There are tens of thousands of American boys standing as human tripwires along the DMZ who are extremely vunerable to conventional attack and defenseless against atomic attack should a crazed regime launch either kind. What do we gain by maintaining the troops there? What is the down side if South Korea falls to an anschluss by North Korea? Do we lose a gallant ally? Would the takeover of the entire Korean peninsula threaten American security? Would it make the Japanese more or less friendly inclined to the United States as their protector? Would it stir the Japanese to defend themselves? Would the North Koreans be more capable of making mischief like disseminating atomic weapons if they were in possession of the whole peninsula?
Time is running out on America's ability to be the Lord protector for unworthy or ungrateful allies. Even if we conclude that it is in America's security interests to maintain a 60-year-old posture of conventional defense in a world of nonconventional warfare, will we long be able to sustain the expense? Do we create an area of vulnerability rather than a bulwark against the barbarians? Do we weaken America in the long run by draining the treasury to no purpose or for counterproductive efforts?
Are there ways that we can get our allies to pick up the burden especially in places like South Korea, Taiwan, Poland? Could we talk plainly to both the South Koreans and the Japanese and tell them that the free ride is over and the threat from North Korea to both nations is existential? Are there enough commonsense conservative Japanese and Koreans to shoulder a fair share of their own burden?
None of these questions can be addressed so long as we are misled at the top by a man who does not seek as his first conscious thought of every waking day the security of the United States. We simply cannot trust him to do the right thing and weigh matters of this kind. More than half the country would believe he is selling us out if he decides that it is imprudent, for example, to leave our troops exposed along the Korean DMZ. These are the wages of a press that creates an atmosphere of unreality for election time and an electorate that will not do its homework.
America's options around the world are diminishing at a rapid pace, the only question is, is our president ahead or behind that power curve, does he welcomed or resist the erosion of America's power and the consequent threats to world peace?
The frightening truth is that we do not have a government in place which we can trust to make honest decisions about the security of our families.
