Doug Bandow Calls for the Removal of US Military from South Korea

There is a reason that Northeast Asia has been stable since the end of the Korean War after decades of conflict and that is the US military presence in the region.  Doug Bandow from the libertarian Cato Institute disagrees:

But that world disappeared long ago. The Korean Peninsula has lost its geopolitical significance, South Korea its helplessness, and America’s Korea commitment its purpose. While there is much to criticize in the approach of Donald Trump’s administration to the rest of the world, the president correctly sees the need for a foreign policy that more effectively protects America’s interests. A good place to start shifting course is the region home to the world’s newest and least responsible nuclear power.

The Koreas are no longer a proxy battleground between superpowers. There was a time when U.S. withdrawal from a confrontation with a Soviet ally in Asia would have, analysts believed, signaled weakness a continent away in Europe. But the Soviets are long gone and the cause for American commitment with them. An inter-Korean war would be tragic and the body count enormous, but absent American involvement the fighting would largely be confined to the peninsula. The continued presence of U.S. forces, by contrast, virtually guarantees the spread of conflict.

South Korea’s defense no longer requires Washington’s presence. The South’s economy began racing past its northern antagonist during the 1960s. Democracy arrived in the late 1980s. By the 1990s, when mass starvation stalked Pyongyang as Seoul’s economy boomed, the gap between the two Koreas was already huge and growing. The South’s military potential is correspondingly great though as yet unrealized — in part because dependence on the U.S. presence has affected strategic choices.  [Foreign Policy]

You can read the rest at the link as well as read my prior analysis of why USFK withdrawal will not happen any time soon at this link.

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setnaffa
setnaffa
6 years ago

Wars don’t stop because one side thinks they’re pointless. They stop when one side has won or the other side surrenders.

Doug Bandow may be a smart guy with a steady job; but he’s not smart enough to read communists and their motivation. China will not give up North Korea without a fight, period. And if the US leaves, the PRC won’t stop at the 38th Parallel… They’ll take the south and be pressing Vietnam, Japan, and the Philippines even harder.

KoreaWatcher
KoreaWatcher
Reply to  setnaffa
6 years ago

And if the US leaves, the PRC won’t stop at the 38th Parallel… They’ll take the south and be pressing Vietnam, Japan, and the Philippines even harder.

From Doug Bandow’s point of view, why should the US care?

setnaffa
setnaffa
Reply to  KoreaWatcher
6 years ago

As an American with family and friends in all of those countries, I don’t give a rat’s hindquarters about cowards.

setnaffa
setnaffa
Reply to  setnaffa
6 years ago

To be fair, I don’t think Bandow is a physical coward; but morally, since America has in fact made promises to various Asia-Pacific nations, pulling out amount to cowardice.

Mcgeehee
Mcgeehee
6 years ago

Mostly a high-philosophy what-if thought provoker sans substance or practicality. The list of assumptions needed to give validity to these views would be 10X longer than the article itself. Beginning with the assumption that a post-American departure conflict on the Korean peninsula would only be confined TO the peninsula. Ha! Who are you kidding?

Ole Tanker
Ole Tanker
6 years ago

An idea, who’s time has come. It’s like having a 40 year old kid your still supporting, you have to cut the cord sometime.

setnaffa
setnaffa
Reply to  Ole Tanker
6 years ago

Is your last name Rooney?

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