North Korea

Well more and more it appears that the nutjob in charge of North Korea is determined to go out with a "bang" and a few mushroom clouds, as North Korea threatens a nuclear war on the Penisula. We, as well as UN allies are still technically "at war" with North Korea, since it only was an "armistace" signed in 1953. Should we pre-empt the ineviable nuclear release and strike from North Korea to "celebrate" Dear Leaders dream of domination of the Korean Peninsula before his passing, or wait and clean up the mess afterwords? Either we will be "wrong" depending on the media bias of the reporting, so as long as we are going to be "wrong" anyway, which do we choose?

The war drums are getting louder, nad North Korea continues to push buttons to guage the worlds response before it acts. Predict just a matter of time before some form of military confrontation, and the 23,000 US troops in Korea are only a "trip wire" if anything happens and it could again be a 1950 scenario before the world responds.

And the USS John McCain had its towed sonar array delibertly struck by a trailing Chinese submarine. It is not like with the technology available in the more modern Chinese submarines the Comrade Captian Whoever did not know what he was doing and where the array was in relationship to the US ship. Looks like the next couple of weeks are going to be fun and interesting.

Clearly, it's time to open a new war front.

If there's any nation that deserves to have some sense nuked into them, it's NK. China does not want to have a refugee problem, so they'd rather not let the country fail under sanction(and with these new sanctions, they may be backed into a corner seeing as how they can't sell weapons, which is their only export of any value. Kim Jung Il can't back down on nukes without completely losing face at home, and this stroke may have cost him whatever sane judgement he had in the first place. With the US in the financial straights we are, and can hardly see us being able to buy the suckers off. The first time China uses its political capital on reigning in NK, they've lost it. If they pressure them and they refuse, they lose face. I doubt China will do anything unless a shooting war is immenent. Either we tolerate a nuclear South East Asia (Japan would need to ammend their constitution and withdraw from the NPT, but could produce their own nukes rather quickly) , find some sort of political solution(less likely by the day), or wait until it escalates enough to warrent military action, then cream them fast, which would almost surley require a nuclear strike(or Rods From God on all of their nuclear sites and the biggest conventional bombing campaign since Viet Nam). Currently all of the options look bad. Hopefull they'll spend whatever money they have left on a nuke program in hopes of negotiating on their own terms, and it can be settled peacefully, and/or KJI will croak and leave a slightly more sane successor.

With troops leaving Iraq, Al-Queda vacating Pakistan for Somalia amid rising local opposition, and things ramping up in Afghanistan, I think the chances are decent we could put more troops in the region relativly quickly. I doubt China would get involved, but the status-quo works in their favor. The only thing we can do is say we would no longer need bases on the Korean Penninsula if Korea were reunified after the North goes under.

Keeps getting better and better. Most of this kind of crap I rack up to saber rattling, but this guy is seriously off his rocker.  I can see him nuking Japan just to prove his point.

tallen702 wrote: Apparently China had the "dear leader" over for a little chat last week and told him to shut his whore mouth and stop playing with nukes. Personally, I don't see the Obama administration opening up a new front however justified it is. A shooting war will have to start before we get involved. It's been the case with almost every democrat in office since the turn of the last century.

Dis man, he speaks da' truf.

If NK actually goes to war, I could see myself enlisting.

I'd go airforce. :P

tallen702 wrote: Apparently China had the "dear leader" over for a little chat last week and told him to shut his whore mouth and stop playing with nukes. Personally, I don't see the Obama administration opening up a new front however justified it is. A shooting war will have to start before we get involved. It's been the case with almost every democrat in office since the turn of the last century.

oldpbnoob wrote: tallen702 wrote: Apparently China had the "dear leader" over for a little chat last week and told him to shut his whore mouth and stop playing with nukes. Personally, I don't see the Obama administration opening up a new front however justified it is. A shooting war will have to start before we get involved. It's been the case with almost every democrat in office since the turn of the last century. I realize China has some pull with NK, but I just think he's a loose cannon. As OS said, he seems like someone that want's to go out with a bang and be immortalized, doesn't matter how.

Man you guys have short memories... link

tallen702 wrote: See, here's what scares me. Kim Il Sung's legacy is secured in the annals of not only DPRK history, but world history as the leader of the North Korean forces in the Korean War. However, Kim Il Jong has no such place in world history. While his created image in the DPRK is that of some great and omnipotent leader, his own self image is poor. He doesn't care for others, only himself. The famine of the 1990's shows just how little he cares about those he rules. Do you really think, when his time to pass on comes, that he would think twice about literally going out with a bang? If it meant that he pushed the button to initiate a nuclear war between ideologies, he'd do it solely to have that distinction in world history. THAT is what scares me about the DPRK's attempts to gain a nuclear arsenal and delivery system.

I didn't say I didn't think he'd do it, just that even China is getting in on the act when some were saying that they wouldn't/couldn't. China can't control the DPRK and its leadership any more than we can.

I just find it funny that OS started a thread on a subject saying the EXACT SAME THING that I said two weeks ago....

Ceesman762 wrote: ParielIsBack wrote: If NK actually goes to war, I could see myself enlisting. Really?  What branch of the service?

Marines.  I'm pretty sure I could score high enough on the entry test to just go straight to OCS afterwards, so I'd probably end up being an officer even if it happened in the next 3 years before I graduate.

Yeah, I don't see the US making the first move in anything military related right now. Not saying they would ignore a situation, but I don't see them headed out there to prevent one. Far too many people would cry about how GWB would have never wasted money on an iffy war.