If you ever wanted to see how politics gets soldiers killed, you should watch what South Korea is doing right now.
Even I can see it, and I've never been a soldier.
The Roh administration tried to please those opposed to the Iraq war by sending "non-combatants" (translate "good guys") instead of combat units.
Of course, it satisfied nobody.
The idea was to free up US soldiers by South Korea leading a group to secure an area of Iraq for the Iraqis.
The idea was *NOT* to send a group of Koreans that would require the US (or somebody) to use up more combat troops to secure THEM --- which would be more difficult to do for several thousand "non-combatants" than the 600 Korea sent before.
Nor was the idea to send Koreans as target practice for the Hussein loyalists....
So now, from what Marmot noted, the US has said "No" to taking on several thousand Korean non-combatants...
The Roh administration is again trying to "split the difference" between what the Americans want (and as Marmot notes what Koreans who desire "influence" in global affairs want) and those anti-American elements in the guise of pacifists who are fighting the dispatch want.
They are trying to fudge around the numbers between how many "non-combatants" and combat soldiers they will send to Iraq.
It seems right now they are trying to keep it at 50/50.
This is how people get killed through politics.
The first criteria for sending troops should be whether they can get the job designed done or not.
The second should be whether they have enough force to protect themselves while doing the job.
If neither of those two can be met, for whatever reasons, the troops should stay home.
Korea is steadily heading down the road to sending its soldiers into a hostile area without the ability to protect themselves much less securing an area of Iraq for the Iraqi people.
If neither of those two can be met, for whatever reasons, the troops should stay home.
Korea is steadily heading down the road to sending its soldiers into a hostile area without the ability to protect themselves much less securing an area of Iraq for the Iraqi people.
It is natural soldiers will die in a combat zone, but they are not supposed to be die because politicians tie their hands and send them places without adequate forethought for the MILITARTY situation....
because they are too fixated on the POLITICAL one......
because they are too fixated on the POLITICAL one......