Do you think the US should leave Korea?

Pulling out of Korea is a mistake, and would dishonor the memories of those Americans that died from 50-53, not to mention all those that served since then until now. Not to mention the victims of the Axe Murder incident at the JSA.

I can see a pull back from the DMZ like we currently have planned but to pull out completely would be comparable to the US withdrawl from Viet Nam in 73-75. I'm not saying that the North would immediately come South, but the regional stability would be greatly shifted, and not towards a more stable footing.

__________________
-Stick

"Few things are guaranteed in life, not even life"

US military has to regard for SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement).
the Korean Peninsula will disappear to a cold war all in good time.
like U.S.S.R and U.S .........

I am korean.
I wana peace in Korea. We are need to US military.
But you have to respect Korea's law and order.
I like to scientific technique of USA.

Have a Nice Day!.

I work with many Koreans every day and given the nature of my job I am in a unique situation to reply on this topic. Many Koreans want unification for the shear fact of unity among the nation, but few realize the enormous economical burdon in doing so. I would hardly say that the presence of the United States in Korea has done anything to keep the North Koreans from invading the south, on the contrary I feel that our presence here has kept the south from doing so. I think the presence of our troops in any country helps to boost the competence and tolerance of the human race, not that we are Americans and Koreans, but that we are all human beings. If we pack up our belongings and shelter ourselves under a banner of isolationalism we will in effect weaken ourselves. We need to maintain a military presence around the world in order to keep the peace.

I also used to worked for years in a job where I met a lot of new Korean adults on a monthly basis, and I spent more years studying about Korea.

The adults I taught and met had the cost of unification on their minds very much starting in 1998 and the South's economic collapse. The talk of unification as if they wanted it as soon as possible went out the window overnight, and I don't think that has changed.

Koreans might talk of unification as if they want it today, but that is the same as when they talk about getting USFK out ----- they really mean they want both things ----- just not anytime soon, because of the costs.

This is true of the majority of adults --- not counting university students and those over 65. With the university students having a significant radical percentage that does want unification and USFK out right now, and the 65+ generation being much more favorable to the US-SK relationship.

We should leave Korea given the cost-to-benefit ratio. It is not isolationism.

Pulling out of South Korea is not pulling out of Afghanistan or Iraq.

South Korea has the far larger industrial base, population and population health, and economic might than North Korea.

The two don't even compare.

South Korea can defend itself against the only real enemy it has ---

-----the brothers to the North more and more of South Korean society likes to pretend isn't a threat.

The cost of keeping USFK in country is significant. The cost if Korean War II breaks out is incredible.

And with North Korea being heavily armed but always not far from collapse, the risks of war are very real.

On respecting law and order ---

I have not found a case where a US soldier was found not guilty in a Korean (civilian) criminal court.

(That does not automatically mean the system is completely unfair. The US military also has a very high conviction rate. A prosecutor should not bring a case to trial if he does not believe he has the evidence to win.

I do believe the 2 soldiers and the soldier's wife in the 1995 subway brawl were unfairly convicted.)

In the time I started having personal knowledge of Korea, I have watched about a dozen cases where GIs were arrested by Korean policy, charged with a crime by Korean prosecutors, held in trial in a Korean court, found guility by a Korean judge, and put in a Korean prison -- usually in a special wing for either GIs or foreign prisoners --- I have not been able to verify which.

In my light-research, I have found court cases held in Korean court where GIs were found guilty and put in Korean prison going back to 1967.



Yet, when I was teaching Korean adults, and often in the Korean press even up to 2004, when a new "GI crime" happened, I would hear about how it was the "first time" Korea got the chance to get a hold of the USFK criminal, and I would be told again how "before now" GI crimes were "covered up" and the criminals "just flew away to America" and there was "nothing the Korean people could do!!"



And Korean soldiers are NEVER put on trial in a civilian criminal court. They are handled by the Korean military judicial system. Even a soldier some years ago who used a machine gun to rob a bank or the officer who shot and killed a subordinate in Afghanistan --- who was flown back to Korea for trial by the Korean military per the SOFA agreement the ROK military created before sending troops to Afghanistan.

(In the 2nd image, which ran in a Korean newspaper, a GI climbs through the window, draws a "SOFA line" with some chalk, and rapes the Korean man's wife and laughs at him. The Korean man can do nothing to stop the rape of his wife, because of the SOFA....)

Stick, I disagree with you. To leave here, after doing business and setting things up they way we have helped to do, is an excellent honor for those who fought and died here. Staying too long is making the locals resent us (ie: MacArthur statue) rather than like us.

South Korea is, quite literally, like an aging teenager fighting to get out from under mom/dad's roof and enjoy a life on its own.

I think we should get out, as I recently outlined in another thread.

1. We are no longer appreciated.
2. Many of my students have the mentality (and this is PRE-UNIVERSITY) that the USA stays here to keep SK from joining with NK and becoming a dominating superpower... ie: The USA wants control.
3. Koreans don't look inward much, and blame everything on outsiders.
4. As time goes on, it will only grow worse until SK does join with NK, one way or another, and the USA (outsiders/non-korean) is made into the horrible enemy that separated Korea and caused the Korean war.

Sound far-fetched? It's not. It's the reality I deal with hearing every day in school when this topic comes up. This is the crap the young people of Korea have been indoctrinated with, along with a healthy dose of "Dae-Han-Min-Gook." They resent the fact that they are overeducated in a poor-quality education system, and they don't have as much opportunity given the time they have put in. They want to study in the USA, and some want to move there (not all), but they see the USA as the big block to Korean progress. And they all seem to say that it "costs us a lot of money to pay the USA to keep forces here." Whether that one is true, you guys would know a lot more than me -- but that's what the kids think.

Young Korean men (and women, too, often) feel trapped by having to get into the top school, get a good job, and provide for their parents. Housing prices are just nuts. The men see their dating choices dimishing as the birth rate makes it more difficult for them to find a suitable mate that makes mom/dad happy. This is why there is a growing hatred of foreigners, which is so easy to see if you are a foreigner dating a Korean girl.

Koreans feel limited, and rather than looking inward toward their fake chaebol-controlled Democracy, and seeking change, they, like lemmings, follow the same old "foreigners are the reason we're not what we could be" line that has been popular for generations.

We need to get out, and do so very, very graciously -- full of compliments and building up their pride. If we just leave, they'll turn around and say the USA is "punishing" South Koreans for demonstrating, etc.. The same papers that printed article after article about people wanting the USA to leave did an about-face and printed articles whining about this very thing as soon as the USA announced it was going to reduce troops here.

Never forget this: In the end, as far as many people here are concerned, they are Korean. You are not. And they will eventually pick their angry North Korean brothers over us, and blame us for all of their problems. After 3 1/2 years of living here, I wholeheartedly believe this.

A big reason for the increased anti-American feeling here is because, after the world cup, Koreans were full of pride that had nowhere to go. People started looking around and saying, "Hey, imagine how we would have kicked soccer-butt if we'd had the best people from NK on our side, too." They then began to think of this in terms of everything, from business to natural resources, even dating prospects.

And they resent the USA from "keeping" a unified Korea from this grandiose dream state they feel they deserve so much.

We need to get out of here, and let them chase their dream on their own. Let them live or die on their own. But we have to be very careful in doing it.

Welcome, Powershot! You seem to have some solid ideas. Guess I agree with a lot of what you say. Enjoyed your Blog, also. I've only been here 7 months this time, and things have changed drastically since my previous years in Korea. I am reading and listening and learning the way folks feel today. I think understanding the Korean government's goal is more difficult.
We will leave, I just don't know when. Our downsizing is happening as we speak. and the Korean government has a great effect on the timetable. It is indeed expensive for the U.S. to be here, and we spend many times more than the paltry amount we ask Korea to contribute to the cause. The next U.S. presidential administration could easily decide to move us out faster. I'm guessing also, that North Korea will fold within a few years. The South is blending with them slowly, and the people are learning that there is life without the "Great Leader", and it sure looks better! The "Million Man Army" is composed of humans, who don't have freedom, but can smell it approaching.
I don't feel that the South is actually ready to take on the burden of unification, but if they say go, we will probably move out smartly, and in great numbers.
You must remember though, we will always need a base in the Far East, and it will be Japan or Korea. Personally, I think giving Okinawa back may have been a big mistake.

Who decided that YOU are the ones to be responsible for peace?