Yongsan, either–it was {{gasp}} Seoul’s! In 1991, at the behest of the South Korean government, the U.S. military agreed to move out of Yongsan. South Korea agreed to relocate the military to the quieter Seoul suburb.

Yongsan Garrison has long been a controversial site. It was the Japanese Army’s headquarters during its occupation of the peninsula. When Korea was liberated in 1945, the U.S. military located there for convenience sake. But with the growth of the South Korean economy (in large part due to the U.S. military presence), the area around the base has become extremely valuable real estate. Recently, the South Korean government sold off a one- to two-acre parcel of land adjacent to Yongsan for $40 million!

Ms Sheehan has promised to take the “fair-weather” protesters’ grievances to the Pentagon and Capitol Hill. Before she does, perhaps she and the protesters should address the issue closer to home…namely the South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun! Since being elected in 2002, he has adopted an anti-U.S., pro-dictator appeasement line. And what has this stance gotten South Korea? A nuclear North Korea!!

Ms Sheehan and the ignorant South Korean protesters seem to forget that its been the U.S. military in South Korea who’ve provided security (and regional stability) for the past 50 years. The U.S. military is the only thing stopping North Korea’s Kim Jong Il from reunifying the peninsula on his terms.