South Korea has a mlitary-aged population, industrial plant and wealth far exceeding that of North Korea. They also have nuclear reactors and the scientific know-how to more than match North Korea even in nuclear weapon capacity. They might be well advised to do so -- and we might be well advised to help them on the QT, just as China and Russia did North Korea. Then US forces would no longer be needed in South Korea. Of course the same applies to Western Europe versus Russia.
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US military base on foreign land--imagine what that took: politicians defending the need--sheepishly, townsmen complaining of losing the land while being employed at the base, the sleazy streets and the inevitable babies without fathers.
But things have changed as host countries become richer. Local economic dependence on the base declines while the exchange rate reduces GI purchasing power and their time and money spent off base. While the number of bases decline, US troops are concentrated into small town USA with wide streets and burger joints--often paid for by host countries. This applies in Korea as well as Germany, Japan or UK.
@MTA: If you in Japan and South Korea tended to your own defense then those US troops could go home. You have the means,including nuclear know-how. Time to get started?
It is a decent article. I believe the size of U.S. military in South Korea will gets smaller gradually. Yet it will take many years to get to zero. The Korean peninsula borders China, Russia, and Japan. Even the former head of North Korea said U.S. military might stay in South Korea for the sake of power balance there.
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It is like a checklist of political cal corrrctness based on a cartoon in which the US is the world villian. And for no apparent reason.
“In July 1950, the second month of the Korean War, American soldiers shot and killed an estimated 400 civilians in the southern village of No Gun Ri, a massacre that was not widely covered until 1999. And long after the war’s end, in the gijichon outside every American military base, servicemen abused waitresses and sex workers and left wives and children behind when they rotated out of the country.”
Check. Moral awareness and superiority confirmed. Gosh just what was going on in July 1950? Other than American soldiers shooting and killing civilians? Never mind. Doesn’t matter. The villian is known.
And gosh what was going on during those Korean military dictatorships? Never mind. The US is the villian who massacred civilians. Just because.
Then democracy arrived fitfully??????
Really???
Just arrived did it.
Shameless. Beyond words. Shameless.
In a just world Kim could take a ride back in time to that wonderful winter in Chosin Reservoir and share the good times with a bunch of untrained soldiers thrown into combat without winter gear with one hundred percent casualty rates after the US had demobilized and wasn’t ready for war. Facts and human reality ruin the villian narrative. But who cares? Kim likes cartoons the cartoon villian. Feels good. Omniscient yet ignorant. Cheating is better than opioids.
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@In deed You can blame the US government for the lack of proper combat gear, and for sending them into Korea in the first place. The Koreans were fighting a civil war, not some experiment in "democracy" to satisfy Cold Warriors in the United States. The US bombed North Korea without mercy for 3 years--not one stone left on top of another and millions dead. They purposely bombed the dams and dikes on the Yalu River, flooding the rice fields and starving thousands. And for what? So we could "counter" godless communism? This is nothing but the blather of those who have never had their country bombed for 3 solid years and obliterated by overwhelming firepower, simply because of a political/economic disagreement. Cry me a river.
@David Hart : The Korean war was not a Civil War the Communist NK attacked SK with out warning . I spent 3 wonderful years there got out and spent a lot of time with the people . There country had a Boom period in the early 70ths and they started to this day to become a major world trading partner . You in your statement say we bombed NK Communist with out mercy . Well Boohoo once General MacArthur got the go-ahead we released everything we had on North Korea and drove them back to the yalu river Then China came down which MacArthur didn't believe . Then then MacArthur was fired and we drew the line at 38th parallel . Since then NK is a Communist family dictatorship with no economic growth in a fourth world nation with nuclear capability . As for SK like I said it is a Booming economy world trading power .
@David Hart
Saying things does not make them so and repeating Soviet propaganda decades after the fact does not either.
The cartoon conceit that “Cold Warriors” in the US were the prime movers in 1950 is as ahistorical as Spider-Man. DEMOBILIZATION was the fact and why those troops were not ready.
And no sane person ever cared about “godless communism”. But many rightfully responded to the horribly bloody fact of international Marxist Leninism.
And the contempt for the US that sustained the Soviet Union and fought in China and made a post war world order with a major peace for the Soviets and China is as contemptible as it is dishonest.
Today North Koreans are actually shorter than South Koreans. The contempt for actual Koreans in this love of propaganda is revolting.
This is written like an anti-American editorial. C'mon NYC, you can do better than E. Tammy Kim.
Trump is an outsider but some of what he says makes a lot of sense. Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire by Chalmers Johnson should be required reading for every citizen. Even though this was written over 10 years ago it is on point. The national security apparatus seems to be threatened by some of what Trump asks. Our citizens and congress should be making these decisions. War is too important to leave to generals. They always want more.
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Lost in the cost of our military on foreign bases is the cost we pay to transport people and items related to the military to these bases. Twenty-seven thousand civilians? And if you are an officer, and want your furniture and your car overseas, the US military will ship it there, provided by the tax-paying citizens of the US. But we need to stay there. The "Republic of Korea" was our creation, in frightened response to the many "citizens groups" that had sprung up throughout North AND South Korea in the late 40's, hoping to be allowed to chart their own course and reclaim their history. Unfortunately, they were not allowed to do that--the United States had different plans and they did not include unnecessary interference from the Korean people. Chances are pretty high that the United States military will still be in Korea when my 2 year old grandson reaches my age, 63 years from now. What a sad legacy for the Korean peninsula.
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@David Hart South Korea pays about $1.2 billion USD a year for U.S. troops there. This means that to keep an equal number of troops in America, it would actually cost more. Japan subsidizes the American tax payer over $4 billion USD a year to keep troops and naval craft in Okinawa and Yokohama. It would cost America more if it had to maintain the 2nd Marine Division and the 7th Fleet without Japanese financial support.
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@David Hart When we moved to Korea from Germany we weren't allowed to bring much of our own items, even less then we were allowed to bring to Germany. They did ship one car, but I wasn't allowed to ship my own car at my expense, ostensibly because of lack of parking on base. The Army has quartermaster furniture already in Korea, like it used to have in Germany. You use the army furniture, not your own. It would be nice if we weren't a fixture in so many countries, that would be ideal. Right now my son is serving in the Army up at Camp Hovey (on the DMZ) and not with his new wife in the states. As for Korea, it is the most beautiful country with the friendliest people. My family felt it was an honor to stay in such a lovely place and meet such wonderful people. We took as much advantage of our stay as we could and were rewarded 10-fold.
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@Moira Rogow Having lived for six years in Korea, I can attest to the fact that they are friendly, wonderful people. And it was my understanding, from talking to OFFICERS in the US military, that they, indeed, could ship personal belongings and yes, cars, to their place of service. If that is not the case, I apologize. I still feel we need to have our military GREATLY reduced, and in many cases, completely brought home to the US. With or without US soldiers in South Korea, Kim Jong-un is well aware that any attack on the Republic of Korea is a death sentence for the DPRK.
A good article with sufficient facts and figures.
What's missing is a map.
Hard to imagine all these places with proximity to the North with no maps.
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@Neil Well, the distance from Pyeongtaek to Pyongyang, capital of the DPRK is approximately 160 miles, or roughly the distance from Washington DC to Trenton, NJ. In the west, you could imagine the distance from Fresno, CA to San Jose, CA, or Seattle WA to Vancouver WA. Pyeongtaek to Seoul would be like driving from Washington DC to Baltimore, or Seattle to Puyallup. Or Dallas to Ft. Worth.
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