Nork Nukes Nearing Nuisance?

[Sir Slash]

We've still got time to send Hillary in to save the day. Just saying. 

[bayonetbrant]

Someone on Bloomberg tv made a point yesterday that the Koreas are still at war with each other. A peace treaty has never been signed.

Hell, we are still at war with the Norks.

{breaking news from an old radio program - they interrupted a Heinlein adaptation on Dimension X}
http://bayonetgames.com/blogart/DestinationMoonKoreanWarAnnouncement.mp3

[mirth]

https://twitter.com/JimMFelton/status/895025098188611584


https://twitter.com/kibblesmith/status/895017319470174208


https://twitter.com/danwlin/status/895131441587134464

[mirth]

This is too funny

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jay-mccarthy/fire-and-fury_b_17707716.html

[bayonetbrant]

https://theintercept.com/2017/07/29/dan-coats-north-korea-nukes-nuclear-libya-regime-change/

[bayonetbrant]

http://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2017/08/11/if-the-us-is-going-to-war-in-north-korea-nobody-told-the-us-military/

[Staggerwing]

That's because Trump and Li'L Kimmie are New Best Frenemies. The more #RealDonaldTrump yells about Fire and Fury the more Kimmie gets to justify his need to keep the Nork Orcs toiling in the fire-forges of Mordor. The more His Dear Ovalness threatens Guam the more El Donalde gets to bluster up a Big Media Smell to drift attention away from Grand Juries and Trump Money Laundries, Inc.

[JasonPratt]

...even without any evidence that sounds amazingly plausible...  :hide:

[mirth]

http://thebulletin.org/north-korea%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cnot-quite%E2%80%9D-icbm-can%E2%80%99t-hit-lower-48-states11012

[Boggit]

I just want to live in a world that Nuke free and hug trees. Is that too much to ask?

Yes! :o  ;)

It's a nice thought but naïve now Pandora's Box has opened... :(

Sadly, this is the worrying fact of life... M.A.D. ;) isn't it?

BTW the German version is better... but same grim message ::)

[Boggit]

I wonder if we could shoot them down, just to prove a point?

I heard various pundits on the news suggesting that with current anti-ballistic missiles you'll get about half those shot at you. If you're on the wrong side of the calculation (if correct), doesn't that encourage Emperor Kim that he is right to bait the US with nuclear destruction?

Everyone's saying calm down - the media's saying it's all Trump's fault for upping the rhetoric. But if you have a pathological dictator threatening to nuke your territory, while he fine tunes the rest of his arsenal prior to being in a position to nuking the US mainland (should he wish), would you not make it very clear to the other big players that they are not your targets, and then put Chairman Kim in a position that prevents him from ever threatening your country with nuclear destruction?

Or is it better for the American people to wait until he launches his promised attacks with presumably working missiles? If Kim Jong Un was a more stable character I'd err on the side of caution, but waiting for his missiles to leave Korea for the US before you act seems wishful thinking. I think President Trump should give him a clear, unequivocal ultimatum that challenges him with his current state of development, and forces him to quit. If you don't force him to quit he can fire off his missiles when he is good and ready, and you will pay for vacillating with the lives of US citizens on a vast scale if he carries out his promises.

And you don't have to deliver a bucket of instant sunshine on L'il Kim to enforce that ultimatum if he won't comply. There is plenty of conventional stuff you can use, and that in itself reduces the probability of panic reactions from China and Russia that would entail if nuclear weapons were used against North Korea. It might even be worth discussing the possibility of conventional war with North Korea with China and Russia - partly to get them to realise you're serious on the Nork Nuke issue, but also to get them on board with reconstruction, and the future of Korea as a whole when the fighting is done. If China and Russia truly think that the US will flex its muscles on the issue rather than back down, I imagine - in their own interest - as much as anything they will put huge pressure on Kim Jung Un to back down, and may even take action themselves to prevent the USA from destroying the North Korean regime and creating a power vacuum on their borders... not to mention all the other sh*t that flows from having a war in an adjacent country, which none of the countries in the region will want.

If the price of peace means you carry a big stick, then so be it. Far better that you are taken seriously, than being a paper tiger that everyone thinks will back down in the end. That is where severe miscalculations can happen. During the Cold War everyone knew where they stood, and people were careful not to provoke too much because they knew the other side was equally serious. I'd hate Kim Jung Un to think he could carry out a threat to attack the USA, or its allies because he thought the US was bluffing about retaliating.

No one wants to see a war that will be very nasty indeed for lots of people, so I'm all for a diplomatic solution. But if you've exhausted all available means of dissuading Chairman Kim from his plans you are between a rock and a hard place if he is serious about his intentions of nuking the USA. It's not like you can wait for a Pearl Harbor type attack when it involves nuclear weapons, you have to act pre-emptively to stop him using them. But a pre-emptive attack doesn't need to be nuclear - and perhaps best not for the reasons already given. You have to draw your line in the sand and have the moral courage to stick to enforcing it. That puts the ball in Kim's court.

[Toonces]

Back when I was a kid, we didn't send clear and unambiguous messages to other heads of state via Twitter.

[bayonetbrant]

Back when I was a kid, we didn't send clear and unambiguous messages to other heads of state via Twitter.

what exactly were people doing on Twitter when you were a kid?

[Toonces]

Don't be like that.   >:(

[OJsDad]

I don't think Lil Kim will give up his nukes for anything.  Bush II put N Korea in the axis of evil.  After seeing what was done in Iraq and Libya, and even Ukraine, he views nukes as being his only defense against invasion.