Phil, I disagree with you. First most of the S Koreans are worth protecting. The student demonstrators are idiots & always have been, but 49% voted for Kerry here.
The only reason we have spent 50 years in Korea is because of the UN and their brokered “truce”. The UN isn’t in the business of ending wars and solving problems. Yes we are a major part of the UN, but I would also say this is another reason to cut support to the UN completely and kick them out of NY.
The Chinese are our friends on this issue and will press Kim il without mercy. What do you think would happen to Chinese exports if Korea slowed down the export of cheap Chinese trash for 6 weeks? Tiananmen Square 100 fold with mass unemployment.
It's not like we would be completely pull out of the region, we'd always be around the region regardless. It would free up our equipment to provide rapid response to other areas, which would still include S Korea. One trident sub could take out N. Korea permanently.
I was about to say that we have the same problem with our student idiots. ;-)