Not a surprise. I have several close friends who served in South Korea in recent years. This is the mentality of many modern day South Koreans. They hate Americans and want to reunite North/South Korea and are extremely disrespectful to American soldiers.

I personally don't care what PSY thinks. I will never deal with him personally and so it doesn't really affect me one way or another. I feel sorry for those few who don't feel the same way. Anyone with a South Korean background will be judged by PSY's actions.

"This is the mentality of many modern day South Koreans"

...and Europeans, and Africans, and Russians, and Australians, and...

This bigoted statement is offensive.  South Korea is a rich and complex society that cannot be defined in such simple terms.

As an American who lived in South Korea, I can assure you that a majority of South Koreans have positive feelings about the U.S. and it's inhabitants.

However, I can also confirm American soldiers are treated "disrespectfully" at times.  This is due in part to a track record of binge drinking and violence rather than any ideological concerns.  As South Korea is a nation with a remarkably low level of violent crime, they do not take kindly to rowdy bar fights.  Accordingly, soldiers are not allowed in a number of bars and restaurants and are not welcomed in certain areas.

Moreover, foreigners can face negative treatment often due to foreigners' reputations and track records of not following relatively strict social standards and being in South Korea to earn money that they will, in turn, take back to their home countries.

This piece of Korean excrement should be droned.

you sound even worse than them

"Most Americans are deeply troubled about what happened, too."

You struck a fine balance in your post.

Most Americans are not troubled at all over 'what happened'.

But that doesn't change the fact that the lyrics suck.

If you ask any American if they thought the Iraq war was a good idea most will say no.  It's a black mark for most.

Many, yes -- most?  I dunno . . . we re-elected Bush didn't we?

The best thing that can result from this scandal is that we have an honest appraisal/conversation about our foreign policy.  How much $$ are we spending in Afghanistan when we need updated infrastructure and jobs right here

Andre, 

You've forced me to reconsider the opening salvo on this piece. I'm going to update it.  Because you're right: I'm probably speaking more from my circle than all of America.  It's a giant place.  And, there are a lot of Americans that simply do not care.

/paul

Perhaps you'd also like to reconsider the 'what happened' part?

The rapes, the violence, the deaths of 100,000 innoncent Iraqis and the destruction of their country did not 'happen' because of a hurricane, an earthquake or a severe case of bad luck.

The atrocities were directly and indisputable caused by the decisions and actions of one man, and they will never be forgotten.

@ Andre "How much $$ are we spending in Afghanistan when we need updated infrastructure and jobs right here"

The problem with Afghanistan is America helped create the problems by fighting a huge proxy war there, then pulling out leaving the country in a shambles..

Are you saying they should do it a SECOND TIME? When you make a mess.. you clean it up.. If a country doesnt want to pay for the cleaning up.. dont start the mess in the first place..

just sayin..

This comes as a surprise?

Are you guys still not aware how people all over the world feel about this subject?

So much denial, so little time...

Most people around the world lost respect for America a long time ago. Gee...could it be because the US has become a bully spreading this so called "democracy"...which is really a code word for destabilizing sovereign nations for their own personal interests?

Don't wanna get all political, but PSY is entitled to his own opionion and i respect him it.

"Most people around the world lost respect for America a long time ago."

That's not true. They lost respect for American foreign policy, but they love American culture and creativity.

...but he just loves those milions coming from the meme-loving America!  Oh yeah... that's why he's grovelling with an apology. 

Never seen anyone burn an American dollar.

Not sure why he would care about American money.

He happens to be quite popular all over the place, in case you haven't noticed...

OK, you're righht, he's global.  So let's carve out the American part of his revenues and donate it to Veterans groups?  

Surely no problem right?  He's global.

I'm sure Scooter Brown won't mind donating all that American cash to Veterans.

"So let's carve out the American part of his revenues and donate it to Veterans groups?"

Agree, if you're talking about Iraqi Veterans. They do need our support.

He shouldn't have appoligized at all. When the muslim countries went crazy unreasonably about a clip of personal video posted by an American, what did you, Americans, say? Freedom of speech, mates!!! You guys sound like all the same level of the crazy fanatics.

On the contrary, it is called being patriotic. When someone in your country says something, you stand behind them. When someone says something against your country, you stand up to them. Every country in the world has patriotic people that act the exact some way. Stop trying to bash Americans for no good reason.

"Every country in the world has patriotic people"

Yes, and Psy was one of them...

Yes, he is.

I don't like what he did. But I have no problem with him doing it. It was his right and that right needs to be defended.

Cool.

We are coming to liberate the shit out of you!

http://i.imgur.com/FGXdq.png

Not sure what Mr. Obama has to do with anything...

i blame Bush

No one else.

He's the reason for every stupid syllable in that song, and he belongs in Haag.

Oh, for gods sake get over yourselves already! the US has done some henious stuff during the last decades. Just because most Americans are not aware of it does not make this fact go away. Music has always been about saying something. Most of the world probably agrees with the general sentiment even if the working comes across rather harsh. As far as the Haag is concerned.....

Let the media frenzy begin.

Nations sending their citizens to kill citizens of other nations is horror.

But what has happened has happened many times before in US history and the history of many countries around the world.

Because the US invasion and occupation of Iraq is recent history people tend to get hysterical and start finger pointing and getting self righteous.

"Because the US invasion and occupation of Iraq is recent history people tend to get hysterical"

Let's see... we have been forced to hear Americans screaming & whining over 9/11 for more than ten years, and now you suggest we're hysterical because we would appreciate a bit of justice after the worst genocide in decades?

Right...

People may become hysterical all they want. Just don't expect anyone to listen for long.

Also, "Americans screaming and whining over 9/11" is not a good way to start a discussion on war and injustice.

Finally, I hope that you are from a country that has never sent it's citizens to war on it's own populace or another country, caused irreparable damage and failed to recompensate or even apologize. If you are then you are lucky because it is a very short list.

"Finally, I hope that you are from a country that has never sent it's citizens to war"

I'll always be on the side of the victims. If the leaders of my country destroy another state and kill its citizens, I'll do my best to bring them to justice.

"Bring them to justice" interesting that you use the same rhetoric that politicians often use to justify war.

What would be the justice that you would bring to these politicians?

They should be tried at The International Criminal Court.

And that's what's going to happen sooner or later.

I find it amazing that some people put so much faith in these international organizations that have proven to be corrupt and incapable of getting anything done. The ICC is no exception.

It's always complicated to investigate war crimes.

The political landscape often has to change before the work can begin, and it's often almost impossible to find the smoking gun.

What's different in this situation are the 400,000 (wiki-)leaked documents.

400,000 smoking guns.

Doesn't matter what they find. As long as the constitution defends the actions made, which it does, nothing can ever happen. You can only punish people for war crimes if the country that did the crimes cooperates, which is not going to happen.

Welcome to our global world...

I'm Korean currently living in New York and lived in Seoul for over 10 years when I was younger. I was in Korea when Psy sang that song expressing his anger towards Hyosun-Misun incident. I think what he sang as a public figure was not right, however, I'm pretty sure many Koreans felt the same way from the U.S. Army's inconsiderate and irresponsible actions after the tragedic incident. Also, if you know how it is part of our culture to take care of each other and to be proud of being Korean as one people, it would be understandable how the whole nation can arise from such an incident. 

If you're making comments solely based on the Psy's video back then, please read this artical about the incident, to which Psy consequently reacted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangju_highway_incident

"Also, if you know how it is part of our culture to take care of each other and to be proud of being Korean as one people, it would be understandable how the whole nation can arise from such an incident."

I agree with everything you say except the statement above: That pattern isn't specific for your culture. Everybody's like that.

It's patrionism, and it kills people.

Why did CNN push the 'ausjeon' intentionally imflammatory mistranslation without so much as a fact check, when they could see that it was being challenged right on their ireport page? Why did ABC and FOX take it up verbatim without stopping to verify?  I demand that you please stop promoting the "Yankee" translation.  It is 'aujeon' who is making these assertions of anti-Americanism which are not implied in the lyrics.

Why did CNN push the 'ausjeon' intentionally imflammatory mistranslation without so much as a fact check, when they could see that it was being challenged right on their ireport page? Why did ABC and FOX take it up verbatim without stopping to verify?  I demand that you please stop promoting the "Yankee" translation.  It is 'aujeon' who is making these assertions of anti-Americanism which are not implied in the lyrics.