[Stingray51]

“Yet nobody is claiming World War II or the Korean War are forever wars. When did zero American troops on the ground become the standard, and is that a standard we really want?”

These are good questions. But not for today, while we face the immediate problem of Afghanistan. But for the longer-term discussion, yes, there have been many critics of garrisoning South Korea, a prosperous, well-organized, admirable country, in perpetuity while they compete for consumer market share in the USA.

[Alberta's Child]

Those aren’t good questions — because the author is comparing apples and oranges. The U.S. military occupations of Japan, Germany and South Korea were almost totally benign after the hostilities in those countries had ended.

Afghanistan was nothing of the sort. The worst year for U.S. combat deaths in Afghanistan was 2010 — NINE YEARS after the U.S. military campaign began, and SIX YEARS after the “victory” in Afghanistan was sufficiently complete for the country to adopt a new constitution.

Ask yourself what the political climate in the U.S. would have been if the U.S. military forces in South Korea suffered more casualties in 1960 than in 1950. I’m going to speculate that there would have been plenty of Americans calling for the president and every member of Congress to be rounded up and dropped into North Korea from 30,000 feet — with no parachutes.

[BiteYourSelf]

Technically we are still in a state of war in Korea.🤔