US prepared to launch preemptive strike on North Korea

[TheGreatA]

North Korea has to be addressed at some point though, they have nukes and they are crazy.

The problem is deciphering whether they are Branch-Davidian crazy or ISIS crazy. Would attacking North Korea be a large-scale version of the Waco siege, where it would've likely been a better option to leave the cultists alone? Or will ignoring the problem lead to a ISIS scenario where Kim Jong-Un will use the element of surprise to make large territorial gains?

I see North Korea as China's responsibility. If the Chinese wish to be treated as a responsible world power, then they must be able to control Kim-Jong Un. If they cannot achieve that feat, then we, in the West, should seriously contemplate whether we wish to continue propping up the economy of an authoritarian, irresponsible China, incapable of keeping the peace around its region.

I think the United States doesn't need to take responsibility for another bloody conflict.

 

[TSO]

They were shitstains content to be shitstains to their own if left alone. Their sabre rattling and tough talk was "hostage taking" to get food for their starving people. A scummy situation, but relatively cheap really. They just wanted to be left alone to be in power forever. There was even some thawing by KJI towards the outer world during Clinton, but then Iraq happened and Saddam overthrown for no friggin reason and no friggin connection to 9/11 and NK saw US would use anything as an excuse and world would give carte blanche.

Axis if Evil - Iraq, Iran, NK were all specifically called out in Bush's 2002 SOTU, where was Pakistan's mention? You know the country in thick with AQ and Taliban in Afghanistan? Could it be because they had THE BOMB? So Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, arguably the two countries other than Afghanistan most culpable for 9/11 gets ignored while Iraq, Iran and NK all get targeted when they had nothing to do with it. Iraq invaded, decimated and Saddam killed, in 2008 Presidential campaign one of the candidates singing songs about bombing Iran - for what? And likely would have happened if Russia wouldn't allow it.

I'm not disagreeing with that at all and must hold my head in shame for voting for Bush in 2000 and 2004.

 

[Squall Leonhart]

They will probably do a nuclear test today in that hollowed-out mountain. We are in the area, and we have NOT said we'd for sure respond if they tested.

South Koreans would get mauled if we attacked, as well as the 28,500 american soldiers we have stationed there.

Will Trump respond to a rumble in the mountains? We know they aren't going to fire a missile test, but is a mountain test enough to set the USA off?

Oh, and Pence is on his way to South Korea for an 11 day trip. Would we send him if we were going to attack?

 

[4daLuLZ]

Remember when Hillary was a Warmonger???

Pepperidge Farms remembers.

 

[GSP_37]

There must be a significant number of pee-ons who are scared of what their futures would be if crazy fat kid does something that causes a very serious response, and would be motivated to overthrow to bring peace and prosperity to future generations.

 

[ShoelessRye]

This tells me that Republicans actually follow world events, and Dems do not. The fact that 38% of them wanted to go war with Syria in 2013 is fucking insane. The fact that the Syrian civil war, the rise of ISIS, and the use of chemical weapons on a civilian population actually reduced that 1% is even more fucking insane.

So when 1400 were gassed in 2013 that wasn't a big enough deal to launch a strike to dissuade usage again, but now when 70 are gassed to death it's war making time!! Trump ran on non-interventionalism and that Assad can stay and now all of a sudden it's world police time and GOP is back to loving it.

It says Dems in this case are consistent no matter who is in the WH, it shows that Republicans want Republican Presidential Daddy to tell them what to believe. Assad then and now is the same. What he did then and now is the same. Only thing that changed is the party in the WH.

 

[klnOmega]

So when 1400 were gassed in 2013 that wasn't a big enough deal to launch a strike to dissuade usage again, but now when 70 are gassed to death it's war making time!! Trump ran on non-interventionalism and that Assad can stay and now all of a sudden it's world police time and GOP is back to loving it.

It says Dems in this case are consistent no matter who is in the WH, it shows that Republicans want Republican Presidential Daddy to tell them what to believe. Assad then and now is the same. What he did then and now is the same. Only thing that changed is the party in the WH.

We never determined who was behind Ghouta.

 

[ShoelessRye]

We never determined who was behind Ghouta.

Same could be said for the most recent gassing. Assad had no motive whatsoever. He'd literally have to be the dumbest MFer alive to have okayed it a mere few days after the US indicated it was now okay with him staying in power. Pro-Assad and Russian side have been making big gains since 2013, when it was much more in doubt - Assad was winning and Tillerson indicated US was ready to step back further.

 

[Orgasmo]

The moment NK is hit with any strike whether surgical or not is the moment they fire off all the shit they have pointed towards Seoul.

Seoul is over 50km away from DMZ. Very few artillery pieces have the kind of range to hit that far. On top of that, North Korean army is poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly fed. It's unlikely that it can coordinate a proper concentrated artillery strike when its communications are jammed and their command structure is under aerial bombardment. Saddamn threatened to rain fire down on Israel in both Gulf Wars, and that never materialized. As long as you send evacuation order as soon as North Korea is hit, you can minimize civilian casualties.

Letting North Korea continue to develop its nuclear weapon program and ICBM is not an option. Right now, they do not have a weaponized nuke and reliable rocket technology, but that will soon change. The cost will be much higher later on if we fail to act now.

 

[Greoric]

Seoul is over 50km away from DMZ. Very few artillery pieces have the kind of range to hit that far. On top of that, North Korean army is poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly fed. It's unlikely that it can coordinate a proper concentrated artillery strike when its communications are jammed and their command structure is under aerial bombardment. Saddamn threatened to rain fire down on Israel in both Gulf Wars, and that never materialized. As long as you send evacuation order as soon as North Korea is hit, you can minimize civilian casualties.

Letting North Korea continue to develop its nuclear weapon program and ICBM is not an option. Right now, they do not have a weaponized nuke and reliable rocket technology, but that will soon change. The cost will be much higher later on if we fail to act now.

 

[Orgasmo]

Nobody said North Korea can't do damage, just won't be as damaging as the average joe would think. Yes, there will be hundreds of civilian casualties and South Korea's economy will be in the tank for a year or two, but that's a relatively small price to pay compared to a nuclear armed North Korea with proper ICBM technologies to strike Hawaii or even Western US. Once they have weaponized nuclear warheads, you can expect hundreds of thousands dead, Japan and South Korea in flames.

Cure your cancer now by cutting off a small tumor, or wait till it grows to being inoperable. Easy choice for a rational person to make.

 

[Greoric]

Nobody said North Korea can't do damage, just won't be as damaging as the average joe would think. Yes, there will be hundreds of civilian casualties and South Korea's economy will be in the tank for a year or two, but that's a relatively small price to pay compared to a nuclear armed North Korea with proper ICBM technologies to strike Hawaii or even Western US. Once they have weaponized nuclear warheads, you can expect hundreds of thousands dead, Japan and South Korea in flames.

Cure your cancer now by cutting off a small tumor, or wait till it grows to being inoperable. Easy choice for a rational person to make.

Has their maintained regime over the last half century been an indication to you that they're suicidal?

 

[JDragon]

An excellent piece of reading.


Speculative but insightful.