The US Military is seeking to
reduce its forces in South Korea, and
expand its bases. In doing so, it will
force farmers to give up their homes, their lands, their livelihoods.
Some of these farmers have been moved two times already by military base expansion, once before by the USA.
Oh, but the expansion is for important things... like a swimming pool, running track and gym facilities.
Wait a sec... my country tossing senior citizens off their land in South Korea?
According to residents, police arrested Kim Ji Tae when he arrived for scheduled negotiations over how to end a stand-off in two townships that would be affected by the proposed base expansion.
In response, supporters have launched a hunger strike. "This is not a problem of compensation. This is about the rights of farmers to remain on their land," Father Moon Jhung Hyun told OneWorld. The priest, who says he will not eat while Kim remains in prison, heads up the Pan-Korean Solution Committee for the U.S. Base Expansion in Pyongtaek.
But it's important to kick aging farmers off their land! After all, is there any need in Korea for more food? Is there any better way to reward a country for "hosting" our bases than to kick senior citizens off their land?
This is really important, yeah, really important, see?:
The expansion of Camp Humphreys is part of a redeployment of the estimated 35,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea. Once the move is completed in 2011, the U.S. military will have reduced the number of troops on the peninsula by a third with the soldiers stationed in fewer--but larger--bases.
I mean, fewer people, larger bases, who could deny the logic of that? And what are we going to provide the troops?
As part of the redeployment, USFK also plans to build new facilities to improve quality of life for American soldiers stationed in Korea. According to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, those amenities include a new fitness center at Camp Humphreys "complete with a gym, indoor pool, running track, and four-story parking garage."
In addition to an eight-lane, 25-meter indoor swimming pool, the center will feature a 626-foot indoor running track; separate rooms for cardio fitness, circuit training, free weights, and group exercise; basketball and racquetball courts; a martial arts training room; and climbing walls, the newspaper added.
Um, yeah, can you imagine soldiers scraping by without access to such facilities? Without taxpayer dollars funding these things for them? No health care for ordinary citizens, but our warrior class MUST HAVE its own luxury resorts, carved away from the local citizenry. Can't go out and mingle with the natives.
How could the local people object to a tiny little detail like giving up their homes for a swimming pool and raquetball courts?
But Korean farmers chafe at the idea their land will be taken away so foreign soldiers can feel more comfortable.
"They don't want to move," Father Moon said of the farmers, many of whom are elderly. "They refused their compensation. They don't want to leave their homeland. They don't want this experience for a third time."
It's not just Iraq -- we're being terrible citizens all over the globe.
Read more here -- and weep:
http://us.oneworld.net/...