Left Flank

Allies don't let allies look bad. The Bush administration bought the steer, and now it has to keep it kicking. The Lee administration hit a few bumps before the beef issue, but the US had a hand in undermining Lee Myung-bak, too. Arrogance never works in the South Korean street.

The core of the issue is the 30-month stipulation, and, contrary to what TMH thinks about the South Korean street's grasp of economics, there is a counter-argument.

But the U.S. government must take a breath and give things a second thought at this critical juncture. There are not many concrete benefits the U.S. can gain by pushing ahead with exports of beef from cattle 30 months or older. In 2003, such meat accounted for less than 5 percent of total American beef exports to Korea. In money terms, it was less than US$40 million out of a total $800 million. In the future, consumption of U.S. beef from cattle 30 months or older may dwindle or disappear altogether. In that case, it would be more beneficial for U.S. cattle farmers to alleviate worries felt by the Korean public by giving up on this kind of beef. That would be the way to increase American beef consumption in Korea.

If you look at it, the U.S. does not have to export beef from cattle 30 months or older because of surplus stocks. There's actually a shortage of this beef, usually used in hamburger meat after being ground up, so the U.S. had to import 1.38 million tons of Australian and New Zealand beef last year. There is no reason for the U.S. government to insist on exporting beef from cattle 30 months or older.

The rest is angry, over-inflated rhetoric from left and right  One example of a conservative overreaction to the beef fracas is GI Korea's, whose opinions I generally prefer over the rest of the ROK expat blogosphere.

The anti-Lee Myung-bak theme I increasingly see being promoted by the anti-US groups because I believe the anti-US groups have to frame this issue as an anti-Lee Myung-bak issue and not an anti-American issue because the foreign media is beginning to take notice of what is going on.  If the anti-US groups kept arguing their non-sensical reasons to deny US beef imports the foreign media would shred their arguments and make these people a global laughing stock.  So now they are attempting to frame it as an anti-Lee issue.

However, if this was an anti-Lee issue then why are they still demanding non-sensical US beef import regulations? The fact is that the protest leaders are saying it is an anti-Lee issue in order to obscure the issue with the foreign media and score political points against Lee while the average Korean on the street still thinks he is genetically disposed to mad cow disease and that the US government is intentionally trying to kill Koreans...

Obviously, the ROK media's unscientific scare tactics are deplorable, but the the unfairness of 30-month stipulation, when other US allies are not similarly obligated, was an invitation to a tactical response. The unscientific scare tactics are unethical, but the US forced the foul.

Seoul Buffoon risks the opposite extreme: blaming Lee Myung-bak excessively.

There are many questions needed to be answered. What do all the South Koreans in the Streets, or indeed, all over ROK, believe? How were the negotiations between the US and ROK conducted? What is happening within the Lee administration? There's far too much confusion here for any conclusions. The status of an alliance is worth the extra effort.