A LITTLE TALE FROM THE AMERICAN EMPIRE

When I was in South Korea, something that would often interrupt my nights out was the American military. This happened particularly in Seoul but not only there.

To set the scene, you might be out in a bar in Itaewon in Seoul with a few friends and as the night got on a little bit you would suddenly be confronted with military policeman who were demanding to see your ID.

The point is that these were not Korean military policeman, they were American.

They were looking for soldiers who had not returned (or were not going to return) to their base before their curfew.

A couple of times I argued the point with them and said I was not going to show them any ID. I said “I’m not American and this isn’t the USA. Can’t you hear from my accent that I am obviously not American?”

However, this usually only served the purpose of making the people I was out with  angry as they had already all shown their ID and were anxious to continue the night. Those people were for the most part not American but they didn’t seem to have a problem with it the way that I did.

I must say that on the two occasions I made a point of (initially) refusing to show ID, the military police were not particularly aggressive or rude. They just stood there and continually asked to see identification and made it quite clear that they weren’t going anywhere until I showed them it.

The argument would then continue until my companions started getting angry with me because the argument “could just be stopped in 2 seconds” if I would just show that I wasn’t a soldier.

To my shame, both times I did eventually do it but not without it leaving a bad taste in the mouth.

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