As US missiles leave South Korea, the Philippines asks: are we next?

Automated excerpt

The United States has begun pulling missile-defence systems from South Korea to feed its war with Iran, prompting fresh questions in the Philippines about Washington’s military commitments to the Asia-Pacific. The transfer of Patriot batteries from the Korean peninsula, accompanied by reports that parts of a THAAD anti-missile system were also on the move, did not directly affect the US military presence in the Philippines. But the episode has forced a question that Manila would rather not have to ask out loud: if America’s assets can leave South Korea, what exactly is anchoring them anywhere?

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