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> Hundreds of thousands of US troops are stationed in Germany, Japan, Korea here 75 years after the end of the second world war. Do you think we would like them

> Hundreds of thousands of US troops are stationed in Germany, Japan, Korea here 75 years after the end of the second world war. Do you think we would like them to stay for another decade? Yes, I believe those countries would prefer if we stayed. Japan and S. Korea are particularly close to China and prefer we’re around to tamp down Chinese aggression. Germany is hoping we don’t withdraw our troops: https://m.dw.com/en/germany-welcomes-bid-to-halt-us-troop-withdrawal/a-55829501 https://m.dw.com/en/germany-welcomes-bid-to-halt-us-troop-wi... Edit: This may offend some Europeans, but I think the world is better off with the US having bases in Europe and as a NATO member. Internecine squabbles in Europe don’t have a good track record over the past 100 or so years. One might even say the bases should be located where the trouble seems to start.

mempko 5y ago
I don't know, seems a lot of wars start from USA after WW2. The US is an empire and those bases are there to protect the empire, not the countries they sit in.
- flyinglizard 5y ago
  How do US bases in South Korea protect the US rather than, well, South Korea?
  - KptMarchewa 5y ago
    US interests, not US land.
  - jollybean 5y ago
    Pax Americana, or Pax Nato etc. For the same reason the US pushed Saddam out of Kuwait. The 'world order' we grew up with seems like it's strong but it's not, it's very fragile. US protection of S. Korea / Japan / Europe is like 'propping up key dominoes' in the chain. Wars break out sometimes fairly easily, having bullwarks ostensibly keeps them from falling down. Obviously there are many costs and risks.
phatfish 5y ago
Okinawa at least seems fed up with the occupation: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210515_13/ https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210515_13/ Europe would do much better by defending itself on its own terms rather than perpetually hiding behind the Stars and Stripes. Hopefully Trump made it clear how dangerous that is.
smhost 5y ago
> Japan and S. Korea are particularly close to China and prefer we’re around to tamp down Chinese aggression. It's not that simple. American presence on the Korean peninsula makes reunification efforts overly complicated. By some estimates, reunification would grow the Korean economy to be the third largest in the world. It would also give Koreans access to Russian pipelines and a large border with China. When climate change opens up arctic trade routes and frozen arctic resources, Russia will be in the position to benefit the most (although Putin relies too heavily on his tsarist-Stalinist strain of conservatism to be able to exploit the economy as efficiently as liberals or perhaps Chinese communists might). As convenient as it is to have a powerful ally in the U.S., the U.S. is no longer in a position where it can dictate the behaviors of foreign nations as it once used to, especially regarding China. That's simply a reality that Koreans have had to come to terms with, despite Americans seeming to believe that things can just return to how they used to be half a century ago.
- pm90 5y ago
  Korean unification is not impeded by the presence of US troops, but by the demands of the DPRK over the nature of what the unified state would look like; it seems unlikely that the current Regime would give up its power just like that. Remember that US troops were stationed in Berlin/ West Germany prior to German unification (i'll admit its not the exact same situation since the East German economy was relatively much stronger pre-unification than the current DPRK economy). If you're suggesting that we should just let the DPRK take over ROK... well, I don't think any of the ROK inhabitants would like that.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - smhost 5y ago
    > Korean unification is not impeded by the presence of US troops, but by the demands of the DPRK over the nature of what the unified state would look like. The fact that the American military gets to decide what the Korean people want or what the reunification process will look like, is the single biggest factor hampering the peace process.
oblio 5y ago
Europeans who get offended don't need US bases. Those that need them want more US bases. For example Romania.

mempko 5y ago

I don't know, seems a lot of wars start from USA after WW2. The US is an empire and those bases are there to protect the empire, not the countries they sit in.

flyinglizard 5y ago
How do US bases in South Korea protect the US rather than, well, South Korea?
- KptMarchewa 5y ago
  US interests, not US land.
- jollybean 5y ago
  Pax Americana, or Pax Nato etc. For the same reason the US pushed Saddam out of Kuwait. The 'world order' we grew up with seems like it's strong but it's not, it's very fragile. US protection of S. Korea / Japan / Europe is like 'propping up key dominoes' in the chain. Wars break out sometimes fairly easily, having bullwarks ostensibly keeps them from falling down. Obviously there are many costs and risks.

phatfish 5y ago

Okinawa at least seems fed up with the occupation: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210515_13/ https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210515_13/ Europe would do much better by defending itself on its own terms rather than perpetually hiding behind the Stars and Stripes. Hopefully Trump made it clear how dangerous that is.

smhost 5y ago

> Japan and S. Korea are particularly close to China and prefer we’re around to tamp down Chinese aggression. It's not that simple. American presence on the Korean peninsula makes reunification efforts overly complicated. By some estimates, reunification would grow the Korean economy to be the third largest in the world. It would also give Koreans access to Russian pipelines and a large border with China. When climate change opens up arctic trade routes and frozen arctic resources, Russia will be in the position to benefit the most (although Putin relies too heavily on his tsarist-Stalinist strain of conservatism to be able to exploit the economy as efficiently as liberals or perhaps Chinese communists might). As convenient as it is to have a powerful ally in the U.S., the U.S. is no longer in a position where it can dictate the behaviors of foreign nations as it once used to, especially regarding China. That's simply a reality that Koreans have had to come to terms with, despite Americans seeming to believe that things can just return to how they used to be half a century ago.

pm90 5y ago
Korean unification is not impeded by the presence of US troops, but by the demands of the DPRK over the nature of what the unified state would look like; it seems unlikely that the current Regime would give up its power just like that. Remember that US troops were stationed in Berlin/ West Germany prior to German unification (i'll admit its not the exact same situation since the East German economy was relatively much stronger pre-unification than the current DPRK economy). If you're suggesting that we should just let the DPRK take over ROK... well, I don't think any of the ROK inhabitants would like that.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- smhost 5y ago
  > Korean unification is not impeded by the presence of US troops, but by the demands of the DPRK over the nature of what the unified state would look like. The fact that the American military gets to decide what the Korean people want or what the reunification process will look like, is the single biggest factor hampering the peace process.

oblio 5y ago

Europeans who get offended don't need US bases. Those that need them want more US bases. For example Romania.