U.S. Begins Transferring Combat Troops in S Korea to Iraq

[Nambe]

Yonhap New Agency (no sign of this from other agencies?)

SEOUL, Aug. 3 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. military in South Korea began shifting its 3,600 combat troops stationed along the border with North Korea to Iraq this week in a major change of its troop levels here, an official said Tuesday.

The 2nd Brigade of the 2nd U.S. Infantry Division began leaving for Iraq aboard U.S. military airplanes Monday night for a one-year tour of duty, a division official said, requesting anonymity.

"The redeployment will proceed for one week," the official said, adding that support units such as engineering teams have already left the country. ...

The redeployment is widely seen as Washington's first step toward reducing the number of its 37,500 troops in South Korea by one third by the end of next year. ...

http://bbs.yonhapnews.co.kr/board/0218000000.asp?boardid=1129">S Koreans protest deployment of Korean troops to Iraq

Ride Don’t Drive It’s Global Cool

[MallRat]

1. And thus the dominoes begin to fall.

It's like a bad chess player; this Administration has failed to think 3 moves ahead. By entangling us in a long-term deployment in Iraq, we will be weaker in other parts of the world.

I'm not a political scientist. I'm not a international relations expert. I certainly don't know the first damn thing about military policy and 21st century geopolitics.

And yet, I saw this coming from a mile away. Why couldn't our leaders see it?

-MR

[jean]

6. you compliment this group by assuming they know how to play chess

they're more like tentative checker players. No offense to the game of checkers.

Why in the hell are they pulling troops away from the insanity that is North Korea?

[k in IA]

2. Well, I always thought this would make more sense then yanking

all the National Guard and Reserves out of their normal lives and throwing them into Iraq.

[RobertSeattle]

3. This is one of those "Only a Republican can do" things

If a Democratic Administration had even THOUGHT of doing this the RW would be foaming at the mouth. Typical vitriol would be: "Abandoning a long term Ally" "Shameful use of US power", etc.

But of course we live in hypocrital-bizarro world!

[Desertrose]

4. uhmm...excuse me, but doesn't N Korea have nukes?

so uhm...why exactly are we pulling our troops out of S Korea NOW?

Oh right, to make repub ass look better for Nov. Everything and I do mean EVERYTHING is now all about the election....and since the media is already reporting from the WH scripts...who's gonna hear about this anyway??

Dumb...dumb dumb dumb! god, this makes NO sense...typical.

Peace
DR

[BrotherBuzz]

5. Well, it does sorta make sense.

North Korean nukes negate the need for US infantry troops stationed on the border. You know, never take a knife to a gun fight. I'm no military strategist but I believe the game plan has changed and conventional warfare, if there is such a thing, is no longer an option. Thank you George* for your infinite wisdom and foresight in bumbling this situation.

[coalition_unwilling]

7. The South Korean dynamic

The Cold War is over and the young people of South Korea yearn for re-unification of the peninsula.

And the Bush Administration (and, to a lesser extent, the power elite in general) seems fixated on re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic, witness their fixation with creating a new Intelligence Czar, rather than taking a hard look at our foreign policies. And moving troops from one theater to another? The Titanic is going down--just a question of when, not if.

[daleo]

8. Sometimes I think they are just goading the North Koreans

Sometimes I think they are just stupid. Sometimes I think both.