Why is the flag at half mast for the V-Tech victims?

The flag should be used to honor those that served their country with honor and not for the unfortunate who meet a tragic death. If the flag is to lowered for tragedy, we need shorter flag poles.

Soldier: Honor troops like Va. Tech dead
By ALISA TANG, Associated Press Writer Mon Apr 23, 11:16 AM ET

KABUL, Afghanistan - An Army sergeant complained in a rare opinion article that the U.S. flag flew at half-staff last week at the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan for those killed at Virginia Tech but the same honor is not given to fallen U.S. troops here and in Iraq.


In the article issued Monday by the public affairs office at Bagram military base north of Kabul, Sgt. Jim Wilt lamented that his comrades' deaths have become a mere blip on the TV screen, lacking the "shock factor" to be honored by the Stars and Stripes as the deaths at Virginia Tech were.

"I find it ironic that the flags were flown at half-staff for the young men and women who were killed at VT, yet it is never lowered for the death of a U.S. service member," Wilt wrote.

He noted that Bagram obeyed President Bush's order last week that all U.S. flags at federal locations be flown at half-staff through April 22 to honor 32 people killed at Virginia Tech by a 23-year-old student gunman who then killed himself.

"I think it is sad that we do not raise the bases' flag to half-staff when a member of our own task force dies," Wilt said.

According to the Defense Department, 315 U.S. service members have died in and around Afghanistan since the U.S.-led offensive that toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001, 198 of them in combat.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said that the flags of all its troop-contributing nations are flown at half-staff for about 72 hours after the service member's death "as a mark of respect when there is an ISAF fatality."

Sgt. 1st Class Dean Welch, who works with Wilt at the U.S.-led coalition public affairs office, said the essay is a "soldier's commentary, not the view of the coalition and not the view of the U.S. forces."

Welch added that such outspoken opinion pieces are rare.

Wilt suggested that flags should fly at half-staff on the base where the fallen service member was working and in the states where they hail from. He said some states do this, but not all of them.

He wrote that the death of a U.S. service member is just as violent as those at the university last week, but it lacks the "shock factor of the Virginia massacre."

"It is a daily occurrence these days to see X number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan scrolling across the ticker at the bottom of the TV screen. People have come to expect casualty counts in the nightly news; they don't expect to see 32 students killed," he wrote.

"If the flags on our (operating bases) were lowered for just one day after the death of a service member, it would show the people who knew the person that society cared, the American people care."

CHOsen to be a star and legend by NBC. My view.

I did five posts on the Virginia Tech slaughter. It was hard to do less. At no time did I post the picture of the evil little runt. On the contrary, I depicted the event with empty shell casings and for the runt, I chose a picture of a cockroach. That is what he deserved.

The media CHOse otherwise. NBC is an absolute disgrace. The arrogant fools decided silly old Imus had to go for a parody on rap music lyrics and Cho had to be given what he wanted and died for: eternal infamy. Excuse me for spitting.

Should this gun have been in the hands of a deranged student?

Are Korean Gamers more lethal?

An interesting observation on Korean youth from 2001. Relevant?

TIME MAGAZINE, JUNE 4, 2001, VOL.157 NO.22

Where Does Fantasy End?
Why all of South Korea is obsessed with an online game where ordinary folks can be arms dealers, murderers ... and elves
By MICHELLE LEVANDER Seoul


Stuart Isett for TIME.

Korean gamers spend most of the day and night playing Lineage or hanging out in a PC cafe waiting for the chance to play. The teenagers come together through their obsession with the online game.

Five rough-looking men stepped out of a black sedan and burst into the Seoul PC café where Paek Jung Yul hangs out with Strong People Blood Pledge, his clan of online gamers. "Is the wizard here?" demanded one of the toughs, asking for the player who killed his character in an online game called Lineage. The "wizard" was there, alright, and he was feeling bold. He boasted that he had offed the gangman's virtual character just for the fun of it. Bad idea. The roughnecks dragged the 21-year-old into the urinal and pummeled him until he was covered with real-world bruises.

Paek describes the incident—now part of his clan's lore—with jaded nonchalance. Actual violence has become so commonplace among computer-game players that concerned authorities even have a term for it that borrows from the game: "off-line PK" (player killings). Paek, who relishes online killings as a refreshing change from his decorous real-life manner, allows that physical retribution is merited if players engage in particularly craven online behavior, such as theft or scams involving the game's coveted virtual weapons. Online revenge is O.K. too: "Usually, I kill the ones I hate," he says. Those are fighting words, coming from a shy, skinny 16-year-old who regularly tops his high-school class. But this is the other Paek speaking, the ruthless (and female—go figure) elf who is master of Lineage, a medieval fantasy game that has swept Korean society into a gaming frenzy. "In reality, I have few ways to express myself or show off," Paek says. "But in the game, if I put in a little effort, many people will know who I am."

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In South Korea, a deeply conformist society where children must speak to elders with a special deferential grammar, this bloodthirsty game has caught on with a vengeance. In Lineage, gamers playing princes, wizards and elves fight one another to the death in mini-armies or clans, headed by guild masters, to gain control of the castles that dot the virtual world. The victors can then levy feudal taxes upon virtual villages under their control and dun gamers a percentage of each online weapons sale. All this can be fairly lucrative, especially since there's a thriving black market that exchanges the virtual items for cold, hard cash. But what makes the game so addictive is its complex feudal environment, which hooks players after they invest days or weeks building up the strength of their online characters. Based on its success in garnering online subscribers in Korea alone, Lineage is the most popular single interactive online game in the world right now, ahead of Sony's Everquest, Electronic Arts' Ultima Online or even Microsoft's Asheron's Call, according to Samsung Securities.

Why does Lineage have such a hold in Korea? "This is a small country," explains Joonmo Kwon, an educational psychologist. "If everyone you know plays Lineage, you have to play it." Besides, says Kwon, the game's emphasis on winning and working in groups speaks to the Korean spirit. And then there's the universal explanation for escapism: "In the real world, in Korea, you have to repress your drives and hidden desires. In the game they come out."

In this wired nation, there are PC cafés on virtually every street, outfitted with the high-speed Internet connections that make interactive games crackle. Open 24 hours, and charging just $1 an hour to play, these game rooms are well stocked with cheese-whiz sausages, potato wafers and instant noodles. Many games are played here, but Lineage is the most addictive, authorities say. Two million people, out of a population of 46 million, have active Lineage accounts. And when day turns to evening, close to 100,000 Koreans can be found glued to computer terminals around the country, playing the game simultaneously. School kids in Seoul routinely doze through classes after playing all night. Parents either don't know or can't stop them. Shy young boys take on alter egos as aggressive killers online. A doctor plays ruthlessly while a neighborhood bully has a chance to show compassion. Girl characters, meanwhile, have sometimes been known to offer sexual favors to experienced male gamers in exchange for virtual weapons. But, as one Lineage clan's guild master notes, who's to say the girl characters are really girls?

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Massacre at Virginia Tech: 32 Confirmed Dead

A gunman kills at least 32 people and injures 21 more at a university campus in Virginia, in the worst shooting in US history. How do we stop this?