Ulchi Freedom Shield ran like clockwork for decades. Matthew Hoh trained in it himself a quarter century ago.
This year it's curtailed, Ssangyong is cancelled outright, and the Marine Corps told Seoul back in June the forces simply wouldn't be available.
Decades of alliance architecture, ended without a single hearing.
Matthew's larger point is the one Asian capitals should tape to the wall.
Look at who absorbed this war: Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan.
The bases got struck, the economies bled, the buffer did its job. Now run the same script in the Pacific.
"It's Japanese cities that are getting hit by North Korean missiles."
And the other side has been studying.
Nearly twenty thousand North Korean troops rotated through Ukraine, and the surviving officers came home with promotions and the training portfolio.
From his own counter-IED command in Iraq, Matthew learned the enemy adapts in thirty to sixty days.
He sees no evidence American industry can keep that pace, citing a half-billion-dollar shell factory that still can't produce shells.
His verdict on the economic announcement was drier: measured against its namesake, this D-Day would have left Paris speaking German.
@MatthewPHoh @WeTheBrandon
