You have world-class cars and consumer goods, glittering streets and a lifestyle as good as any in the industrialized world.

Now, imagine you are being threatened by a hostile country one third as wealthy as Ethiopia.

Ethiopia.

In order to protect yourself from this economic juggernaut, you require the presence of nearly 30,000 American troops, the overpowering might of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and an American general to take charge in case this mighty opponent attacks.

Laughable, right? Not at all. Welcome to South Korea.

It's time for the United States to leave the Korean peninsula. South Korea can defend itself.

Before the Korean War, the North was a relatively prosperous place, with the majority of the peninsula's heavy industry and enormous mineral and timber wealth. South Korea was agrarian and poor.