More of my thoughts on OPCON Transfer.
V/R
Dave

OPCON TRANSFER AND THE AMERICAN-ROK ALLIANCE

August 8, 2013 · by David Maxwell · in Hasty Ambush

On Tuesday the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed titled “A Test of Responsibility in Korea: Seoul now wants the U.S. to retain military command on the peninsula.”

The alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea (ROK) is at a critical juncture. Koreans see an alliance at-risk due to ongoing US fiscal challenges and their impact on the defense budget.  Koreans, and others in the region, fear that this lead to American retrenchment.  Senior ROK leaders may fear this so much that they are willing to risk their own domestic political backlash as well as international derision by requesting that the United States remain in command of the ROK/US Combined Forces Command, thus postponing the so-called OPCON Transfer scheduled for 2015.

(read the rest at War on the Rocks: http://warontherocks.com/2013/08/opcon-transfer-and-the-american-rok-alliance/)