Time to Remove Troops from South Korea, Says Bob Barr

Defense Secretary Robert Gates just returned from a trip to South Korea, where he reaffirmed America’s defense commitment, including the presence of nearly 29,000 troops. This is precisely the wrong strategy, according to Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party nominee for president.

After more than 50 years of American support, “South Korea is well able to defend itself,” notes Barr. The South has an economy that is estimated to be 40 times as large as that of North Korea; South Korea has twice the North’s population and a vast technological edge. “It is time for real leadership on this important national security matter,” Barr said, adding that “maintaining a large and costly American military presence in Korea largely because that’s the way it’s been done for more than half a century makes little sense, especially if we, as we should, maintain the capability to respond quickly to actual threats against us when necessary and where necessary.”

Indeed, Barr adds, South Korea has been sending money and food to the government in Pyongyang. “That is a very strange way to treat a supposed enemy,” he notes. Today the U.S. military is badly stretched by the continuing occupation of Iraq. Surely “Washington can bring home troops stationed in not only South Korea, but also Europe and Japan,” he adds.

We must completely revamp U.S. foreign policy, returning to the noninterventionist strategy of the nation’s Founders. The interests of the American people, rather than of wealthy allies, should become the new lodestar of U.S. policy.