\u201cBuy me drink, GI?\u201d Well, from now on:\u00a0 if you\u2019re stationed in Korea, in those establishments known as \u201cjuicy bars\u201d the answer damn well better be, \u201cSorry \u2013 no.\u201d<\/p>\n
How so? Well, it seems that the USFK CG just made that against regulations \u2013 and thus unlawful under Article 92, UCMJ.<\/p>\n
Seriously<\/a>.<\/p>\n Why? It seems as if some \u201cjuicy bars\u201d were suspected of being a front for, or otherwise associated with, the skin trade.<\/p>\n No! Say it isn\u2019t so! I\u2019m shocked, shocked!\u00a0 Scandal!<\/p>\n Hell, General, I\u2019m guessing that\u2019s been the case since not too long after the first bar of any kind on Earth opened – probably in Ancient Egypt or China. Money talks. And where there\u2019s money to be made, you\u2019ll find practitioners of trade – no matter what trade you\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n Look, I don’t approve of the skin trade.\u00a0 I think engaging in sex-for-hire, either as a customer or a service provider, is stupid – pathetic, actually.\u00a0 And no, we shouldn’t be encouraging it.<\/p>\n But sometimes, young men with spare $$$ (and at least some young women, too) are gonna go out looking for a temporary \u201cgood time\u201d. I don\u2019t care how many stars you have on your shoulder, you\u2019re not going to change 10,000 years or more of human behavior by making a pronouncement from on high.\u00a0 Nor are you going to end the world’s oldest profession by fiat.<\/p>\n In my book, treating the troops as adults plus hammering miscreants when caught would be a far more effective way to deal with this. Hiring a prostitute is already against the UCMJ.<\/p>\n The troops can deal with that; they’re adults, and deserve to be treated as such.\u00a0 Seems like their chain-of-command should be able handle the situation equally well.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s just my opinion – one obviously not shared by the guy currently in charge in Korea. These days, they seem rather to like using mass punishment in the \u201cLand of the Morning Calm\u201d<\/a> instead of providing their troops adult leadership.<\/p>\n I’m pretty sure the USFK leadership has any number of more important things to worry about than Joe buying a bar girl a drink, anyway.\u00a0 If they don’t . . . well, then maybe they just don’t really need to be Generals any more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"