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Loose Canons
Kim Inching Toward War
What does the increased pace of the Norks’ bellicosity mean?
(Page 2 of 2)
President Obama said he’s confident we could defend ourselves against any North Korean missile attack. And he’s probably right, at least for now.
North Korea hasn’t yet mated a nuclear warhead to a missile capable of hitting the United States. But they will achieve that capability sooner or later. And our missile defenses are far from foolproof. Obama isn’t going to allow them to be developed much beyond the point they are in now. Cutting military spending affects missile defense along with everything else, and Obama is no fan of the program.
So what do we do? In June 2006 — having witnessed the failure of his “Agreed Framework” — former defense secretary Bill Perry (with Ashton Carter, now deputy defense secretary) wrote a revealing op-ed in the Washington Post. After ritually deriding Bush’s pre-emptive war doctrine and the Iraq War, Perry and Carter argued strongly for a pre-emptive strike on North Korea’s missile launch facility to destroy its Taepodong missile on the launch pad.
President Bush never ordered the strike, and Obama isn’t about to do that now. Obama is dedicated to permitting the UN to control our actions, and neither China nor Russia would endorse any military action against North Korea. If North Korea began readying another long-range missile for launch, we could — and should — do what Perry suggested in 2006: launch a cruise missile or other conventionally armed missile and destroy the Norks’ missile on the launch pad. But we won’t.
What will come depends entirely on North Korean calculations of their own weaknesses and ours. And this is where it gets complicated.
If Kim’s generals wanted to force us to bribe them into another missile moratorium, they might launch a missile at the oil-rich Senkaku Islands off Japan which are uninhabited and the ownership of which is disputed by China. Would Japan have to respond militarily in defense of the islands, possibly drawing China into a conflict with Japan? Would we, under our mutual defense agreement with Japan, be drawn in too?
If the Norks wanted to force us into some other agreement they might take an aggressive act against South Korea. That would be as big a gamble, because the South Koreans — their capital only a few miles from the DMZ — would be more likely to strike back with air strikes or more, again drawing us in.
For Obama, the North Korean mess is a spectator sport. We’ll wait, and watch what goes on without trying to influence the events. If we had a president more interested in foreign affairs, he would now be answering Kim’s rhetoric with restatements of our commitment to defend not only our homeland but also those of Japan and South Korea. When North Korea was a non-nuclear power, their threats could be brushed off. That is a luxury we no longer enjoy.
Photo: UPI
About the Author
Jed Babbin served as a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. He is the author of several bestselling books including Inside the Asylum and In the Words of Our Enemies. You can follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (74) | Leave a comment
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aware| 3.11.13 @ 6:24AM
This world is a lunatic asylum totally under the control of the inmates.
Joellen| 3.11.13 @ 11:14AM
Sorry Mr. Babbin, NO ONE can make Hillary or Lurch LOOK good.
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 2:11PM
Contest this Friday, on an OFFICIAL BLOG.
KAMINSKY'S.
We've hit the Big Time, so we need all of the participation we can muster.
"And oh what heights we'll hiiiiiiit. On with the Show, this is it." (Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck)
7-08| 3.11.13 @ 10:33PM
Just where is that exactly?
Otis, my man!| 3.11.13 @ 6:58AM
The South Koreans will not stand for one more artillery shell lobbed there way by the North. If Kim miscalculates and actually fires a shot, there WILL be all out war between the North and the South. Where this war spirals out from there, no one knows.
Jack in Wi| 3.11.13 @ 7:06AM
Give the South Koreans and Japanese 10 nuclear bombseach and leave. We should have been out of there decades ago. Of course we should charge them for the weapons.
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 7:30AM
The Broken Clock strikes, again.
Jack in Wi| 3.11.13 @ 8:19AM
TLP: Talking to yourself again? Do you have a job or is that poor asian lady doing all the heavy lifting?
RCV| 3.11.13 @ 11:41AM
Another brilliant suggestion from Jack.
Jack in Wi| 3.11.13 @ 12:30PM
Thank you RCV. I am glad you finally seeing the light. Let the world do it's own defenses. We are broke and our troops are broken. Bring them home to their families and defend only these borders and shores.
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 12:40PM
That actually WAS a Brilliant suggestion by Jack.
Like you, he somehow stumbles on to a Coherent Thought, now and then.
7-08| 3.11.13 @ 10:34PM
No he doesn't.
vtwin| 3.11.13 @ 1:00PM
Jack, we didn’t give the bomb to the British nor should we "give" it to the South Koreans or the Japanese both of which like the British could develop it themselves if THEY think it necessary for THEIR security.
markenoff| 3.11.13 @ 7:57AM
It's George Bush's fault.
Maxwell| 3.11.13 @ 8:08AM
You forgot the Tea Party.
Crassus| 3.11.13 @ 7:25PM
Sarah Palin deserves some blame too.
Pecos Pete| 3.11.13 @ 8:30AM
I hereby break all Treaties between the USA and ME. Send luxuries to me via FedEx or UPS, except for $1 a gallon gasoline and a 50% reduction in my electrical cost which will have to be delivered not only to me but also to all of my fellow citizens.
Seems like a fair deal to me. Otherwise I will invite Chicken Little or Mr. Wolf to be my spokesperson.
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 4:15PM
Contest this Friday, on an OFFICIAL BLOG.
KAMINSKY'S.
We've hit the Big Time, so we need all of the participation we can muster.
"And oh what heights we'll hiiiiiiit. On with the Show, this is it." (Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck)
crankitup| 3.11.13 @ 8:30AM
the face of the obamao regime dennis rodman, a true sign of the times.
Buck Ofama| 3.12.13 @ 11:25AM
Clown Ovomit won't bother to call the junior Pot Bellied Pig.
Instead, Junior receives a consolation visit from Ovomit's worthy proxy: a tattooed and jungle-pierced faded basketball idol.
And the USSA wonders why the world laughs.
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 8:35AM
Wow. That was some story. You start out by rattling off the Hillary and Kerry names (I get that part) but then you go on to call Dennis Rodman an Idiot?
I don't know whether to Laugh or Cry.
As far as I can tell, that "Idiot" didn't do anything to make this Country Weaker.
Unlike Bill Clinton and Madeline Halloween Mask, he didn't give them Nuclear Reactors and the FUEL to get them up and running. He didn't give them "The Rope to hang us with" in Emergency Food and Fuel Supplies. And, he never signed a Waiver so that his Big Donour Buddy - Bernie Scwhartz - could sell Missile Navigation Systems to North Korea's big Brother over in China, which they promptly put to use in the Nuclear ICBMs that they currently have Pointed at Us.
But, RODMAN is "An Idiot"?
"The Norks never intend to keep an agreement they make." (Why does that sound so familiar?)
We know that the Norks are Liars, but what about the Dorks?
Let's ask South Vietnam about all those Weapons they were PROMISED by the guys that DEMANDED they fight their own "Civil War".
Let's ask Ronald Reagan and GHWBush about all those Budget Deals they made with the Dorks, that they tossed in the trash before the ink could dry.
We could ask the Clintons. But, which one? The Pathological Liar? Or, the Congenital one?
Which brings us to today, and the Winner of the Nobel Lying Award - Barack Barry Abu - who learned to Lie to the Infidel in the Muslim Schools and Mosques that he was Raised in.
But, Rodman's the Idiot.
John Navratil| 3.11.13 @ 10:02AM
TLP,
It was intended as a compliment to Rodman, in comparison to Hillary and Kerry.
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 12:42PM
Do I know you?
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 12:48PM
Contest this Friday, on an OFFICIAL BLOG.
KAMINSKY'S.
We've hit the Big Time, so we need all of the participation we can muster.
"And oh what heights we'll hiiiiiiit. On with the Show, this is it." (Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck)
Buck Ofama| 3.12.13 @ 11:10AM
You make some very good points. NK has a history of feigned sabre rattling all designed to manipulate our idiot leaders into acquiescence.
JP| 3.11.13 @ 9:05AM
Have no fear. Kerry, Hagel, and Brennen are all over it. Kerry will blame the US Army (in his eyes as bad a Gengis Khan), Hagel will blame the Jews, and Brennen will blame Bush and Haliburton. In the end Kim will get $5 billion in aid and the Nobel Peace Prize.
Von Mises Jr| 3.11.13 @ 10:02AM
They better demand the $5B toot sweet. Pretty soon that will be the price of a Big Gulp.
Perhaps they should acquiesce on the Nobel Peace Prize and negotiate for (20) F-16 Fighter Jets and (200) Abrams M1 tanks. Perhaps our regime could throw in 2,700 light armored vehicles and a couple billion hollow points. Twenty-five hundred AK-47's could be the signing bonus. They are all the rage.
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 12:53PM
Is the Muslim's new CIA Director a Muslim?
Did he Convert to the Religion of Blow Everyone to Pieces? And does he kneel on his Prayer Rug, and Pray to its Moon God of Blood, Cruelty, Rape, and Murder?
And, is that the Reason that he took his Oath of Office with his hand on the Constitution, rather than The Bible?
Hmmmm?
Jack in Wi| 3.11.13 @ 2:36PM
TLP: After reading that Brennan used no bible f0r his swearing in ceremony, I am beginning to believe you. He also swore on a version of the Constitution without the Bill of Rights.
7-08| 3.11.13 @ 10:36PM
Like his putting his hand on something or taking an oath meant anything?
Maury Epner| 3.11.13 @ 9:05AM
This is why Iran must never, ever be permitted to have a nuclear weapons capability. And why the current president's assurances that it will not happen are not credible.
Louis Jenkins| 3.11.13 @ 9:10AM
Dennis Rodman and Carter, those two go hand in hand. Rodman obviously smuggled something into the country, how else can you explain all the piercings and metal on his head and face. I'm surprised Dog Eater Jr. could keep a straight face when meeting with him. Rodman can't give the N. Koreans anything, but now the new secretary "I want one of them thar huntin' licenses" can give them what ever they desire, even cake and ice cream, and I dare say that's how business will be handled.
Obama, the half breed president, will never face down Dog Eater Jr. It just ain't his style.
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 12:57PM
Am I the only one who thinks that all of the Crooked Child Molesting TSA Agents dive to the floor, whenever Metal Face RODMAN sets off all the Alarms at the Metal Detector?
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 2:12PM
Contest this Friday, on an OFFICIAL BLOG.
KAMINSKY'S.
We've hit the Big Time, so we need all of the participation we can muster.
"And oh what heights we'll hiiiiiiit. On with the Show, this is it." (Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck)
ncatty| 3.11.13 @ 9:26AM
Check out that truck missile launcher. It looks like it just rolled out of Detroit circa 1944.
Al Adab| 3.11.13 @ 9:34AM
Remember all the saber rattling back in the 90's and how the Clinton administration dealt with it? We gave the norks (like the analogy BTW) a couple reactors in exchange for their promises. Now we face a nuclear armed rogue NK with no restraints. All the sanctions in the world, congratulations UN, will avail nothing. Historically they never have worked ask Napoleon. So now the options are even more undesirable. Think Iran and ask how that long delayed decision making will play out. It is a dangerous world full of lunatics with power. Time an American administration realized it and began to act accordingly.
Von Mises Jr| 3.11.13 @ 10:04AM
The Communist are our friends. It is the TEA Party that is the enemy.
Al Adab| 3.11.13 @ 12:53PM
Oh yeah, I forget. We see the world through the looking glass just like Alice.
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 1:09PM
Contest this Friday, on an OFFICIAL BLOG.
KAMINSKY'S.
We've hit the Big Time, so we need all of the participation we can muster.
"And oh what heights we'll hiiiiiiit. On with the Show, this is it." (Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck)
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 1:09PM
The Tea Party?
Don'tcha mean the Military Personnel that are returning home?
Grzmlyk| 3.11.13 @ 2:43PM
Wait a minute . . . I am channeling Purp (and vtwit and other assorted greedy, corrupt, narcissistic, ignorant, selfish, vandalizing left-wing whack jobs):
Yawn.
Nobody cares about North Korea. So they have nukes. So what? Besides, they have every right to them. Who are WE to disarm trigger-happy, violent, insane tyrants? And if they should use a nuke, I, for one, will rejoice because those of us who worship at the altar of Rachel Maddow know it will only be used against EVIL America's interests.
It would serve us right to be nuked (well, Republicans,Tea party members and the bitter clingers - the beautiful people - and we know who we are - should, of course, be spared). I'm sure the U.N. would issue a waiver to NK for any environmental damage incurred by such a righteous response to U.S. hegemony in the interests of "fairness."
So, if you don't mind, I'm going to go back to the important work of figuring out how to get the rich to pay their NEW fair share (the OLD fair share wasn't enough) so I can get a Lamborghini courtesy of one government program or another. As a good liberal who "cares" about oppressed people everywhere, I think we can all agree (well, those of us who aren't evil right wingers) that I richly deserve one.
Jeez, now if the government lowered the limit on my EBT card to, say, $5,000 a month, THAT wold be worth getting upset about. But nukes? Snore.
Bob K| 3.11.13 @ 9:43AM
"Their (the NK Generals) confidence that they can continue to push us around is eroding."
They never believed they could for a minute. What is eroding is their confidence that they can push around the North Korean people very much longer and still have China backing them. This is a signal to China to help them get rid of Kim. Only a lunatic would threaten a 1st strike on the USA and they know it.
Arnie| 3.11.13 @ 9:58AM
Bob, I totally agree with you.
China is even turning on them. There was also a really good article in the Economist recently about in just the last few years, the amount of media devices being snuck into North Korea from China is allowing more of their citizens to see, and read about the outside world. Plus, an informal black market of smuggling is growing, and eroding the regime.
The regime knows it would get pummeled into the 12th century if it messed with the West. It's really just a matter if they want to take down parts of South Korea, and/or Japan with them.
I personally believe a war, although the very, very, very last resort, would be relatively quick. I'm certain that South Korea and the USA would have enough intelligence to smart bomb the leadership within days or weeks. After that, I don't see many of the North Koreans really wanting to keep up the fight.
Woodrow| 3.11.13 @ 12:35PM
Arnie, thanks for bringing China into the discussion. I'm surprised Babbin pretty much ignored the biggest player in this game.
China is not going to let NK do anything stupid that would result in her self-destruction, since China doesn't want the entire peninsula to become unified.
Grzmlyk| 3.11.13 @ 3:03PM
Somebody has wandered off the liberal reservation into Hateland. Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Violence is not the solution. Violence is never the solution. (Well, unless you're part of the Occupy movement.)
The only way we should kill North Koreans is with kindness (and much more aid).
I propose we send Michael Moore, Sean Penn and all of Howard Zinn's relatives over there to hold hands with the leadership and sing Kum Ba Ya in harmony. I mean, if our intentions are good, what could possibly go wrong? Hello, that's the left-wing whack job credo.
NK is a communist regime. That means that everything they do is right and good and true. Its people have nothing. Do you have any idea how picturesque poverty is? How romantic?
If only WE could force all Americans to have nothing. Then there would be nothing to be greedy about. Thank Gaia our Dear Leader Barack The Puerile (peace be upon him) is working night and day to ensure that more and more Americans have nothing.
Jeez, don't you even read your own talking points?
Infantryman| 3.11.13 @ 10:25AM
During the war we never called them Norks, they were affectionately known as North Gooks---even by our South Korean litter bearers. The Chinese soldiers were pretty good guys, at least compared to the North Gooks, who in the early days of the war executed several groups of American prisoners with their hands tied behind their backs with commo wire. North Korean NCOs and Officers were tough customers and imposed ferocious discipline upon themselves and their troops who like ours were youngsters, in some cases were South Koreans who got scooped up as the North went south during the early days . South Koreans are also tough guys, but not as ruthless as the Northerners.
If it comes to conventional war the South will probably hold the North along the border without too much difficulty, probably with air support help from us. The biggest problem is enemy artillery against Seoul which can be leveled without a nuc being fired. To offset that we need to tell the leaders of the North that in the event of war they personally are our prime targets, along with a flattening of their capitol and every city and village until there is nothing left.
Harry the Horrible| 3.11.13 @ 12:02PM
My question is, how does a nation that can't feed itself launch a military campaign?
Fighting a war requires beans, bullets, and bodies, and the Norks are seriously short on beans (food and POL). Their troops have probably spent more time working in the countryside gathering harvests (such as they are) than they have training on their equipment.
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 1:14PM
You seem to forget that the West gives them Free Food and Fuel and Nuclear Reactors and Uranium to fuel them, everytime one of those little fat Bad Hair Day Kims gets a bellyache.
Al Adab| 3.11.13 @ 2:59PM
Norks: a reference to the Orcs in LOTR
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 4:19PM
Or, the Dorks at the Contest.
Just kidding. (Albert made me say it)
7-08| 3.11.13 @ 10:37PM
You misspelled Jack.
Harry the Horrible| 3.11.13 @ 5:46PM
I don't think they get enough to sustain a military campaign. That eats food and fuel like nothing you've ever seen.
Maybe they have saved enough from what we have given them (in which case we know where to bomb first...)?
Or maybe "Orks" from Games Workshop, which was designed to avoid some sort of copyright issue with LOTR orcs?
Albert Constantine Jr.| 3.11.13 @ 10:37AM
If one thinks back to 1950, there are an uncomfortable amount of parallels. The US (and most of the Western Powers) were exhausted after 4-6 years of war in multiple theaters. We let China fall to the Communists without intervening. Despite the fact that we had just used nukes in Japan, we no longer had a monopoly on these weapons, and our armed forces had lost their fighting edge, and had settled in as occupying forces in Europe and Japan.
The North quickly overran the South, and had pushed most of the allied forces into the Pusan perimeter. While the Inchon landings helped outmaneuver the communist forces, and the reinforcements subsequently drove the invaders back into their own territory, as the defeat of North Korea seemed certain, the Chinese entered on the side of their fellow communists, and drove the allied UN forces back below the 38th parallel, where the lack of political will allowed the war to degenerate to a meat grinding stalemate, ending with a ceasefire following a Presidential election in which the use of nuclear weapons was put on the table again, and the original borders more or less restored after the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 3.11.13 @ 10:37AM
If anyone thinks that a repeat of this scenario could only end with the destruction of the North is missing an important lesson from the last time this played out. While in some ways we have grown in our strategic thinking, we still have some of the same flaws in our political will, and since the North Koreans do not seemed particularly concerned with giving up hundreds of thousands of their own people’s lives, they may recognize a bit of the advantage this gives them (along with their lack of concern for world opinion).
Pecos Pete| 3.11.13 @ 11:53AM
Albert: If the North used a nuclear weapon, then we probably would have the backbone to also use one. Otherwise, I suspect if the North invaded the South with conventional weapons then the current administration would probably not respond adequately until too late. Remember Benghazi!
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 1:17PM
Contest this Friday, on an OFFICIAL BLOG.
KAMINSKY'S.
We've hit the Big Time, so we need all of the participation we can muster.
"And oh what heights we'll hiiiiiiit. On with the Show, this is it." (Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck)
What is it with you, and the 1950's?
And, why do I think that you're slicking back those last 4 hairs on your head, with Brylcreem?
Albert Constantine Jr.| 3.11.13 @ 5:42PM
...A little dab'll do ya...
7-08| 3.11.13 @ 10:48PM
Electing a Paul
Will never do
He’ll Open the Borders
And abandon the Jews
Burma-Shave
vtwin| 3.11.13 @ 1:46PM
Albert, to not "give up hundreds of thousands of their own people’s lives" in an unwinnable war of attrition on the Asian continent is a "flaw in our political will?"
Albert Constantine Jr.| 3.11.13 @ 2:41PM
Actually, vtwin, our political will was at its zenith in 1945 when the same POTUS who waffled in Korea decided that he didn't want to give up hundreds of thousands of soldiers, sailors and Marines invading Japan, and acted decisively.
vtwin| 3.11.13 @ 4:21PM
Are you suggesting nuclear war, the Soviet Union join the nuclear club in 1949?
A conventional war in Asian, we pushed the Communist North Korans to the Chinese border and the Communist Chinese troops enter the war? So, now we invade China, land mass second or third in the world, population 25% of the world and militarily supported by the Communist Soviets and we push the Chinese to the Soviet border? What if the Soviets troops enter the war? And, how do we stop the flow of arms to the Chinese? Bomb the factories in Soviet Union? Or do we invade the Soviet Union too? From where, Moscow is a long way from Soul? Western Europe and repeat the mistake of Nazi Germany? The logistics and costs of such a war, this is not Normandy to the outskirts of Berlin with a bigger problem for Germany on her eastern border.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 3.11.13 @ 5:41PM
At this point, vtwin, I haven't suggested anything, except that at that point (1950-1952), Truman lacked the political will to wage a successful campaign through any means (including conventional). He apparently felt something similar, and decided not to seek another term, leaving the resolution of the conflict to his successor (someone who did understand the distance between Normandy and Berlin, by the way).
Meanwhile, I will make the suggestion that you make better use of the preview button. That way, failure to use verbs, or the proper tense, or misspellings might be corrected to put forth a more coherent question.
"Are you suggesting nuclear war, the Soviet Union join the nuclear club in 1949?"
"A conventional war in Asian, we pushed the Communist North Korans ..."
"where, Moscow is a long way from Soul..."
Mark30339| 3.11.13 @ 11:17AM
Excellent points Albert. Rather than act in a way that causes NK to point its guns at the West, is there a way an NK government in exile could be created and recognized? Let it have custody of the funds and commerce blocked by sanctions, give it TV, Radio, newspapers, and internet, and have it organize an army with special ops. Let Kim be distracted by threats to his honor and sole supremacy, and sow seeds of doubt among his minions. If acts of sabotage cause destruction of executive comforts, command and communications, make sure there is sufficient evidence to blame the sabotage on the government in exile rather than on the West. Get Kim boxed into a civil war scenario in which his most immediate threat is challenge from within.
TLP| 3.11.13 @ 1:24PM
Never gonna happen.
The Norks have got this down to a Science.
Dictatorship 101: Keep your Generals rolling in clover with Kidnapped Japanese Schoolgirls, nice Houses, fine food and wines, and Bin Laden's old stack of Jackmags and Videos.
Bill8472| 3.11.13 @ 3:34PM
So the North Koreans have kidnaped Japanese "comfort women," eh?
I guess you can always get SOME kind of payback if you work on it long enough.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 3.11.13 @ 6:01PM
Actually, they kidnapped Japanese and some others and brought them back to Pyongyang, where they forced them to make films, or teach languages.
Given the actions of the armed forces of Imperial Japan throughout Asia from 1935-1945, this might seem like payback, though they primarily did it for utility.
If you decide you like the idea, I suggest you research reparations, or go see "Django Unchained" before you finalize your opinion.
cicero| 3.11.13 @ 4:48PM
The most interesting aspect of this go around is the fact that China and Russia did not stand in the way of the sanctions. This is a clear sign from both of them that they are not about to let Communist ideology get in the way of economic prosperity. The North Ks are on their own this time. They may lob a few shells into the south in an attempt to provoke a response. But that will probably not get the response they need. There will be no shooting war, unless the North attacks in force across the parallel. If they do that, the South is probably strong enough to fight them to at least a standstill.
That is when the problems will get dicey for the North. In the 50s Korean war, the U.S. had to force 600,000 North Korean and Chinese prosoners of war back home. (Shameful act on our part, but part of the treaty insisted on by the Chinese.) This time, there will be no Chinese insistence. What happens when the North Korean army invades, surrenderes, and asks for asylum? It is only the general and upper echelons of the military that are living well. The fighting forces are not, and neither are their families. Wait until they see th South.
Dimitry_Aleksandrovich| 3.11.13 @ 7:08PM
My question is why should 30,000 US military personnel be put directly in harms way on the Korean peninsula when South Korea has a very modern military and a long military tradition supported by a first rate modern economy and several potential regional allies that would more than likely aid South Korea in the event that a second Korean war was to break out. In 2013 over twenty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union why do we still have 30,000 troops on the Korean peninsula and thousands by the DMZ who face annihilation if a full scale confrontation between North and South Korea was to break out?
Kingofthenet| 3.11.13 @ 7:45PM
I have nothing useful to add, but I do like the word: 'Nork'
I GOT HUNG UP SILLY| 3.11.13 @ 11:54PM
Some get the impression North Korea is just showing Iran's leaders how easy it is to handle the West once Iran gets it's own nuclear weapons ..
I GOT HUNG UP SILLY| 3.11.13 @ 11:59PM
Apparently the best current answer from the West to North Korea acting out> is to punish China by just having the Dali Lama lighting up one of his Religious Monks in protest !
Minuteman78| 3.12.13 @ 9:32AM
That photo mentioned that was Rummy's fave proovides the answer. Simply hit Pyongyang with 2 50-megaton nukes, put one more on the missile site, effectively turning out the lights, and let South Korea take over. Sure there's collateral damage of a couple hundreed thousand, but that has been happening every year to NK's poor for some 50 years now, so let's fix the problem.
But I don't expect it t0 happen. Barry Hussein would nuke Crawford Texas before he'd nuke the Norks. Wimp.
Stormy| 3.12.13 @ 9:51AM
"If we had a president more interested in foreign affairs," No, it is, if we had a president.
Vance P. Frickey| 5.7.13 @ 11:58AM
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is least effective when it MUST be effective - when a nation which has signed it wants to violate it. The nuclear have-not nations all cry"racism" and "hypocrisy." It's difficult to answer their objections - if we could look the other way and whistle as France, India, South Africa and Israel build nuclear arsenals, and PAY for Pakistan's nuclear program, but start to draw "red lines" around Iran for developing a nuclear program, then we have an logically indefensible policy on Iran.
Israel and the US have made the issue of a nuclear Iran unnecessarily complex. Instead of engaging in impotent gyrations about Iran's building a vast nuclear weapons infrastructure, we should be blunt and to the point with Iran, North Korea and any other new member of the "nuclear club."
We should say to them "We have no way of keeping you from getting nuclear weapons. But the weapons we're no longer going to target inside China and Russia in our nuclear disarmament talks - those will simply be re-targeted inside your countries.
We have more than enough nuclear delivery systems and surplus nuclear devices to depopulate your country. All you have accomplished by joining the nuclear club is getting a place on our Strategic Integrated Operational Plan nuclear target list. You can rest assured we will continually update the targets inside your countries so that we wreak as much destruction per kiloton as we possibly can. We invite your reply."