SEOUL, Aug. 25 -- For the commanders of South Korea's marine forces, June brought confirmation of something they had quietly feared. The United States Marine Corps had formally told Seoul it could not send forces to the Ssangyong exercise in September, the biennial amphibious landing drill that for years has served as the physical proof of the US-South Korea alliance's readiness to fight on Korean soil. The Iran war had come for the exercise budget.

South Korean Marine Corps spokesman Han Seung-jeon disclosed the cancellation on Monday. "The US Marine Corps formally notified our forces in June that its ability to deploy forces during this year's Ssangyong exercise would be constrained due to the situation in the Middle East," he said, co...