Alarm Bells

I read this on SmirkingChimp.com and some alarm bells went off. Posting it here to see if anyone else feels the same. I highlighted the sections that seem suspicious:

From AScribe Newswire:

Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin Leading Delegation to South Korea; U.S. Activists Join South Koreans to Protest U.S. Military Base Expansion and U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement

NEW YORK, Nov. 16 (AScribe Newswire) -- American peace activists Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin are leading a delegation of U.S. peace and social justice activists to South Korea to oppose the expansion of Camp Humphrey, the US military base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea and to protest the proposed Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

The delegation of 18, who will be in Korea from November 20 to November 24, includes members of Working Families Party, Veterans for Peace, Service Employees International Union, CodePink, Global Exchange, and Gold Star Families for Peace. This will be the first trip to Korea for Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq, and Benjamin, founder of Global Exchange and CodePink.

They will meet with elderly Korean farmers of Pyongtaek, whose farmland and homes were violently seized by the Korean military to accommodate the expansion of the U.S. military base. For over two years, Korean farmers have exhausted every legal channel and resisted relocation, holding candlelight vigils for 800 nights.

"The U.S. government spends $9 billion dollars a month on overseas military operations," said Cindy Sheehan, "We are traveling to Korea to witness first-hand how U.S. tax dollars are being spent to destroy Korean farm lands, homes, schools and lives."

According to Kisuk Yom, head of the Korean-American coalition leading the U.S. delegation, "There is no democracy for elderly villagers whose farmlands were stolen. The South Korean public, too, has been silenced, yet they are the ones who will suffer the consequences of a future military conflict."

On Nov. 22, the delegation will join the nationwide mobilization against the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. One million Koreans are expected to take to the streets in Seoul. "The proposed FTA will dramatically expand the failed model of NAFTA," says Christine Ahn, policy analyst with the Korea Policy Institute. "We will let the Korean people know what NAFTA has meant for working Americans: factories shutting down and farms falling into foreclosure."

Korean Americans against War and Neoliberalism, (KAWAN), a coalition of U.S.-based Korean organizations working to stop the passage of the FTA and the expansion of the U.S. military base, is the sponsor and organizer of the trip. "We hope this delegation will return to the U.S. to tell the American people about the true human cost of the U.S. military expansion in Korea," said Hyukkyo Suh, Executive Director of National Association of Korean Americans. "Korea is a democratic and sovereign nation, and the Korean people want -- as they deserve -- to make decisions that will affect their lives for years to come."

CONTACTS:
Young Choe, 347-885-9226
Sonny Le, 510-919-0790
Christine Ahn, 310-482-9333 or 011-82-10-5846-8020 (in Korea, Nov 20-24)

Here was the comment I wrote to the poster of the article:

Thanks for posting this

I wasn't aware this was happening, so I'm grateful you are bringing my attention to it.

This article set off a lot of alarm bells for me, because the tone of the article seems extremely misleading, and I can't help but wonder if Sheehan herself was misled into making the trip.

I say this specifically because of the sentence:

"We hope this delegation will return to the U.S. to tell the American people about the true human cost of the U.S. military expansion in Korea," said Hyukkyo Suh, Executive Director of National Association of Korean Americans.

The fact is, the expansion of the Pyeongtaek Military base is part of an overall plan of the REDUCTION AND CONSOLIDATION of US Military forces to lower the US military's footprint on the peninsula. As a very liberal Missourian that lives in Seoul, and is active in the Korea chapter of Democrats Abroad, I can say the plan is a good thing for US-Korea relations.

"Under the 2004 agreement, the United States is required to gradually hand back 170 million square meters of land _ housing 42 military bases and facilities _ across the country by 2011. In return, Seoul promised to offer 12 million square meters of land to expand Camp Humphreys and Osan Air Base in Pyongtaek, which is some 70 kilometers south of Seoul."

Of course I sympathize with anyone forced off their land. However, this highly unethical method of removing them was the actions of the Korean government, and not the US government, which has tried to respond to Korean public sentiment.

Which brings me to this other quote from the original article:

"The U.S. government spends $9 billion dollars a month on overseas military operations," said Cindy Sheehan, "We are traveling to Korea to witness first-hand how U.S. tax dollars are being spent to destroy Korean farm lands, homes, schools and lives."

This quote also makes me think that Sheehan doesn't really understand the situation, as I seriously doubt that any US tax dollars were involved in the "operation" to move the protesters and the SMALL amount of villagers that hadn't yet moved off the land away.

US Forces Korea are in a situation where they just can't make everyone happy. I am not in the military here, but all Americans here, as well as any "American-looking" people, in some way, feel it when the anti-American flames are stoked, and I fear that Mrs. Sheehan is playing into the hands of those Koreans that are moved as much by xenophobia and racism as they are legitimate grievances against the US, because it is exactly those grievances that led to this new re-alignment of troops, and now they are protesting the very concessions they were asking for.