The defense secretary recently said, "Whether the forces would come home or whether they'd move farther south on the peninsula or whether they'd move to some neighboring area are the kinds of things that are being sorted out."

After a 50-year stay that is seen as intrusive to Koreans and no longer serves U.S. interests, our guys may finally get to leave a country that is becoming more and more anti-American. I do feel sorry for the older generation of Koreans who feel genuine affection for the U.S. troops, and who face an uncertain future while holding memories of a dark past.

But the situation has become untenable, with a majority of Korean voters wanting us out, and North Korea becoming more unpredictable. With the North's determination to build atomic weapons, and their track record of selling weapons to anyone, the United States cannot allow the status quo to continue. The absence of U.S. troops might make South Korea less likely to be a target of the North's retaliation after a U.S. preemptive strike on the North's nuclear facilities.

So unlike the empire we are accused of being, we have taken the hint, and the Yankees may be going home.

Fred Barnes Denton, Texas