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The Death of an Alliance, Part 61: S. Korea’s Withdrawal from Withdrawal

I agree with GI Korea on this: Iraq won’t even miss the Zaitun “division.”  Although numerically large, Korea’s contribution was militarily nil. The troops did not patrol, conduct raids, or guard anything except their own base, which sat in the most secure area of Kurdish Iraq. The deployment was a translucent veil for Korea’s ingratitude for the sacrifice of other nations, chiefly that of the United States, for its own survival. Locals joked that South Korea was a member of the “Coalition of the Sort of Willing.”

The region in which their soldiers are now based is the most stable in Iraq, thanks to 12 years of U.S. and British air cover that allowed the Kurds, a non-Arab group, to live independently from Saddam Hussein’s murderous regime.

The Kurdish region is so safe, relatively speaking, that a small unit of American soldiers stays in ordinary houses, with only modest protection, in a village near Irbil.

The Koreans, on the other hand, live in a fortress of razor wire, sand bags and blast walls in a remote area several miles from the city. No vehicles can approach without clearing at least two checkpoints with armed guards.

The other reason Korea sent troops was to buy a softer U.S. line toward North Korea. On balance, removing even a portion of this claim on our North Korea policy means much more than the Zaitun Brigade’s presence meant for Iraq’s, or America’s, security.

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4 Responses

  1. You’re giving the ROKs too much credit. They didn’t even protect their own base inside of which they were hunkered down. Force protection was provided by the Kurds.

  2. What about our esteemed congress people?

    Are important players on the key committees related to our committments to South Korea —- buying into the idea South Korea has stood beside us in Iraq?

    or

    Do they admit to themselves (and others) that it is a sham?

  4. They had four motar shells that landed 500 meters from their camp. That locked them down for three months. Could you imagine if every US base was locked down due to mortar strikes?

    The ROK government had the chance to be a big player in Iraq when the US offered the ROK Army operational command of Kirkuk and the Kurdistan area which the ROK Army wanted to do. Yet politics won out and the ROK Army become a window dressing army.