June 2, 2004
DID THEY REALLY THINK DON RUMSFELD WAS BLOWING SMOKE?:
Shock waves in Seoul as U.S. to shift 12,000 more troops to Iraq (World Tribune.com, June 1, 2004)
First the Pentagon told the ministry of national defense it plans to transfer a brigade of 3,600 troops from South Korea to Iraq this summer. Now, the Pentagon is telling South Korean officials it wants to scale back the number of U.S. troops in South Korea from 37,000 to 25,000.The news took the government here by surprise. A Blue House official, talking anonymously to South Korean reporters, barely masked the government's concern: "The realignment should not undermine our national security."
In and out of the government, the realization has now dawned that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had been deadly serious when he spread the word during his visit here last November that the U.S. had a new concept of flexible defense.
With any luck the North will attack and give us an excuse... Posted by Orrin Judd at June 2, 2004 3:02 PM
So what's the big deal if they (South Koreans) don't think the North will attack?
Posted by: Rick T. at June 2, 2004 3:22 PMYeah, I thought the North Koreans just wanted to be friends, and talking to them would make everyone happy again.
Also, I've lost count of how many times in the last few years pundits and foreign leaders have been surprised when the current administration actually means what it says...
Posted by: brian at June 2, 2004 3:27 PMGermany..... helloooo.... Germany.....
120,000 troops.... getting calluses on their butts. What's the hold-up?
Wish I could remember who wrote (Hanson? Will?) "It is long past time to remove the bulk of those troops, who guard against an enemy that no longer exists on behalf of allies who are no longer allies". Hear hear.
Posted by: Andrew X at June 2, 2004 3:38 PMAndrew:
It was Mark Steyn, I saw the quote yesterday but I don't remember which article.
Posted by: Jeff at June 2, 2004 3:46 PMIf I were the Koreans I would say: "Wait a minute, Keep the 12,000 Americans in Korea. In their place we will send 36,000 Koreans, at our own expense, as a token of our gratitude."
"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man."
--Mark Twain
Mark Twain clearly didn't handle many stray dogs...
Posted by: M. Murcek at June 2, 2004 4:36 PMAren't dogs on the Korean menu?
Posted by: AWW at June 2, 2004 5:18 PMJeff -
SHOULDA recognized Steyn (Peace be Upon Him).
;-)
Posted by: Andrew X at June 2, 2004 5:56 PMWhy 25,000 US troops, even? The western branch of the WW II Allies figured keeping a single brigade in West Berlin was enough of a tripwire to ensure that the USSR wouldn't try overrunning the city unless they were intent on full-scale war anyway. So 5,000 US troops should be plenty to demonstrate our seriousness about defending the ROK.
Posted by: Axel Kassel at June 2, 2004 10:06 PMAt various times SK has referred to our troops near the DMZ as 'hostages.' The situation has become so warped that they are afraid that we'll take a more aggressive stance towards NK unless our troops are in harms way. I presume this comes from a warped sense of nationalism leavened with clueless leftism.
Pulling out now helps us decouple our policy with regards to NK from SK's, provides a needed redeployment to Iraq and punishes SK for failing to meet troop commitments for Iraq.
The reason that Rummy has resisted increasing the size of the Army is that he believes we are in a period of flux in which we need to reposition our ground forces to be closer to the center of gravity of our principle enemies in the Middle East and he does not want to add force structure and associated cost for what he perceives to be a temporary spike in need. It's a somewhat risky move and is really wearing out the Army.
Still, some of the complaints about Rummy come from those who still think we ever intend to fight a ground war on the Korean peninsula. If we go to war there, it will be with strategic weapons. The sooner we get the 'hostages' out, the better.
Posted by: JAB at June 2, 2004 10:29 PMMy dad was part of the trip wire 56-58.
What they and the Commies used to do to each other.
Fire up the tanks at 2 AM and start moving towards the fence.....
Posted by: Sandy P at June 3, 2004 12:55 AMOrrin wrote, With any luck the North will attack and give us an excuse...
Good Lord, no! Hundreds of thousands of people would die.
Far better for the North to implode quietly, and for Kimmie to end up in an unmarked vat of acid courtesy of his generals.
Posted by: Steve White at June 3, 2004 1:18 AMAndrew, Jeff --
Mark Steyn it is in "This is one armchair warmonger still fighting"