The U.S. Pulls Key Military Equipment out of Korea to Iraq

Chosun Ilbo ^ | 07/29/04 | N/A

[TigerLikesRooster]

The U.S. Pulls Key Military Equipment out of Korea to Iraq

It has been confirmed that in connection to the redeployment of the 2nd Brigade of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division from Korea to Iraq, the U.S military has been shipping key combat equipment that doesn’t belong to the 2nd Brigade to Iraq. The equipment includes M-1A1 Abrams tanks, M-109A6 self-propelled Paladin howitzers and other equipment belonging to the 8th Army and artillery brigades under the 2nd Infantry Division.

Since the U.S. had notified Korea that only the 2nd Brigade would be sent to Iraq, it is expected that the redeployment of the equipment and some forces belonging to the 8th army and the infantry brigade would cause a controversy over a possible military power vacuum and the earlier withdrawal of U.S forces stationed in Korea.

Military authorities explained that although the 2nd Brigade would be deployed to Iraq, there would be no military power vacuum because mainly manpower would be sent while key equipment would remain in Korea.

A military source said Wednesday that USFK moved equipment to the port of Busan, prior to the redeployment of the 2nd Brigade and finished the shipping of the equipment on two freighters last week. The freighters are now heading for Iraq. The source said that the equipment bound for Iraq includes M-2 infantry combat vehicles called Bradleys belonging to the 2nd Brigade, M-1A1 Abrams tanks and M-109A6 self-propelled Paladin howitzers.

The USFK has 140 M-1A1 Abrams tanks and 30 Paladin howitzers, but it has not been revealed how many tanks and howitzers would be deployed to Iraq

U.S. military newspaper Stars & Stripes reported that the USFK had conducted a transportation operation, the largest ever, to move 1,800 tanks, truck and other equipment from the bases of the 2nd Infantry Division in northern Gyeonggi Province to Busan for 18 days from July 1.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[FreedomPoster]

South Korea has plenty of economic muscle to defend themselves. Also, the U.S. air umbrella can be reinforced pretty darn quickly.

[cripplecreek]

Interesting. I suspect the equipment will be positioned facing Syria, Iran or both.

[Brilliant]

It's pointless to have the equipment in Korea anyway. If there is a war, it will go nuclear in seconds. My guess is that this equipment is going to Iraq, but is intended to be used in Iran, if necessary.

[Happy2BMe]

"U.S. military newspaper Stars & Stripes reported that the USFK had conducted a transportation operation, the largest ever, to move 1,800 tanks, truck and other equipment from the bases of the 2nd Infantry Division in northern Gyeonggi Province to Busan for 18 days from July 1."

_______________________________________________

Major shift going on again. Large numbers of these are heading for Iraq. Do they have Iran written all over them?

[CasearianDaoist]

That is what I thought too. However, is not that brigade an armored (or at least mechanized) brigade. I wonder if the writer is just misinformed about the brigades equipment. If all that iron is being deployed to Iraq it is a good sign.

[Happy2BMe]

Sorry, forgot to ping you - ping on #6.

[EQAndyBuzz]

This is getting interesting. I suspect this equipment will arrive in Iraq on November 3rd.

[trebb]

It's pointless to have the equipment in Korea anyway. If there is a war, it will go nuclear in seconds. My guess is that this equipment is going to Iraq, but is intended to be used in Iran, if necessary.

Yepper - I was at Osan and there was only weapons for about 10 - 20% of the those stationed there (mostly support vs. combat) because that was the expected number to survive the first wave of missles, etc., if the North came down. The southern half of the South will be the rallying point in case of attack.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I've started to believe there are more SKs who would like the US out of their country. We should take them up on it.

[NJ_gent]

"It's pointless to have the equipment in Korea anyway. If there is a war, it will go nuclear in seconds."

Now that's just silly. First of all, the entire point of a North Korean attack against South Korea would be to gain control of their economic assets so as to keep Kim Jong-il's regime alive and continue weapons development. Vaporizing those assets with nuclear weapons kind of defeats that purpose. This will only go nuclear if a conventional attack fails and it looks as though North Korea will be invaded.

North Korea has a 1 million man regular army and 2 million reserves. Add to that an enormous arsenal of artillery and missiles, and you end up with a conventional military capable of overruning South Korea's ~600,000 troops. Since most South Korean military installations would be obliterated during the first strike wave, you can bet that US forces would be key to the continued existence of South Korea. If North Korea overruns South Korea before US forces can respond (now far more likely since we've pulled so many of our troops and so much of our equipment out of there), then Kim Jong-il will have an enormous amount of resources to use to continue development of nuclear warheads and ICBMs with Washington, DC in range.

Perhaps someone can fill me in here, but it looks like we're backing away from a nuclear-armed aggressor. That, to me, is suicidal.

[trebb]

Even in the '80s, the South would have preferred to handle their own defense. One of the problems was that we were unwilling to leave all our equipment (tanks, planes, etc.,) for them to use as much of it had modifications that we didn't want known to the world-at-large. We also feared that they might decide to just go on up and try to end the threat once and for all...

[boxerblues]

2ID ping

[Eric in the Ozarks]

NK's armament on the DMZ would probably swamp SK's armor, unless the South was extremely lucky. We would naturally have been drawn in with some kind of missile strikes against the North. A no-win situation if there ever was one.

[MeekOneGOP]

[steve8714]

Many in the ROK don't want us there...in addition, we are trying the vaunted multilateral approach in that area.
Long term NK is a problem for the Chinese. Perhaps if we turn away a few of their container ships they might see the problem more clearly.

[Brilliant]

If the North attacks, do you think that Bush or any American President is going to simply leave 30,000 US troops sitting there waiting to be blown up by Jung-Il, not to mention the nukes? No. He would not wait for Jung-Il to use the bomb. He would pre-empt, i.e. assuming that Jung-Il did not use the bomb from the outset, which is a big assumption.

That's why this situation is so dangerous. If there is war, it won't be a conventional war.

[B4Ranch]

Agreed 60% Syria 40% Iran

[B4Ranch]

Not being in the know mind you, I would assume we have long ago determined where the NK's nuclear command centers are. These I would imagine (hope) would all be taken out with small nukes in one strike.

Probably from a submarine that was in close to the shore where the NK's response time would be absolutely minimal. We would probably have a carrier ready to grab anything they sent out.