Why is America still in Korea ?  The commitment puts U.S. forces at risk, creating nuclear hostages if Pyongyang develops a nuclear arsenal.  The troop presence further strains a military that will have to garrison a defeated Iraq along with the

Balkans, while searching for Al-Qaeda worldwide.   Also, America 's tripwire discourages Seoul from defending itself, and the relationship puts the South's future in the hands of aggressive empire-builders in Washington .  In short, it's a bad deal all around.  

Alliances are created at particular times to meet particular threats, not as ends in themselves, to be preserved irrespective of a changing world.   North Korea was America 's problem when the former was allied with the Soviet Union and Maoist China during the Cold War.   North Korea was America 's problem when Washington 's ally, the ROK, was incapable of defending itself.  

Neither is the case any more.  Instead of spending an extra $11 billion to upgrade its military capabilities in South Korea --announced along with the planned troop redeployment--and threatening Pyongyang with war, the U.S. should bring home its troops and turn the issue of North Korea over to its neighbors, where it belongs.   Pyongyang is now their problem.  

 

Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan.  The author of Tripwire:  Korea and U.S. Foreign Policy in a Changed World, he is also a former Visiting Fellow at the Heritage Foundation.