What an excellent (and yet alarming) column. Thank you for posting it.
I have to admit that I had no idea how badly many South Koreans think of our military.
Do they really think their military alone could stop a North Korean invasion? Do their think of our military as an “occupying force”? Do they have any idea just how bad things are in North Korea and do they understand that they’ll end up just like the millions of other North Koreans - starved and oppressed?
I think Prager’s idea is a great one. South Korea ought to hold a national plebiscite based on only one thing - do you want us to leave, Yes or No?
The ROK doesn’t need US troops to defend itself. It has something like 20X the economy of the Norks. Their defense industry is a world leader. Their economy is in better shape than ours. They have plenty of healthy young men to serve in their military, far more than the north.
The American troops are there purely as a political “trip wire.”
We can do all the “defending’ we need to do from Guam.