thedrifter
04-24-07, 07:44 PM
Korea too dangerous for families, Warner says
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Apr 24, 2007 16:24:45 EDT
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., appeared to toss cold water Tuesday on a suggestion by the commander of U.S. forces in South Korea that tours there be extended to three years and accompanied by family members.
Army Gen. Burwell Bell first made the proposal before the House Armed Services Committee on March 7, arguing then and today that conditions in South Korea are no different now than they were in Europe during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, when U.S. troops were accompanied by their families.
“My son was born 12 miles from two Russian divisions, both equipped with nuclear weapons,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He said he learned as commanding general of U.S. Army Europe that family members “want to be with their service member, wherever they are on the face of this Earth.”
In addition, all U.S. forces will be moving south off the Demilitarized Zone over the next five years to two “hubs” south of Seoul, a move concurrent with U.S. Forces Korea ceding wartime control of South Korean forces back to the host-nation government by 2012.
As such, family members would be farther from the conventional threat North Korean forces pose, Bell said. “I don’t think it’s an undue risk at all,” he said.
But, he admitted, much work remains to be done, “and I’ve got to convince the Department of Defense that this is a proper and prudent thing to do. And then I’ve got to seek resources.” He said a significant amount of “burden-sharing” money for construction of family housing would come from South Korea.
“So I’d like to work it,” he told Warner. “I believe it has merit.”
Warner countered that Europe during the Cold War was a more predictable environment.
“Go ahead and work it,” Warner said. But, he added, during the Cold War “there was a degree of reliance on judgmental ability of the Soviet Union hierarchy to make decisions in what I would say was a reasonably rational and careful way. I do not find that to exist with regard to North Korea at this time.”
Warner agreed that keeping families together is important. But “Europe is a relatively safe area in which to have left your family ... while you deploy,” he said. “Korea’s quite different. ... Certainly, we have the analysis of what would happen [if war broke out]. It would happen within a matter of 24 hours, and it is horrific proportions.
“You’ve got to evaluate the standpoint of the strategic risk if confrontation happened,” Warner said.
Ellie
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Apr 24, 2007 16:24:45 EDT
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., appeared to toss cold water Tuesday on a suggestion by the commander of U.S. forces in South Korea that tours there be extended to three years and accompanied by family members.
Army Gen. Burwell Bell first made the proposal before the House Armed Services Committee on March 7, arguing then and today that conditions in South Korea are no different now than they were in Europe during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, when U.S. troops were accompanied by their families.
“My son was born 12 miles from two Russian divisions, both equipped with nuclear weapons,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He said he learned as commanding general of U.S. Army Europe that family members “want to be with their service member, wherever they are on the face of this Earth.”
In addition, all U.S. forces will be moving south off the Demilitarized Zone over the next five years to two “hubs” south of Seoul, a move concurrent with U.S. Forces Korea ceding wartime control of South Korean forces back to the host-nation government by 2012.
As such, family members would be farther from the conventional threat North Korean forces pose, Bell said. “I don’t think it’s an undue risk at all,” he said.
But, he admitted, much work remains to be done, “and I’ve got to convince the Department of Defense that this is a proper and prudent thing to do. And then I’ve got to seek resources.” He said a significant amount of “burden-sharing” money for construction of family housing would come from South Korea.
“So I’d like to work it,” he told Warner. “I believe it has merit.”
Warner countered that Europe during the Cold War was a more predictable environment.
“Go ahead and work it,” Warner said. But, he added, during the Cold War “there was a degree of reliance on judgmental ability of the Soviet Union hierarchy to make decisions in what I would say was a reasonably rational and careful way. I do not find that to exist with regard to North Korea at this time.”
Warner agreed that keeping families together is important. But “Europe is a relatively safe area in which to have left your family ... while you deploy,” he said. “Korea’s quite different. ... Certainly, we have the analysis of what would happen [if war broke out]. It would happen within a matter of 24 hours, and it is horrific proportions.
“You’ve got to evaluate the standpoint of the strategic risk if confrontation happened,” Warner said.
Ellie