Hub of the Hunkered
Update: Welcome Mudville Gazette readers! Please after you’ve wiped your feet on the welcome mat and gotten cozy, catch up on the latest events the Koreas here, at the main page. I served in Korea with the Army from 1998 to 2002; today, I blog from Washington, and the site you’re reading now is also a daily read inside the State Department, Congress and big media. The agenda here is freedom for the people of North Korea, a world that shares no oxygen with Kim Jong Il, and dignity for the 32,000 Americans who serve with honor in Korea.
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Since the South Korean contingent in Iraq won’t go to where the mission is, someone had the bright idea of bringing a mission to them:
Korean authorities are looking into a request from the U.S. government to let the development agency USAID move its office in northern Iraq into the base of Korea’s Zaytun Unit stationed there.
A Defense Ministry source said Thursday the official request from the U.S. came by way of the Foreign Ministry in November, asking Korea to let USAID move into the base in Kurdish-majority Irbil, which is relatively calm compared to the rest of the war-torn country. The Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which oversees the Zaytun base, feels the USAID office would be no hindrance to base operations and is likely to permit it to move in around mid-February, the source said.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t fit well with the South Korean object of avoiding any semblance of an actual military purpose.
However, there are concerns that if the U.S. organization moves into the base, the Zaytun Unit could become a more attractive target for insurgents. Some 30 USAID staff are currently staying in 18 container buildings in a village near the base, and these would simply be moved into the compound if Korea agrees. “If the USAID office moves into the compound of the Zaytun unit, the U.S. will pay all the expenses of the operation,” a military source said. “We will not be charged with guarding staff of the office.
So the USAID guys sit unprotected in connexes, while 3,000 Koreans sit in their compound denying them any protection. Ah, yes. Our great coalition partner and its eternal contribution to an alliance forged in blood. It can be difficult to avoid the conclusion that Zaitun’s mission is chiefly statistical.