PSY wars (Gangnam style)

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

12/10/2012

Daily Tribune

This was the New York Times report I picked up from another article, "The PSY Scandal: Singing About Killing People v Constantly Doing It," by Glenn Greenwald on the Information Clearing House: "In 2004, PSY rapped on a South Korean metal band's song, 'Dear American,' at a protest concert, The Washington Post reported. 'Kill those f—ing Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives,' he said. 'Kill those f—ing Yankees who ordered them to torture. Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers. Kill them all slowly and painfully…' Two years earlier, after a pair of Korean schoolgirls were mowed down by a US-operated armored vehicle, PSY again expressed vitriol toward America. Onstage, he smashed a plastic model of a US tank into pieces as the crowd cheered, The Korea Herald reported."

The first time I saw the artist known as PSY was on a CNN TV interview. I took no interest at all. When the news channel showed his "Gangnam Style" music video with his white tuxedo and silly hand gestures with legs flapped in and out, I wondered why CNN would put such an inane figure on at all.
I still don't get how this "Gangnam Style" got the fancy of the world, but now I know that it first went "viral" on the Internet. This apparently also got the curiosity of the Washington presidential party planner who included PSY in the White House Christmas party program.
But just two weeks before the party, someone dug up a decade-old YouTube video showing the rabidly anti-American rap that PSY performed then. The short New York Times article said, "PSY apologized… adding that the song in question is from nearly a decade ago, and was 'part of a deeply emotional reaction to the war in Iraq and the killing of two Korean schoolgirls.'"

Protests briefly ensued in various US venues, including the Internet, demanding PSY be pulled out of the Christmas program. Despite this, PSY is still on for Obama's party. One Web site said, "Look, even if you're still outraged about PSY going, just hold in your anger for a few days and come Christmas we'll all get a GIF of President Obama doing the 'Gangnam Style' dance. That alone would be worth it."
The US and some of its people may get a kick out of PSY's "Gangnam Style" but I wonder why PSY would still perform for a US president who represents quite literally a deadly "Gangsta" over the whole world — especially The Third World — ripping out brains and innards of babies, women, and children; bombing with drones in wild abandon, on villages in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Yemen and once in Mindanao; and arming Syrian rebels and al-Qaeda.

Glenn Greenwald enumerated a long list of US criminal campaigns all over the world to highlight the irony of the PSY performance before the US President. He begins with a report from The Guardian: "The US military is facing fresh questions over its targeting policy in Afghanistan after a senior army officer suggested that troops were on the lookout for 'children with potential hostile intent'… In comments which legal experts and campaigners described as 'deeply troubling,' Army Lt. Col. Marion Carrington told the Marine Corp Times that children, as well as 'military-age males,' had been identified as a potential threat because some were being used by the Taliban to assist in attacks against Afghan and coalition forces…"
Indeed, the US is laying the ground for legally justifying its unmanned airborne attacks against the children of the Third World.
The statistics of drone victims (culled from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism) are deadly and growing:
Pakistan — Total reported killed: 2,593-3,387 / Civilians reported killed: 472-885 / Children reported killed: 176 / Total reported injured: 1,255-1,408;
Yemen — Total reported killed (all): 362-1,062 / Total civilians killed (all): 60-173 / Children killed (all): 24-35;
Somalia — Total reported killed: 58-170 / Civilians reported killed: 11-57 / Children reported killed: 1-3.
There are many other Web sites that cite higher civilian death proportions and are equally credible given the highly difficult nature of the information, but even these stats we have already show unacceptable levels of civilian deaths. Still, whatever the level of civilian deaths (even with confirmed "militants"), the use of drones is still legally untenable and even many US legal luminaries question whether it can stand in any court of law. Question is: Would gangsters care?

When PSY capitulated and apologized just to perform before the US president, he pretty much revealed his vacuous nature. But in my mind, the sensible lyrics from his song "Dear American" still reverberate: "Try those f—ing Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives… Try those f — ing Yankees who ordered them to torture." Try them, indeed. Hopefully, PSY can still regain his sanity after all this media frenzy dies down.

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