US forces under the operational control of a foreign govt during war?

#SouthKorea is leading the entirety of a major combined military exercise with the United States for the first time, Seoul officials said Wednesday, in a sign of progress in the allies' plan for the transition of wartime OPCON.#UFS22 #UShttps://t.co/6D99GycoAW

— Indo-Pacific Defense FORUM (@IPDefenseForum) August 25, 2022

Why not admit that the S. Koreans are more than capable of defending themselves now? Did you know that S. Korean citizens recently held a large protest against US forces in their country? Policy makers and the elite might want our forces there but apparently the S. Korean people don't.

   

I don't know the situation on the ground but we've seen the same thing in S. Korea and Japan and the Philippines.

Forward presence is not the answer that many defense experts think it is.  We need a return to rapid deployment forces.  Frontier outposts didn't work for the Romans and won't work for us.

But back on task.

If we are assisting nations in their defense.  If we're assuming that we're there to defend democracy then why would we allow our forces to be under the operational control of those nations?

I understand that "trip wire" forces are all the rage but by setting up command structures in this way we're almost guaranteeing that American forces will be sacrificed to ensure that the full weight of US firepower is rushed forward to fight.