Chapter 385 Good News

Chapter 385 Good News

Chapter 385 Good News

Although South Korea calls itself the so-called "Republic of Korea", in fact, this country occupying the southern tip of the peninsula and living in a remote corner is actually a small country. This is what is meant by a small population and a weak country.

If it had not received military support from the United States decades ago due to geopolitical struggles, the country called the "Republic of Korea" would have ceased to exist long ago.

In fact, not only South Korea, but the entire peninsula, has been a poor little country that has always had to rely on the big powers to survive in the past thousands of years.

Because of this, two attributes have long been developed in this country: one is extreme vanity generated by extreme inferiority complex, and the other is the fence-sitting nature of changing with the wind. These two attributes are not only rooted in the people, but also in the roots of national politics, and even the media organizations have the same nature.

Ever since the drug trafficking scandal involving US troops in South Korea was exposed, since the scandal involves US troops in South Korea and is an extremely sensitive topic, not only have the political and judicial circles remained silent on the scandal, but the mainstream media in South Korea have also mostly avoided discussing this issue.

And now, this topic has suddenly been discussed more frequently in programs of various TV stations. The fundamental reason for this is that the military police of the US Forces Korea Command have made certain statements on this incident. As a result, media organizations with a keen sense of smell have begun to take action and show certain tendencies.

An Rushong understood the problem here, so he did not take the report in the Hankook Ilbo seriously. He even thought that maybe those progressives were planning to use such reports to alienate the relationship between him and President Lee Min-bo.

After just a quick glance at the Peninsula on the newspaper, An Rusong folded the newspaper and threw it directly on the coffee table in front of him. He then glanced at Jenny beside him and said, "You came here specially, didn't you just use this newspaper to laugh at me?"

Jenny held the coffee cup in both hands, rolled her eyes at him charmingly, and said, “Of course not, I’m here to tell you some good news.”

"Oh?" An Rusong raised his eyebrows and said, "What good news? Could it be that Washington is preparing to take action to catch all those drug dealers in one fell swoop?"

"That's not the case," Jenny said with a smile, "but it is related to this."

She said this casually, and then added, "I just received news that the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Defense has appointed Logan Elijah as a representative to come to Seoul to investigate drug trafficking cases involving US troops stationed in South Korea. If nothing goes wrong, he will arrive in Seoul the day after tomorrow afternoon."

An Rushong sat up straight. This was indeed good news for him.

The Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Defense is affiliated with the Pentagon. Its duty is to investigate illegal and disciplinary violations in the military, especially serious ones. Since the relevant investigation is led by this agency, it means that the Pentagon has indeed attached great importance to this case.

Of course, An Rushong knew better in his mind that the reason why the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Defense intervened in the investigation of relevant cases was probably not simply because the impact of the scandal was too bad, but because in the political struggle in the Pentagon, General Thurman's side had the upper hand.

To be honest, An Rushong doesn't care whether the drug trafficking case of the US troops stationed in South Korea can be thoroughly investigated. What he needs is that people like General Thurman and Leonard can win the political struggle in the Pentagon. Only if these people win can he gain something.

"Logan Elijah is a current senator from New Jersey," Jenny continued, "and his positions have always been clear."

An Rushong listened very carefully. In fact, the information Jenny said was not thorough enough, but An Rushong could understand what she meant.

As we all know, members of the U.S. Congress, whether they are senators or representatives, have their own political stances. They either belong to the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. At the same time, each state in the United States also has its own political stance, which is the so-called red state and blue state.

New Jersey is a blue state in terms of political stance, and is also a so-called "blue wall state". It tends to support the Democratic Party in elections. Therefore, Logan Elijah, as a senator elected by the state, naturally belongs to the Democratic Party. In the past, An Rusong had many speculations about the political stances of General Thurman, Leonard and others, but he never got accurate information. Now, the answer should be in front of him.

Although he understood clearly, An Rusong still said hesitantly: "It is one thing to have a clear position, but how to look at the problem is another."

After a pause, he continued, "Do you think that Logan Elijah will thoroughly investigate the drug trafficking of soldiers after he comes to Seoul?"

"Does it matter whether he will investigate this matter thoroughly?" Jenny looked at him in surprise and asked, "In fact, it doesn't matter whether the person who came is Logan Elijah or someone else. What matters is that the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Defense is involved in this matter. As long as there is this fact in front of it, it can already explain the position of the Pentagon."

Well, the two of them were not on the same wavelength. An Rusong was actually being hypocritical when he said that. He was doubting whether Logan Elijah could be fair and bring drug traffickers among the US troops stationed in South Korea to justice. After all, he was the "conscience of the Republic of Korea". How could he be considered a "conscience" if he didn't have a mentality of worrying about the country and the people?
As for Jenny, she didn't even consider the issue of "conscience". She thought that since the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Defense had intervened in the investigation of the case, it was equivalent to the Pentagon making a clear statement: they no longer trusted the current senior officials of the US Forces Korea Command. So, even if Logan Elijah didn't find anything during his trip to Korea, the senior US military officials in Korea, including General Walter Sharp, would have to choose to resign on their own. Otherwise, they might not be able to keep even the last bit of dignity.

Once General Sharp resigns, who will be the next commander of US forces in South Korea?
According to the general thinking, even if General Sharp leaves office, his successor cannot be General Thurman, who leans towards the Democratic Party. After all, the person sitting in the White House now is still President Bush from the Republican Party. Although the Pentagon has a great say in the selection of the commander of the US forces in South Korea, the final decision is still made by the US president.

But the reality is that in the midterm elections two years ago, President Bush's Republican Party not only lost control of the House of Representatives, but also lost the majority of seats in the Senate. In the past two years, the Republican Party only controlled 435 seats out of 203 seats in the House of Representatives, which is a minority. In the Senate, the Republican Party only controls 49 seats, slightly less than the 51 seats held by the Democratic Party.

Therefore, President Bush Jr. is actually similar to President Roh, who just stepped down. Both are lame presidents. If they do not choose to cooperate and compromise with the opposition party, they will not be able to do anything.

In the United States, over the past two years, the Democratic Party has been using issues such as the Iraq War, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and social security reform to criticize Bush's administration and create trouble for him. The "washing powder" joke was made up by the Democratic Party during this period. The exposure of the drug trafficking scandal of US troops in South Korea can actually be seen as being pushed behind the scenes by the Democratic Party.

Therefore, considering that Bush Jr. only has six months left in his term and he has lost effective control of both houses of Congress, if he wants to successfully complete the remaining six months of his presidency, he will probably have to compromise with the opposition Democratic Party on some minor issues.

What is the core issue for Bush today? Undoubtedly, the war on terror is the core issue in foreign affairs, because it is the only policy that Bush can promote during his two terms as president. Compared with the war on terror, the leadership of the US troops in South Korea is a secondary issue that Bush can compromise on.

As for the Democratic Party, the so-called "re-engagement in the Asia-Pacific" strategy was not proposed by Obama himself. It was a response strategy specifically proposed by the Democratic Party to counter the Republican Party's "global counter-terrorism" strategy.

Since we are talking about "returning to the Asia-Pacific", the US troops stationed in South Korea and Japan must be moved to a more important level in the US foreign strategic map. Therefore, it is very important for the Democratic Party to arrange for their own people to occupy the position of commander of US troops in South Korea.

In short, the reason why the drug trafficking scandal of US troops in South Korea caused such a huge chain reaction is not because of how hard An Rushong worked, but because behind this scandal lies the sharp bipartisan struggle in the United States.

Just by hearing what Jenny said, An Rushong knew that she didn't understand what he meant. He smiled and was about to say something else when he heard the clear sound of a cell phone ringing in Jenny's pocket.

Jenny sat up straight, took out her cell phone from her pocket, looked at the screen, made a gesture to An Rushong to keep quiet, and when she saw him nod, she pressed the answer button on the phone.

Not knowing who was calling, Jenny put the phone to her ear, said a few "hmm" and "ah" in response, and quickly hung up.

"Senator Elijah will arrive in Seoul today," Jenny said, holding the phone in her hand and looking at An Rusong, "The colonel asked me to tell you that the senator will invite you to lunch tomorrow at noon."

(End of this chapter)