Oops. We Leaked.

On one hand, we have timing that’s too awful to be true. On the other, we have a senior Uri leader, likely a shot-caller, as the leaker:

On Friday, Oh Young-sick, deputy floor leader of the Uri Party, revealed the ministry planned to seek the National Assembly’s approval to extend the deployment of troops in Iraq while reducing their numbers.

The announcement surprised many, including the White House; President Bush, seemingly oblivious of the plan, expressed his appreciation of Korea’s deployment at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Frederick Jones, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said the U.S. government did not receive any official advance notice of the matter.

Officials at the Defense Ministry, however, claimed they had been negotiating fully with American officials at a working level. “We discussed the plan various times with the United States,” said Ahn Gwang-chan, policy public relations chief for the Defense Ministry.

I can’t make much sense of it, but what is clear to me is South Korean demands in exchange for the deployment are likely out of proportion to the military value added. While it bears repeating that the Zaitun volunteers are brave men and women who deserve the thanks of the American and Iraqi people, it also bears repeating that their commanders have stuck them in a peaceful Kurdish area of Iraq, surrounded them with concrete barriers, and mostly kept them inside those barriers. Take ’em all home, I say, and send another brigade from Camp Hovey to take their place.