Quote Originally Posted by Entropy View Post
Here's one reason restraining our ramp-down from NE asia: our allies. Our forces are there as much to deter them as to deter potential enemies IMO. A withdraw by the US could precipitate an arms race and even cause Japan and South Korea to consider developing their own nuclear deterrent.

That's not to say that more disengagement can't be done, but I think it needs to happen slowly and incrementally. Indeed, that's been happening for some time now, but I wouldn't expect big changes while the status quo remains on the Korean peninsula.
This is true... and if you look back to what I originally said, I didn't suggest a complete withdrawal. I asked whether we needed to dominate the region, and whether we needed a major force presence there. I'm not convinced that our actual needs require us to do either, though certainly some presence will continue to be needed. We need to balance objectives: we want to convince our allies that they don't need to go nuclear, but we also don't want them thinking that they can rely on us to take care of all regional security issues.

Of course some here might think that anything less than dominance is cringing humiliation, and that China must above all be feared... I don't think those are exactly self-evident truths.