|
On
June 25, 2000, the 50th anniversary of the Korean War, President Clinton
should announce America's intent to remove all U.S. armed forces from
the Korean peninsula.
The historic summit of North and South underscores the fact that, with
the Cold War over, unification of Korea is an internal dispute for Koreans
themselves to decide. There is no vital U.S. interest involved to justify
sending another half-million-man army to Asia to fight a second Korean
War, no reason why American soldiers should be first to die in any such
second Korean war.
South Korea has an economy twenty times that of North Korea, a population
twice as large, a vast technological advantage, and access to U.S. weaponry
two generations ahead of anything the North can produce or purchase.
Seoul is fully capable of providing all the manpower and material for
its own defense. Moreover, the rise of anti-Americanism in the South
tells us the U.S. occupation, begun more than half a century ago, should
come to an end.
While Americans should remain forever proud of the role our country
and its armed forces played in nurturing and protecting the now free
and prosperous South, let us not poison our friendship by overstaying
our welcome. Time to let go, time to bring U.S. forces home, and restore
our rightful role as a republic, not an empire.
|
