CNN -The terrifying step Trump better not take on North Korea

[orangecrush]

CNN) While President Donald Trump is walking away from the nuclear agreement with Iran, he is doubling down on negotiating with North Korea. Even as he scorns "a horrible, one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made," he appears prepared to offer North Korea a concession that would be far more damaging than anything President Barack Obama even contemplated offering Iran: removing the roughly 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea.

Such a move would be a huge win for North Korea and China and a major danger for South Korea and Japan, and it would send the message to other rogue regimes that it pays to develop nuclear weapons. If that's the Trump Doctrine, it would be a disaster for the United States and the world.

YJ Fischer
YJ Fischer
Imagine if during the negotiations with Iran, Obama had offered to pull US troops out of the Middle East or to stop defending Israel? That wouldn't just have been a non-starter -- Republicans in Congress probably would have started impeachment proceedings.

...

Even without its nuclear arsenal, North Korea has thousands of artillery cannons and rocket launchers in striking distance of Seoul and, analysts says, could fire more than 300,000 rounds within the first hour of a conflict. But while North Korea has periodically engaged in military provocations with the South, it hasn't launched a full-scale invasion since 1950 because American troops are too great a deterrent. If US forces were to withdraw, Kim could attempt to overwhelm South Korea in a quick attack -- and he probably wouldn't even have to use nuclear weapons to do it.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/05/10/opinions/us-troops-withdrawal-south-korea-foolish-fischer/index.html

Now we know what Trump's bromance with Kim is all about

Further undermining our national security.

[HopeAgain]

1. Trump has the motive Kim is looking for:

self aggrandizement rather than world security. The Koreans have been probing him since he took office; trying to figure out if Trump is an just act or an easy target for manipulation. I think they have figured out he is the latter beyond their wildest imagination.

[Freethinker65]

2. I think Asia will reunite politically and economically and leave the US isolated and declining

China was destined to be the next great super power and Trump just hastened our decline. The real question is how fast and far will we fall because of the damage Trump has done and continues to do?

[cynatnite]

4. Which is what China has wanted all along...

Get the US out and they get to reap the rewards.

[orangecrush]

10. agree whoieheartedly.

[Volaris]

18. Yes, because the world is now multi-polar.

If we want to be one of the more powerful centers of magnetism, there IS a way for us to do that.
It will require us to order our own House, and demonstrate to other nations and their peoples that there are things that only WE CAN DO. Those things will require political will, and the desire to lead by example.

They CAN be done.
The alternative is a return to post-WW1 status in the world: a lot of potential that goes unused, and so one else bothers to give a damn what we think.

And I don't want it to take another world war for us to remember.

[cynatnite]

3. It'll start off as a removing a few troops at a time...

tRump will declare that he brought peace after yadda yadda yadda. Only he could do it.

Meanwhile, Iran quietly begins building their nuclear weapons while Israel keeps raising the threats of war with bombings and all that jazz.

This could go to shit very fast.

[Vinca]

5. Now that he's got the idea imbedded in his empty head, Trump is determined to get himself

a Nobel prize. He'll flush anything rational down the crapper if he thinks giving Kim everything he wants is a pathway to the prize. The damage this fool is doing is going to take decades to repair.

[orangecrush]

11. This would not be repairable

imo.

[Anon-C]

6. I fixed it:

Such a move would be a huge win for North Korea and China and Russia and a major danger for South Korea and Japan, and it would send the message to Japan to buy thousands of US nuclear weapons and prayer mats.

[Volaris]

19. They'd have to buy the prayer mats from China, at this point...

[Yonnie3]

7. As an aside

Two greedy, evil, and incompetent "leaders" are agreeing to give each other the legitimacy and importance they so desperately crave. All else that happens is happenstance.

Perhaps I exaggerate.

[sdfernando]

9. No, I think you're spot on

They don't give a flying f@#k about anything else.

[Voltaire2]

8. I doubt it is going to happen, but....

It is long past time for us to bring our troops home.
A peace treaty ending the Korean War, withdrawal of our forces, normalization of political and economic relations, and “denuclearization” - whatever that means, would be a good thing.

[orangecrush]

12. Until the North attacks

and overruns the South, creating a bloodbath.

[Voltaire2]

13. This would reduce the probability of a bloodbath.

[Hugin]

15. Kim has no intention of giving up absolute power.

And extending it to the South without a DMZ would be so much the better.

[Voltaire2]

16. Ok fine we disagree on the second point.

Our troops in the south are referred to as “the speed bump”. They are there as a reminder that we will nuke the north if they overrun the border defenses.

South Korea wants normalization. I think they have more at stake than we do and understand the situation better.

[Hugin]

17. Awfully broad statement there...

"I think they have more at stake than we do and understand the situation better."

Maybe than anyone in the Trump Xenophobic Isolationist Administration, but, I guarantee there are many Americans (many of them Korean) who are fully aware of the situation.

[Voltaire2]

21. So you think the people of South Korea

don’t have as much at stake and don’t understand the situation as well as we do?

Obviously it was a generalization. Of course there are individuals here who understand the situation as well as anyone in Korea. You did understand the actual point, right?

The actual point is that the South wants peace and political and economic normalization.

[Hugin]

23. As the South Koreans and the US have wanted for over 60 years.

Kim... Not so much.

Try six weeks or so. Since he nuked himself.

Now, he's all about peace when his gambit is about to be exposed along with raw plutonium.

He can wait awhile to see the level of his sincerity. However, Trump wants his Peace Prize, NOW!

[Volaris]

20. North Korea is on its way to de-nuclearization already, anyway...

It's what they get for fucking up and collapsing a mountain over top of their research and manufacturing facility. Yes, it might take 20 years. But we're on that path now.

[Voltaire2]

22. It is not clear at all that they lost any manufacturing

capabilities. They lost a test site.

[former9thward]

14. The OP is totally ignoring the fact that South Korea has one of the world's largest militaries.

It is very well equipped and trained. Much more so than the North Korean military which is pathetic. Why do people want to keep our troops in SK forever? SK is a very prosperous country and can easily defend itself. The U.S. does not need to have troops everywhere. Very interesting that the EXACT same people who rightfully complain about our gigantic military budget are now insisting our troops be everywhere. Why do you think we have a gigantic budget? The troops have to be paid for. Get them back home.