US-South Korea Military Exercise Halted – Maybe
In response to the DMZ incident yesterday, the US and South Korea reportedly halted their annual joint military exercise Ulchi Freedom Guardian. This year’s exercise had begun on Monday, 17 August 2015 and was originally scheduled to end on Friday, 28 August 2015.
It is not clear whether the exercise has resumed, might be resumed, or if the remainder has been cancelled outright. Some reports indicate that the exercise has indeed been resumed. Others only indicate it has been halted.
The halt occurred after an exchange of artillery fire across the Korean DMZ. US defense officials publicly announced the halt, while asserting that they were “monitoring the situation”. Later claims were that it was a “planned halt” and a halt to consult with South Korea regarding the DMZ incident.
Hmm. I guess sabre-rattling – even with a needle-thin, weak, and unreliable tool like the one ND:tBF waves around publicly from time to time – can be effective if your opponent lacks both backbone and guts. Gee, who’d a thunk it?
Well done, Obama Administration. You just caved, and gave the Dork of NorK – AKA Fatboy Kim – exactly what he wanted.
Why in the hell do you think the DPRK chose this week to lob a few shells southwards? North Korea has tried for years to get annual US-ROK exercises cancelled or halted; they’ve occasionally been successfu at doing that. By making this halt public – and by appearing confused and uncertain about what you were doing – you just handed North Korea a major propaganda victory on that score. That’s true even if the exercise was only halted temporarily.
But don’t worry, folks; everything will be all right. After all: caving and giving a sabre-rattling despot exactly what he wanted worked perfectly well back in the 1930s, right?
Category: "Teh Stoopid", Foreign Policy, Military issues, North Korea
Because it looks like it might become Ulchi For Real…. I did Ulchi Focus Lense when I was stationed there in 15… You really do not want to be simulating an attack when there might be a real one
I don’t think Park Geun-hye will stand down to the NORKs, if the exercise is halted it’s most likely to increase readiness.
I don’t want to see a real war ramp up over there. I just don’t. With that moron sitting in the White House, it would only become a disaster of mind-blowing proportions.
You have to realize, Hondo, that the jackass in the Oval office is too incompetent to lead anything, including the dog, never mind a military force. You expect something of him that he is incapable of doing.
We all know what psychotic scum the Norks are. In this case, calling a halt to it before it does become Ulchi for real is the better choice, even if you disagree with me.
Obama’s not worried. It will be Somebody Else’s Problem in little more than a year.
By us backing down, the threat of war just went up a couple of notches. Not blinking is what kept the Soviets at bay during the Cold War and has kept the Norks back until now.
Obama’s whole term in office has been all about giving in to everybody, foreign and domestic. When does it stop?
During the several UFLs that I took part in during my career, there was always a stratification pause in the middle of the exercise (half time if you will).
This is only different I think, because the uniformed and civilian leadership had a real world issue to deal with.
But, handing NK a major propaganda coup looks stupid.
Perhaps the break was to get some live ammo out to the troops. The last thing you want is for the enemy to catch you with a magazine full of blanks. My dad told me a story of his unit during the waning days of WW II in southern Germany. They entered a small valley and stumbled on a Volkssturm unit training up kids and old men. The germans were learning basic infantry skills but had not been issued ammo. Needless to say they were quickly rolled up with considerable casualties.
Hondo,
We don’t need an EX … We need an OP.
Hell we don’t even need an OP … We should just pick up were we left off in 1953.
The people living in the north should be freed without any further delay.
I would have called BS years ago!
Out!
Since ‘lill cheese-munching Kim Jong Un is referred to as NDtBF shouldn’t we refer to North Korea by its official initials? It calls itself “the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” (DPRK) so thus the initials would mean “Dirty Pissy(or Punkass) Rotten Kimchee”.
KJU wants his deal before its too late-after all Putin got Crimea, Castro got us to give up, Iran got a green light for nukes, the Taliban got us to quit, the middle east got us to sell out Israel…
KJU would be crazy not to jump on O’s gravy train.