Psy the Useful Idiot

Useful Idiot: "In political jargon, useful idiot is a pejorative term for people perceived as propagandists for a cause whose goals they do not understand, and who are used cynically by the leaders of the cause."

Psy is the teddy-bearish American-educated Korean pop singer who became world-famous with his fluffy fun and quirky viral Youtube hit, Gangnam Style.

Except in a 2004 concert, Psy rapped a song that looks like something penned by an al Qaeda lyricist:

싸이 rap : 이라크 포로를 고문해 댄 씨발양년놈들과
고문 하라고 시킨 개 씨발 양년놈들에
딸래미 애미 며느리 애비 코쟁이 모두 죽여
아주 천천히 죽여 고통스럽게 죽여

Translation:
Kill those fucking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives
Kill those fucking Yankees who ordered them to torture
Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law, and fathers
Kill them all slowly and painfully

Rokdrop.com has solid coverage of the Psy controversy and a detailed account of the 2002 accident given as an excuse for Psy's anti-American views. Anti-American groups exploited the tragic accident to incite anti-American sentiment in South Korea. Their vicious propaganda/misinformation campaign reads exactly like the playbook used to attack President Bush and America's War on Terror campaigns, including the opportunistic complicity of media and politicians who exploited the mob anger to advance their own interests.

In addition to the 2002 accident, the other reason given for Psy's song is anger over the terrorist beheading of Kim Sun-Il in Iraq in June 2004. Rather than reacting to the Kim beheading by supporting the American and Korean efforts to defend Iraq from terrorists and help the Iraqi people build a new nation after Saddam, Psy instead supported the agenda of the terrorists who beheaded Kim.

Psy blamed Americans for the suffering in post-war Iraq despite that US and allied forces were urgently trying to secure and stabilize Iraq, rebuild Iraq, and protect the peace-builders and Iraqi people from the Islamic terrorist onslaught. Psy seems unbothered by the actual torture inflicted by terrorists and, instead, vilified as "torture" the efforts by US-led forces desperately trying to stop the daily atrocities that terrorists were committing in Iraq. Psy seemingly was unfazed by the relentless stream of the terrorists' mass murders, kidnappings, tortures, assassinations, other sundry acts of terror inflicted on the Iraqi people, and non-stop efforts to foment civil war in Iraq. Instead, Psy directed his anger towards the Americans and Koreans fighting to build the peace in Iraq.

Fortunately, the ROK resisted the pressure to abandon the Iraqi people and honored the commitment South Korea made to Iraq before completing its military mission as scheduled in 2008.

Based on what I've heard so far, I don't believe Psy made a deliberate choice to be a terrorist spokesman, though he acted like one. I believe Psy was bamboozled into being a useful-idiot celebrity who boosted the Islamic terrorist cause to expel foreign aid from Iraq so the terrorists could dominate Iraq and the north Korean cause to divide South Korea from its chief ally and lifetime defender.

Today, Psy will perform in person for President Obama and the First Lady in Washington DC for a TNT Christmas special to be aired on December 21. In a sane America, Psy would be removed from the program and President Obama would give Psy a stern public rebuke with a history lesson explaining why Psy was wrong. That won't happen, though, because President Obama was one of the opportunistic self-serving politicians who were complicit in the vicious propaganda/misinformation campaign that attacked President Bush and the critical Iraq mission. Publicly rebuking Psy would mean repudiating the root cause of Obama's rise to the Presidency. I expect Obama will accept Psy's apology, whitewash Psy's terrorist-concordant message, and perhaps even legitimate Psy's useful-idiotic "opinions".

Eric