Funny you should mention this. I say much of the same thing here. I bet the guy you saw on TV was one of my mentors in grad school. Does the name Bruce Bueno de Mesquita ring a bell?
You have to use mah-jong tiles to hunt Koreans. Much more complicated.
Oh really? So destroying all those thousands of artillery people are talking about would be an insignificant contribution?
You’re right on Nintendo the enemies are usually more balanced as to actually pose more of a difficulty. 70-90 combat aircraft is a lot. North Korea is a small country. Also, bombers could hit NK from launching points in the states, then there is also an air force base in Okinawa.
Yes, it is precisely because NK’s army is more advanced that it would be easier to destroy. Tanks and Artillery are prime targets for airstrikes in a way guys in the hills with AK-47s are not. South Korea has boots on the ground. Providing air support would give them a distinct advantage.
No, it’s not going to stop them from wrecking Seoul, but it’s enough to assure North Korea that there is no scenario in which they can win. No, it will be of little comfort to the South, but I doubt it would take us several days to mount a response considering we have troops at the DMZ they’d have to attack and several airbases and carrier groups in the region. Plus as you acknowledged the ability to hit them from America.
I think you are vastly over estimating North Korea’s abilities and vastly underestimating the defensive positions between the DMZ and Seoul. A morning’s walk? Good luck trying to push tanks and troops through those defenses in your morning stroll! The South Korean’s have some of the most advanced weapons in the world…and an extremely capable and nasty army. As for the US contribution…we have carriers within striking distance, we have subs with tomahawk capabilities, we can stage air strikes out of South Korea and Japan, we have the equivalent of 3 combat divisions in the country…and we’d be fighting from prepared defensive (in depth) positions, as would the South Korean’s. And the North Korean’s would be throwing crap equipment that is, in a lot of cases, older than most of the posters in this thread at that stuff.
To put it in perspective here…the North Korean’s have stuff that is actually older than Saddam and Iraq had during the first Gulf War. They would also be trying to push that stuff into the teeth of defenses that have been in place and updated for over 50 years…and at a South Korean army that is on par with any other military in the world wrt the quality of their weapons. It would not be pretty…to say the least.
Of course, the North has to realize all of this…which is why it’s highly unlikely they would launch such an attack. It would be the end of their country.
-XT
I dunno, he might be overestimating their chances badly, but there’s that unshielded thermal exhaust port in Busan…
To be sure. But I’m guessing if the NK’s decide to go that route there might be several more opening up in other places further north. I guess it comes down to…just how crazy IS lil’ Kimmy?
Personally I think this is all a ploy to get attention and perhaps to wheedle some additional goodies. I think the possibilities of an actual attack from the NK’s is vanishingly small. The only vast horde of NK’s I think that will be another group of starving citizens scrounging for chow…and most likely they will be (again) charging the Chinese border instead of the South Korean one.
-XT
How long will it take to destroy them all without nukes? Do you really think they’re going to be doing nothing in the interim?
Yeah, but they’ll only be hungry again in a half hour.
About a week probably, the bulk of them destroyed in the first 48 hours.
And no I don’t think they’ll be doing nothing, I think their troops will be getting mowed down on the DMZ. I also think their air defenses will be destroyed first before anything else.
Do we or SK have A-10s in the area?
Also if there are 300 little monsters running around as parasites in that country how hard can it be to drop leaflets from Predators over Pyongyang with their names and pictures with the promise of the reward of reuniting with the South and enjoying the prosperity of their brothers and sisters in South Korea? In Iraq the soldiers laid down their arms the first time because they thought we’d overthrow Saddam. If we committed to overthrowing Kim Jong-Il then we could get the people of North Korea to do the same. Tell them that UN food trucks are waiting, that we and their countrymen in the South want to help them rebuild.
This wouldn’t have happened if Truman wasn’t too much of a pussy-wimp to let MacArthur go in and kick the crap out of those commie bastards!!!