Pulling the troops

The (Independence, Mo.) Examiner

President Bush has taken a good first step in announcing plans to pull troops from Germany and South Korea. This is long overdue. The Berlin Wall came down in 1989, and the Soviet Union ceased to be in 1991. Today, Russia is more often a partner than an adversary. It's pretty hard to justify large numbers of troops in Germany.

Still, the president who raises the idea is likely to catch some political heat, and Bush has. Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry is getting some mileage from the issue, saying that moving the troops doesn't advance the fight to stop terrorism.

That's an easy shot, but the Bush administration is at least nudging things in the right direction. It's likely to put more forces in places such as West Africa, which is a clear and growing terrorism concern.

This ... also will help our overstretched forces in Iraq -- and, if anything, it would help if the timetable were speeded up.

North Korea is going to be a growing and severe problem for whomever is elected president in November, but the conflict will be over the potential for nuclear, not conventional, warfare.