And what I see Hill having done is a phased retreat again and again and again.

The US, with Hill as the head spokesman, went into the "6 party talks" at a time when it seemed clear the slow process of putting pressure on the regime was finally working out. Then Agreed Framework 2.0 was cut and undid most or all of that — without gaining much compliance. And just this week, we got word the bug out of the US team in dealing with Pyongyang is going to fall back even further.

Also, you need to consider that Korea is very sensitive to the concept of the US conducting expeditionary operations from Korea into East Asian hot spots. In fact, I contend that Korea would refuse air and sea rights for US forces traveling to counter any Chinese aggression outside of Korea. So why bother staying in Korea?

Ed. Note – You can make your point with out using personal attacks. Your IP has been added to the spam que.

Actaully, north Korea may invite China in at some point. The Koreans have always been part of the Chinese empire and should be again in the future.

But, the biggest reason we need to get out of South Korea is how easily it puts us at easy striking distance when North Korea collapses.

In short, I'll feel a hell of a lot better about American security when we do away with the tripwire in South Korea than I ever will about some hypothetical doomsday scenerio against a superpower China.

You just nicely summed up why the US military presence in South Korea is for the mutual benefit of both.

A lot of ignorant chimps blindly slander South Koreans, farting their diarreah that they are protecting the 'ungrateful' South Koreans from being bombarded by half-starving to death North Korean military.

But the REAL FACT is that the US direly need South Korea as their military posting ground for monitoring the threats of China. You simply won't find other countries allowing the US soldiers gettin into their tehome rritory and say 'Hey GIs.. we welcome you to our home~'.

You can visit this link which I blabbered a bit about Korea's changing position with the US and Japan, mostly due to China's threat.

http://rokdrop.com/2008/04/07/korean-army-cadets-…

Filipinos love to play up the "We kicked the U.S. bases out" angle, but in reality their sovereignity had noting to do with it…it was all about $$$.

Now ask the Philippines today if they want the U.S. bases back. The noisy Left will obviously say NO, but many Filipinos would love for the U.S. military to come back here, thus they try & keep the rumor of the "GenSan" base alive.

The Philippines got what they wanted…a country w/o a permanent U.S. presence & they are now regretting the day.

You mentioned the pullout from the Philippines and it was because the government asked us to leave that we left (plus Clark and Subic were devastated by Mount Pinatubo with a major typhoon on it's heels, but that was in the aftermath) but there's also the consideration of China in the Korea equation that was not really relative to our presence in the Philippines. Granted, we did lose a strong foothold in southeast Asia by giving up the bases here but abandoning our position on the Korean peninsula brings with it a bit more of a problematic situation with China rattling it saber more and more these days economically and militarily.

If there was a grassroots movement to get us out of Korea, I think that we would leave but it would have to be a pretty clear cut opinion by a majority of the Korean people that would force us out. Balance of power in northeast Asia, especially as it relates to China and it's growing economic and thereby military power, will be the key as to what we do in Korea. We didn't abandon our position in Germany when the USSR was on the other side of the wall and I don't think we'll abandon our position in Korea as long as China remains a concern.

Tim in Angeles sendzzzzzzzzzzz