Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition
According to Yonhap News Agency, south Korea's Daegu District Court recently issued a judgment on a traffic accident case, in which the US troops in South Korea crashed into two cars and escaped, causing injuries to two drivers and being fined 15 million won. Recently, in Italy, Australia and other places, there have also been several vicious incidents of US soldiers drunk driving causing local casualties.
For a long time, the US military has been experiencing all kinds of misconduct and even illegal acts in overseas garrisons, which has had a negative impact on the lives of the people and social stability of the host countries. Experts pointed out that under the banner of "security cooperation," the US military stationed abroad boasts of maintaining the so-called "rules" and "order" in the host country, but it has substantial "extraterritorial jurisdiction," has long been above local laws, and has committed numerous evil deeds in the host country, causing public anger.
Bad deeds
In South Korea, incidents such as the US military's wanton drunk driving and picking quarrels and provoking troubles are not uncommon. In July, a traffic accident occurred in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, in which a U.S. soldier in South Korea collided with a car while driving a motorcycle while drunk and escaping after the accident. In March, a U.S. soldier in South Korea got drunk and stormed the streets of South Korea, not only cutting the sunshade tents of convenience stores, but also rowing 14 cars. South Korean police received the report and went to the police, but the American soldiers still refused to throw knives. Three days before the incident, two other U.S. troops in South Korea were also drunk and driving. What is worse is that after they could not escape, they also gathered their accomplices and beat up South Korean taxi drivers who were legitimately defending their rights, causing anger among the South Korean people.
The Korea Daily reported that from 2016 to 2021, there were more than 400 crimes related to the US military in South Korea every year, which is equivalent to at least one occurrence per day.
Similar incidents have occurred repeatedly in other U.S. military overseas locations. According to foreign media reports, on August 21, a traffic accident occurred in the city of Polcia in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region in northeastern Italy, in which a U.S. soldier drunk and drove, resulting in the death of a 15-year-old boy. The perpetrators had a blood alcohol content of 2.09 grams per liter, more than four times the criteria for determining drunk driving. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, some personnel of the US military have been secretly smuggling drugs such as methamphetamine to Australia.
In Japan, 70% of the U.S. military bases in Japan are concentrated in Okinawa. For a long time, the US military stationed in Japan has brought many problems to Okinawa such as criminal offenses, environmental and noise pollution, and the fall of military parts to Okinawa, and the local people are overwhelmed. According to Okinawa police statistics, from 1972 to 2020, the number of crimes committed by US troops and related personnel in Okinawa reached more than 6,000, including nearly 600 vicious cases such as homicide, robbery, arson and rape. In addition, traffic accidents caused by the US military have caused more than 4,000 deaths and injuries.
After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the US military did not comply with the local epidemic prevention and control requirements in overseas stations, and the management was chaotic, resulting in a serious spillover of the epidemic. According to Japan's Kyodo News Agency, U.S. troops stationed in Japan were once free to enter Japan because of the "Status of-Japan Agreement" and were not restricted by Japan's epidemic prevention policy. Previously, there had been a cluster infection in the US military base, causing a sharp deterioration of the epidemic situation in or adjacent areas of the base. South Korea is also suffering from the spread of the epidemic in the US military. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the behavior of the US military in South Korea in ignoring south Korea's epidemic prevention measures has been frequently reported, which has aroused strong criticism from South Korean public opinion.
A place of extralegal law
In March this year, the U.S. Department of Defense released a review report acknowledging that some military bases at home and abroad have a high risk of misconduct, and that the leadership of some high-risk military bases often does not take these violations as a priority to prevent them, resulting in frequent violations.
According to South Korean scholars, only 18.7% of the US soldiers in South Korea who committed violent crimes in 2017 were handed over to the South Korean judiciary by the US military. Only a small percentage of the criminals tried in South Korea can actually be brought to justice. According to the Korea Herald, nearly 70 percent of the U.S. troops who committed criminal offenses in South Korea were acquitted.
Australian analysts pointed out that it is generally difficult for U.S. troops stationed abroad to respect the human rights, religious beliefs and customs of local people. The reason is that the US military has neglected internal supervision and resisted external investigations, which in turn has led to a large number of cases that cannot be handled fairly.
Li Qingsi, a professor at the School of International Relations of Chinese Min University, pointed out to this reporter that the "Japan-US Status Agreement" signed in 1960 and the "Status of Forces in the ROK Agreement" signed in 1967 stipulate that US troops stationed abroad enjoy judicial privileges. In essence, the so-called "extraterritorial jurisdiction" of US troops stationed abroad is a legacy of the colonial era, a typical double standard and Western supremacy, which runs counter to the principle of equality of all countries, large and small, emphasized by the purposes of the UN Charter. For a long time, the United States, driven by hegemonic inertia and mentality, maintained an unequal relationship with its allies. The misconduct of the US military stationed abroad is a strong irony of the American values that the United States has always flaunted.
Yuan Zheng, a researcher at the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed in an interview with this reporter that the evil deeds of the US troops stationed abroad are difficult to prohibit, and they stem from many reasons. To sum up, through the signing of agreements with Japan, South Korea and other allies, the United States has made the US troops stationed abroad enjoy the so-called "judicial immunity", which has long been above the laws of the host countries, and the US military bases stationed abroad have become "extralegal places". Specifically, first, if AD soldiers stationed abroad violate the laws of the host country, they will often be handed over to the US side for handling, and they will be exempted from the legal sanctions of the host country, so that the soldiers have the fluke psychology of evading legal constraints. Second, the number of US troops stationed abroad is huge and they are neglected to strictly manage, and in the military environment where individualistic ideas prevail, some US soldiers have low quality and lack discipline. Third, U.S. troops stationed abroad who pride themselves on protecting the "security" of the host countries often have an extremely strong sense of self-superiority and are accustomed to being superior to others.
Protests continue
While the evil deeds of the US troops stationed abroad continue to be committed, the military expenditure of the US troops stationed in the ROK and japan shared by the ROK and Japan has been rising year after year, causing more dissatisfaction among the people of the two countries. From 2020 to 2025, South Korea's annual share of defense spending will be linked to that year's defense spending, and the upper limit on the increase will be lifted. In 2021, south Korea will bear 1.18 trillion won in defense costs, an increase of 13.9% year-on-year. According to the cost-sharing agreement for U.S. forces in Japan for the next five years, Japan will have to bear about 1.055 trillion yen in fiscal years from 2022 to 2026.
"In recent years, the United States has been demanding more military obligations from allies and has strengthened military cooperation with allies. The United States is accustomed to giving orders in a condescending posture, exposing the hegemonic nature in its bones. Yuan Zheng said.
For some time, the US military in South Korea has caused a continuous wave of protests among the people because of various bullying acts such as endangering the local society, forcing the sharing of military expenses, and provoking tensions. According to South Korean media reports, in the early morning of September 5, local time, in Seongju County, Gyeongsangbuk Province, a large number of South Korean people held a rally at the entrance of the base where the US military "THAAD" anti-missile system was deployed in South Korea to express protest. In August, people across South Korea held successive rallies in front of U.S. military bases in South Korea to oppose the joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises and demand that U.S. troops in South Korea withdraw from South Korea.
In April, a South Korean university professor submitted a petition to President Han calling for the closure of the biochemical laboratory at the U.S. military base, the revision of the unequal Status of Forces Agreement in South Korea, and the resolution of heavy metal pollution from the U.S. military's return to the base. The petition reads: "Although U.S. forces in South Korea are the subject of the so-called 'extraterritorial jurisdiction', nothing is more important than the safety of people's lives on issues related to national sovereignty." ”
The US military stationed in Japan has also attracted many critical voices. On May 15 this year, a large number of Okinawan people held rallies and demonstrations, complaining that US military bases have seriously affected residents' lives and economic development for decades, and demanding that all US military bases be cut or even withdrawn. According to a nationwide poll previously released by the Japan Broadcasting Association, about 80 percent of the respondents believe that the US military base in Japan should not be "piled up" in Okinawa.
Li Qingsi pointed out that in recent years, the contradictions between the US troops stationed abroad and japan and south Korea and other host countries have become more prominent on many issues such as social security, environmental protection, military expenditure sharing, and epidemic prevention and control, which have had a negative impact on the social stability and people's lives of the host countries. More and more people realize that the commitment of U.S. troops stationed in their home countries to provide so-called "security guarantees" creates more security problems. This has also greatly reduced the international image and soft power of the United States.