A way out of Iraq

[tw]

Originally posted by Undertoad
American troops were politely asked to leave the Philippines and we did. If the S Koreans ask us to leave, we will. For some reason I don't think we'll be asked to leave.

What does the Philippines have to do with Korea? Philippines is not confronted by a 1 million man adversarial army. US left Philippines same as US left Panama - with no reason to stay other than convenience. UT's post is irrelevant to Korean contingency plans.

Asking US to leave Korea made no sense from a Korean viewpoint. Having the US unilaterally leave Korea also makes no sense from the American perspective. So why was S Korean president Kim Dae-jung making contigency plans for a US withdrawl? This made no sense.

Then incoming president Roh Moo-hyun announced the US was considering the absurd - an attack on N Korea. Now those contingency plans make complete sense. Without those plans, S Korea would have no choice but to participate in a war that probably would be won, but that Korea desperately does not want. At minimum, war would be political suicide for S Korean politicians. It would be disasterous to S Korean economy. Death rates would be exteme and unnecesary. War provided no good solutions.

A US attack on N Korea's 1 million man army is so obviously wasteful and wanton as to be absurd to even consider. Why were hardline administration officials wasting time even considering the obviously absurd? But that is how administration extremists best understand how to solve problems. Big bureacracies and military action.

S Korea's president had to make contingency plans because of naive American administration extremists. If the US attacked N Korea, then S Korea either could participate in a war it does not want OR demand Americans leave. Those contingency plans gave S Korea enough leverage to make a US attack on N Korea impossible. Those contingency plans gave S Korea some options it did not currently have. Those contingency plans were necessary to protect S Korea from George Jr's right wing extremists. Now that contingency planning made complete sense.