Posted on 07/08/2005 8:14:09 AM PDT by Paul Ross
sounds like the GOP circa 1976 or so....or possibly 1992...
'76 is closer--in '92, there was Newt to rally around, at least. Politics in Korea moves pretty fast, though, and I suppose more things could change the longer the 386ers live in the real world.
WHY? We need to withdrawl the majority troops around the globe - put savings into military buildup, including dusting off the nukes and make sure everything works.... and push even harder for missle defense. We cannot affoard to be the global policeman anymore but we should be able to obliterate anyone that threatens us.
You nailed it. Don't waste your time.
sounds like you know the situation pretty well....
Lived there a couple years, did some contract work for the ROK gummint a bit...I'm no native like a few here, but I do have fairly current knowledge of the situation. I'm certainly not there every day or anything, but I keep up with it. It's painful knowing how poor a job we did in educating the Koreans who have come to the U.S. to learn what government should be like. Don't get me wrong--most of the Koreans I've hung out with personally I'll grab a soju with, they're good drinkers and entertaining folks. But almost every one of them had revolting politics, either they were hard leftist, or adhered to a strong 'big man' theory of government. There seemed to be no one agitating for freedom for freedom's sake--everyone had an agenda, and wanted the pie sliced their way. I don't have high hopes for Korea until that changes.
TODAY, begin redeployment of ALL US troops along the Korean DMZ to the US borders! 35,000 soldiers is just about right to seal 'um up tight!
Brillant and it wont cost us a cent
Last time I looked we didn't have to ask S. Korea for squat.
However all of these "options" presuppose a South Korea that is willing to be an American air base. Such a South Korea no longer exists.
It is true that South Korea is well able to outfight the North conventionally. I would be surprised if the North Koreans could field 100 running tanks or 50 flyable planes. A North Korean attack on the south makes me think of the German stormtroop offensive in the spring of 1918 where the advancing German troops, men who had spent the last three years eating sawdust bread, turnips, and some horsemeat stopped to pig out in British rear area depots with real food. In fact, during the Vietnam War the North Koreans sent a 'volunteer' unit of pilots to North Vietnam in 'fraternal solidarity'. They were so incompetent and crashed so many planes that the North Vietnamese 'thanked' them and sent them home.
And we should vow to not defend S. Korea...
If we pull out, will NK feel sufficiently emboldened to "give it a go"? After all, they can always count on the PLA to back them up if things go seriously awry....and do you think South Korea can take on the PLA too?
That being said, we should not suffer these indignities anymore. We deserve much much better. And the blood of the 38,000 Americans spilled defending this rock deserved better. If they value us so little, then, perhaps it is time we let things take their course. I personally hope that a pullout announcement would result in a salutory change in their government, if not right away, at the next election. And one of the things we should make clear to the populace in South Korea...that if they are taken over by Kim Il-Jung, that there will be no export trade allowed from their country anymore. There will be no business as usual. They will share the starvation fate of their northern brethren....
"Indeed, Kim Jong-il or whoever succeeds him will inevitably destroy South Korea's economy and her people. However, the technological leaps they'll make by milking every red penny out of the South Korean economy, along with the revitalization of their military, will make them a direct military threat to Japan, and a potential nuclear threat to everyone in the world."
They are already nuclear capable. The CIA issued a report in 1994 that they "most likely possess at least 4 atom bombs". Atom bombs are smaller then thermonuclear fission, true, but think of a repeat Hiroshima. The North now has the missle technology they need. Nukes and missles, what other real technology does a country need to destroy it's enemies?
Your #1. I agree. What in the Hell are we doing with thousands of troops there defending these ingrates. Lets get the Hell out now!
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