SEOUL, Aug 16 (Reuters) - North Korea has concluded that U.S. soldier Travis King wants refuge there or elsewhere because of “inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination” in the U.S. and the military, state media said on Wednesday.
It was the North’s first public acknowledgement of the army private’s crossing from South Korea on July 18 while on a civilian tour of the Joint Security Area (JSA) on the heavily fortified border between the neighbours.
“During the investigation, Travis King confessed that he had decided to come over to the DPRK as he harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army,” KCNA said, using the North’s official name.
In August, King’s uncle, Myron Gates, told ABC News that his nephew, who is Black, was experiencing racism during his military deployment, and that after he spent time in a South Korean jail, he did not sound like himself.
It added that King’s mother had been in touch with the Army and appreciated a statement by the U.S. Department of Defense that it remained focused on bringing him home.
A spokesman for the United Nations Command (UNC), which oversees the border village where King crossed, said he did not have anything to add to previous statements.
People who join the military aren’t exactly known for being smart.
Or more accurately, the military wouldn’t want you if you are too smart. They want the average person that can understand basic commands without being too smart to question it.
Not surprising at all that a military person decided to do this.
Edit: On the other hand. Maybe he’s actually a genius attempting a “becoming a propaganda tool” gambit. North Korea wouldn’t lose much for treating him good, and they can make him say things on camera about how “bad” the US is. As long as North Korea deems him useful, he might actually live a decent life. But thats dependent on North Korea doesn’t just decide to get rid of him once they decide that they don’t like him anymore.
lol what. You literally need to pass a test to join the military at all. And it's a pen-and-ink test with science, math and physics problems. Not a "can you follow commands" test.
they might maybe want meatheads for some positions but theres a lot you dont want meat heads for. like you dont want your nuclear techs to be meat heads.
Weird take. Plenty of people join the military because it’s their best immediate option career wise. As for the military not wanting you if you’re too smart - they try to recruit college educated people all the time and the higher you score on their exams the better. The US military is huge and diverse, I’m not sure I understand the point you’re making.
Strange thing, that asvab. The people in the Navy that scored the highest were also the dumbest. On top of that, the Navy told 'em to go play with all their nuclear toys.
Obeying a chain of command does not mean you have to be dumb. As a matter of fact, it is every person’s job in the military to report unlawful orders and not follow orders blindly.
Additionally, the entire command structure in most American branches is setup for each unit to operate somewhat independently. As an example, a general or admiral says: “I want those 10sq miles flattened by tomorrow and here is all the equipment it should take to do it.” Every division, unit or whatever, figures out how to do it. If they have problems, they can reassess the situation on the ground and report back up that a strategy is or is not working. Units on the ground can coordinate with other units to ensure a smooth attack.
In Russia, the chain of command doesn’t work like that. The generals will tell units what to do, and that is that: One unit attack from the east, the other from the west and hopefully they don’t start shooting at each other.
(I over-simplified a ton, but you get the idea.)
Also, the military absolutely wants you if you are too smart. The problem is, those smart people can get 20x the pay with half the shit in the private sector.
When I was in the Navy, two of my five years were spent in school learning electronics, radios and computers. (I slept through IT school since I could have probably taught the classes anyway.)
This used to happen occasionally during the cold war. US/NATO defecting to the USSR didn’t happen often, but it did happen occasionally.
You’ve already gotten read on that take on the military, so I’m not going to bother with that. I will say that it seems like this young person has some mental and behavioral issues, given his rank at his age and his disciplinary history. I would think he’s not someone who tends to make sound judgments or think things through.
In general, the military tries to actively avoid people with these kinds of issues, and will generally not reward this kind of behavior when it comes up. There are a lot of things you can point a finger at the military about with regard to behavior toward civilians or abuse within the ranks, but in this case it looks to me like things were more or less working, to the point that he decided to run away and join the circus.
I would put it another way. The military had a great number of members who are very smart and also very dumb. Some are going to make incredibly dumb decisions.
King, who joined the U.S. Army in January 2021, faced two allegations of assault in South Korea, and eventually pleaded guilty to one instance of assault and destroying public property for damaging a police car during a profanity-laced tirade against Koreans, according to court documents. He was due to face more disciplinary measures when he arrived back in the United States.
LOL. How come every black person didn’t try to free themselves from slavery? How come every black person didn’t become a civil rights activist? How come every black person didn’t march on Washington, become a conductor on the underground railroad, or join the Black Panthers?
Your grasp on what it means for an issue to be systemic is ridiculous.
On the one hand people should be allowed to flee oppressive regimes without being met by the army… on the other, Putin poisoned that well by flooding eastern Ukraine with false “immigrants” who then “voted” to join Russia. Not hard to believe Lukashenko would be using the same playbook.
Also, the idea that Lukashenko has been stopping Wagner from attacking Poland is absolutely wild. With Russia now publicly funding the group, wouldn’t that be considered an attack on NATO?
VILNIUS, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Latvia’s defence minister ordered the army to help guard the Baltic country’s border with Russian ally Belarus on Tuesday, after 96 attempts by illegal immigrants to cross in 24 hours.
Latvia has “information about a possible increase in hybrid threats”, the Border Guard said in a statement.
Belarusian authorities were increasingly involved in organising the flow of illegal immigrants, it said.
EU members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which share a border with Belarus, have worried increasingly about border crossings since hundreds of Russian battle-hardened Wagner mercenaries arrived Belarus last month at the invitation of President Alexander Lukashenko.
Lukashenko has said several times that he has been restraining Wagner fighters who want to attack Poland.
Poland has also seen an increase in the number of mainly Middle Eastern and African migrants trying to cross the border in recent months.
Westerners love to fantasize about how “China is Collapsing” while their economies are in complete disarray. I’m no defender of their State Capitalist Police State, but China’s definitely doing better than the US is lmao and they certainly are in a better
Like all this shit about “demographic collapse” is complete bullshit. Isn’t it a good thing that the population of the world’s most populous country is decreasing? Doesn’t that mean more resources to go around? Wouldn’t people in China then enjoy a higher Standard of Living, Cheaper food and Housing? At the very least they’ll be in a better shape to handle the climate catastrophe we’re going into. Something the West is not even trying to address.
I had some funky heart rate issues after the second vaccine. I couldn’t exercise for a few months because it would go bonkers with palpitations and arrhythmia. Tests came back negative for myocarditis but I never had such issues before.
Now I hear that studies exist claiming almost 1 in 35 vaccinated have some kind of heart injury, and though I take it with a grain of salt until there is more data, I might be sitting this one out. I recently got COVID-19 and while it sucked for a couple days, I came through it just fine.
“Heart injury” being enough inflammation to mildly elevate inflammatory markers on day three after vaccination, which went back to normal quickly in all participants studied. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37470105/
I get that anecdotes are not evidence. But each person has their own physical makeup and experience and I’m only sharing mine. It did not go back to normal for me quickly, it took months.
I’m happy that it worked great for others. I am an advocate for vaccines and my children have all their vaccinations. But I will not be getting this vaccine for myself.
I can appreciate that. I just wanted to make it clear that the study you are referring to does not describe “heart injuries” in the way that most people think of when they hear the phrase, or in the way you experienced.
reuters.com
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