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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday June 20 2018, @11:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the next-up-is-monopoly dept.

The Pentagon confirmed Monday that major U.S. military exercises this summer in South Korea would be suspended, following President Trump's decision.

'We will be stopping the war games, which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should,' Trump told reporters after his meeting last Tuesday with Kim in Singapore. 'But we'll be saving a tremendous amount of money. Plus, I think it's very provocative.'

foxnews.com/politics/2018/06/18/pentagon-confirms-halt-august-war-games-with-south-korea.html


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday June 20 2018, @02:09PM (6 children)

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Wednesday June 20 2018, @02:09PM (#695582) Journal

    And in the meantime coordination between forces is disrupted - you only get to do that for so long (and due to rotation of troops and units the time is not long at all). Denuclearization will take time, and my bet is that degradation of coordination will set in before it is complete. When/if exercises are restarted it would be seen as an escalation, not a return-to-normal. In short, engaging in the exercises from this day forward would be a "provocation" because Trump has already called it "provacative," right? Yeah, that's strategically smart.

    Is it provacative? In the sense that the tests (war games are actually training to test the structures in addition to the political messages they send) deliver a message that forces are indeed prepared to go to battle if the political side orders it, sure. It is a demonstration of capability, but it is more than a parade where missile tractors and battalions march in front of the Great Leader to attempt to prove the same thing. In short, handled correctly it isn't very much so.

    So what did we get out of the deal? A commitment for MIA remains.... It's not the first time they committed to that. I wonder, though, why it takes special agreement for that to occur. What does intentionally holding remains of dead enemy soldiers as bargaining chips have to say about the moral and ethical structure of North Korea. But now we get to see if they make good. My guess is that this was a tack-on because really all North Korean committed to beyond that was to keep talking. And before that reported but completely unverified demolition of a nuclear test facility that rumor has it was at its operational end, anyway.

    I agree that what we've had is better than starting a shooting war.

    We'll see.

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday June 20 2018, @02:25PM (2 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 20 2018, @02:25PM (#695586) Journal

    You're overstating your case with the loss of coordination. It's just as easy to move some S. Koreans to Kansas, or California, or New Hampshire for training, as it is for us to move stuff over there. Training together doesn't actually require that you be in South Korea to do it.

    • (Score: 4, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday June 20 2018, @04:29PM (1 child)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 20 2018, @04:29PM (#695641) Journal

      It's just as easy to move some S. Koreans to Kansas, or California, or New Hampshire for training, as it is for us to move stuff over there.

      Given that most of the joint military exercises in Korea [wikipedia.org] were based (required) heavy naval support, Kansas seems indeed like the perfect alternative training ground (grin)

      Continuing on the same line, here are two other suggestions, one more brillianter than the other:
      - take the Afghan and Iraq forces currently under training by US military and start training them in, say, Montana. Because it's cheaper
      - round up all the Talibans you are warring with in Afghanistan and Pakistan and disembark them in Arkansas, plonk into the Bible belt. This way you can let the Christian Talibans use their God-given guns to fight the Muslim Talibans for much cheaper than abroad. You can even tax them for the fun they are having.

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      • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday June 20 2018, @09:30PM

        by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Wednesday June 20 2018, @09:30PM (#695806) Homepage Journal

        America used to have the greatest military, we used to be so powerful militarily. We actually used to have a beautiful Naval Base in Kansas. Near Olathe, where there was that terrible shooting. But my predecessors, very foolishly, shut it down. Here we are, protecting Korea. Protecting Japan, Germany -- NATO -- so many places. And it's costing us tremendously. To where possibly they're costing us more as friends than they did as enemies. And we're not protecting the middle of our Country the way we used to. And the way we need to. Sad!!!

  • (Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20 2018, @03:45PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20 2018, @03:45PM (#695630)

    "more than a parade where missile tractors and battalions march in front of the Great Leader"

    so the parade in D.C. is still on?

  • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Thursday June 21 2018, @01:07AM (1 child)

    by Sulla (5173) on Thursday June 21 2018, @01:07AM (#695905) Journal

    So out of the past 60 years we postponed one training, i dont see how 1/60 ruins our ability to wage war.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 21 2018, @07:37AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 21 2018, @07:37AM (#696081)

      Our military, as well as South Korea's, are constantly swapping out personnel. That is the nature of a volunteer military. The new people need the training.