Regarding Doug Bandow's May 24 article "Opportunity for U.S. to extricate itself from Korea": I wonder if this article was written before or after last week's exchange of naval gunfire between the two Koreas.

China would certainly be delighted if the U.S. military finally said farewell to the entire Korean Peninsula. China's sphere of influence would greatly expand almost overnight. What next, have the American forces in Okinawa close up shop and return to Honolulu or San Diego? And there was no mention of how a remilitarized Japan might respond if provoked. There's only one nation that North Korea hates worse than South Korea, and that's the Land of the Rising Sun.

robert mckinney
otaru, hokkaido

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