hankyoreh

There were strong suggestions of the possibility that Korean troops in Iraq may have their stay extended at the Sept. 7 meeting between Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush. Roh’s response to Bush’s request for “continued cooperation” could easily have been read that way.

However, the troops are supposed to withdraw by the end of the year, so what would there be for Roh to talk to the National Assembly about? Furthermore, back in May the Korean Ministry of National Defense sent half of the replacement troops that were supposed to go there four months later. The ministry was in June supposed to announce concrete plans for withdrawing by the end of the year, but that continues to be postponed.

Korean troops should be deployed in Iraq no longer. There are many reasons. The biggest of these is that a government should not deceive its people. When the government got the National Assembly to approve the last tour extension at the end of last year, it promised to announce withdrawal plans in June of 2007. That was essentially the same as promising that there would be no more extensions. Whatever earth-shaking circumstances may arise, the government should keep its promise.

Furthermore there are no new circumstances that would give reason to talk about keeping troops in Iraq. This is why the government is as pathetic as can be for saying that “nothing’s been decided” while looking around trying to figure out how to make its move. On the other hand there are plenty of circumstances that suggest Korea should speed up its withdrawal. The kidnapping of Koreans by the Taliban is a representative example. Offensive missionary tactics on the part of Korean Protestants were partly to blame, but this was not as important a factor as the fact that Korea had sent troops to an unjustified war.

World opinion has completely turned around and now calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq. A BBC survey of close to 20,000 people in 22 nations found that 67 percent would like to see U.S. troops leave within the end of the year. Only 23 percent agree with U.S. President Bush’s call for troops to stay in Iraq until things are stabilized there.

Opinion leans far more towards withdrawal than it did in a BBC poll in February of last year. At the time, 50 percent wanted troops out within a few months and 35 percent wanted them to stay until the country was stabilized. As of last year, Korean opinion was tightly split between people who wanted American troops to leave Iraq and people who wanted them to stay, but this year 63 percent of Koreans want them to withdraw.

Moreover, the United Kingdom, the United States’ greatest military ally, is hastening its own troop withdrawal. Next month, British troops are going to hand over security in Basra to Iraqi troops, and they are already in the process of moving to Basra’s outskirts. In the United States, there is talk within the ranks of the Republican Party and the Bush Administration about reducing the number of U.S. troops in Iraq now that the “until Iraq stabilizes” plan has turned out to be a failure. This is not a matter for which one should lay out lame excuses - like economic interests and keeping troops in Iraq because of the U.S.-Korea alliance.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]