The United States agreed Saturday to pull its troops out of the South Korean capital as Seoul’s new top diplomat said he sees a chance for a breakthrough in the North Korean nuclear weapons crisis. Under a historic plan to end the U.S. presence in the capital dating from the 1950-53 Korean War, about 7,000 U.S. forces and their families will be moved to an expanded facility about 45 miles south of Seoul. The move is to be completed by 2006.
Might be time to consider relocating them about, oh, 8,000 miles to the east.
The decision, announced at a meeting of U.S. and South Korean officials in Honolulu, is part of U.S. efforts to streamline and modernize its forces on the divided peninsula and ease tensions caused by having a large U.S. military base in the middle of South Korea’s main city. Residents have long complained that the base occupies prime real estate and contributes to the city’s chronic traffic congestion. Younger generations also see the foreign military presence in their capital as a slight to national pride.
If you have sufficient pride, boys, you can defend yourselves.
Taking U.S. forces out of the capital also removes them from the front lines of a potential North Korean attack. The U.S. military has said the move out of Seoul will not diminish its strength in South Korea. Officials note they plan to spend $11 billion over the next four years to modernize forces. The United States keeps 37,000 troops in South Korea.
Still think bringing it down to a reinforced brigade and some air assets is the right thing to do. |