Where are we going to get 690,000 reinforcements to defend South Korea? We are straining the system with 150,000 troops in Iraq. I don't see how this is possible.

"the South Korean government recently asked the United States to slow down the planned withdrawal of one-third of the U.S. forces from South Korea"

Why one-third? Why not all of our troops? Why the South Koreans fear us more than Kim Jong Il and his nukes is beyond me. We shouldn't waste any more time, money, and soldiers in such a situation. They want us as a trip-wire, and yet they hate us . . . they need a reality check, and we could use our troops that are in Korea somewhere else.

It's time we walk away from this. Communism is no longer a threat to us. The billions we spend on these ungratefull bores would be better used in other areas. Let them reap the rewards of their perfidious ways. The UN will protect them from agression, right?

Maintain vigilance - the collapse is coming. What happens after that is anyone's guess.

What will not be a guess is that these ingrates will turn around and tell us they've had enough of our being in their country and could we please just piss off.

We have more important things to do than make sure that a bunch of corrupt industrialists aren't unduly inconvenienced by the collapse of their even more corrupt brethrens' slave state. If these folks are tired of us, I say let Kim Jong Il have them if he can (which he can't).

"sea of fire" -- oh, please, did Baghdad Bob get a new job?

This is not 1951. The South Koreans have the economic resources to look after themselves. Let their economy take the 20 billion dollar hit, not ours.

"Where are we going to get 690,000 reinforcements to defend South Korea?"

South Korea is more than capable of defending itself. It has one of the most modern armies in the world, fantastic defensive terrain, and a million man reserve. Not to mention whatever (considerable) help US air and sea forces could lend. Short of another Chinese invasion, SK would whomp the decripid 1960s era army of starving north koreans that would come swarming into their fields of fire. The downside is NK artillery would almost certainly flatten Soeul leaving tens of thousands of civilian casualties, and there isnt much anyone could do about it.

What? U.S. worry about North Korea? Those hacks are a one-legged man in an Ass-Kicking Contest; The North Korean people are starving, their Army is committing armed robberies in the Chinese border towns, and Kim Jong Il is losing his hair. North Korea needs to catch up (reality-wise) with the rest of the world before it's too late.

Well, let's forget about the SK's for a minute. What if NK keeps on developing their rockets? Current worst-case estimates say their best (3 stager, I think) can hit Alaska. What if they keep on and eventually are able to hit the West Coast? Nuclear infrastructure cannot be taken out from air conventionally; at least that's what I understand. I suppose the US could pull the SK ground forces to Japan but is there any capacity?

I go to Georgia Tech and lived withed some grad/post-grad Koreans during the summer of 2003. We got to talking geopolitics (over some bourbon of course, otherwise the subject is infinitely boorish). Sure enough, they assign some blame to the US for current relations but mainstream thought is not knee-jerk anti-US. You have to remember, the north are their countrymen, not some faceless enemy; undoubtedly they have a romanticized idea about this entire situation. I delicately pointed out the awful track record of communist countries and our losses in the KW to which there was not much reply. Most Koreans are reasonable people although they have their America haters just like we do.

ARE YOU PEAOPLE REALLY BUYING INTO THE "PROPAGANDA" THAT WE ARE STRETCHED THIN IN IRAQ-----150000 TROOPS FROM ALL SERVICES THE ARMY ALONE HAS OVER 1 MILLION PERSONNEL, SO THINK AGAIN, LET THE PROPAGANDA WORK ON THESE PLACES LIKE IRAN AND NK----BUT THINK A LITTLE MORE CLEARLY THAN WHAT YOU SEE IN PAPERS OR ON TV.

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