Unsurprisingly, the peace process could only have worked if a large-scale military withdrawal followed, and today there are no signs of armed British personnel walking the streets, fearing Nationalists and loved by the Loyalists. A senior British journalist, John Simpson, who worked in Northern Ireland at the heart of the troubles, recalls in his autobiography: "The Republicans always treated me with the utmost respect. Only the Americans seemed to have a personal problem with me."

How could a global policeman like the US criticise British imperialism as it interfered in Africa, Latin America, Europe, and of course, Asia? The unconvincing excuses offered were that it was fighting a Cold War. Since 1989, the US has continued to intervene, in similar and in wholeheartedly different ways, in all four continents. In at least one area, the necessity for this to end is now as unequivocal as the British need to withdraw from Northern Ireland.

A clear cut and topical example is Korea. Last week saw an historic meeting between the South Korean President, Kim Dae Jung, and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong Il. The two shook hands, sipped champagne (or in Kim Jong Il's case, knocked back ten glasses of it), and talked to the press (the first time Kim Jong Il has ever done that.) The unification of Korea still seems as distant as what it did a fortnight ago, yet now as the relations between the divided regions are better than at any time in the past fifty years, is it not time the US cautiously but quickly pulled out?

Like the British in Northern Ireland, the US is hardly neutral in South Korea. On the south side of Panmunjom, the "truce village" on the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas, American tour guides lecture coach loads of American and South Korean tourists as to why North Korean Communism is wrong. Nearby, American commanders in camps lead American soldiers onto American-dominated anti-Communist operations named after dead American officers. It is this presence that so successfully thwarts hopes of genuine stability returning to Korea. It is not that the North Korean propaganda dished out in the north side of the village is not just as powerful and inaccurate as that on the south, but it has been created and driven by US imperialism.

Take the threat away and watch rationality return.

There are 100,000 American servicemen based in East Asia, 37,000 of those situated in Korea. As well as antagonising North Koreans, US military presence serves to ensure Chinese paranoia and anti-Western feeling remains as strong as ever, meaning sparks like the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia last year can threaten global peace.

Following the recent historic meeting, and years of nervous, but ultimately peaceful co-existence within Korea, it is surely now time for the US to alter its political stance (like the proposed Theatre Missile Defence system) and economic interests in East Asia so that it no longer requires military presence. As in Northern Ireland, some troops could remain in case problems did ensue, but in a more covert and less threatening and perceivedly dominant way.

The types of violent and politically damaging fears that inflicted the past no longer exist, are now insignificant, or can now be dealt with in an easier way than at any time in the previous century. It took the British army too long to appreciate this, sustaining deadly and prolonged tension in Ulster. The US army continues to copy the misguided British. It now needs to heed and follow the practices of the last two years as well.