This isn’t going to help the South Korean stock market.
[bolding mine]
Nobody talks trash like Communists talk trash.
I know we are the number one or number two threat to world peace. But, please, don’t put us into the big leagues yet. If Hitler had nukes, he would have dropped them – IMO.
on the Communists that is.
And the North Koreans want US (us, as in us, and as in the USA) to stop sabre rattling at them? What gall! I say bomb 'em now while we have the chance.
Do you live in South Korea? I doubt it by your comment, because if you did live there you would have a different idea of what should and shouldn’t happen.
Oddly, if the North Koreans – as forward deployed as they are – rattle the sabre too much it does automatically ratchet up tensions to the point of considering a first strike, I’d guess. Throw in a now fully nuclearized* China talking trash to Taiwan.
It’s not too much of a leap to think that – somehow – the China - North Korea postions might be related. Is it?
Rummy needs to keep his mouth shut. He’s up against some stiff competition. Axis of Evil: Part Deux? Please, everyone, just take your seats.
*The orbit is pretty much the benchmark, I think. IANARS.
Well, I don’t know…does China have a deployed ballistic missle? They just sent up a person which I would guess is much harder than sending up a warhead.
China space - mil link.
Hard to know exactly what China has?
I don’t see how you could orbit a human and not be able to hit anywhere in the world. IANARS.
China runs a huge trade surplus with the US, of course. What a bad deal for both parties this could turn into.
Well if you can put something in orbit you can hit anywhere on earth, the question is do they have the missles deployed, because it sounds like they are still under development. Dropping nukes off the back of an ox cart just isn’t the same deterrant.
AFAIK, if you can orbit a person, you can orbit a satelite that has a nuke in it, and have it hit somewhere (called FOBS, or Fractional Orbital Bombardment System) this doesn’t have the immediacy of an ICBM, or the accuracy (I think.) It does get there eventually.
Last I checked China was known to have ICBM’s that could hit Guam or Anchorage… but not the West Coast. Obviously that’s changing.
CC
How could I leave out the punch line? From the CEIP:
Seriously. Talk about your oversights. That answers that question.
cough Hiroshima. cough Nagasaki.
Saying that if Hitler had nukes he would have used them makes us better because we had nukes and did drop them on populous cities?
I mean, I’m not saying that KJI isn’t certifiable and that Communism isn’t loony, but I really don’t understand what you’re getting at here.
Actually, I was talking trash back at the North Korean official news agency. They clearly went above and beyond with the rhetorical approach to Rumsfeld, right? Personally, I would not compare the Sec of the DoD – at present – with the dictator that conquered or occupied Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, the “Low Countries,” Greece, Africa, etc. Then you have the whole Jewish issue. I’m not seeing the value even rhetorically.
That is what happens in a one party system where there is no dissent allowed. They completely lose their minds if you disagree.
Yeah, we have used nuclear weapons haven’t we? I always forget that. My father missed his train to Hiroshima to be a human shield (long story, beginning with capture).
So then I guess I got whooshed or something? I’m still not quite clear on what you were trying to say there, but it’s okay.
Carry on.
adam yax,
Actually, I was born there, have family there, and am likely to be stationed there if I ever get the transfer I want. I’d rather see the Democratic Peoples Republic Of Korea (ever notice how ‘democratic peoples republics’ usually aren’t?) a smouldering ruin of apocalyptic proprotions than my family facing (yet again) the commies on the border. Its better than seeing AAA guns on the roofs of the tallest buildings in Seoul, and Son-ton and Suuon. My uncle (a colonel in the ROK Army) has spent the better part of thirty years preparing, not for IF the communists come across the border, but WHEN they come. The 30,000 American troopers over there would probably like to see Osan AFB start flying CAP near the DMZ…oh wait, they do because the commies do. Not to mention the fact that earlier this year, the DPRK actually did fire over the border at ROK troopers. This is the hottest ‘cold’ war the world has ever seen, and frankly, if we were to launch a pre-emptive strike on the DPRK, it’d stabalize the region.
Doesn’t NK have artillery that can hit Seoul from the DMZ? Also, KJI doesn’t strike me as the most stable human who has ever lived and I would be worried that he wouldn’t hesitate to use nukes if things got hot. Maybe if a decapitation strike could be made, but otherwise I don’t know.
Well technically speaking, they said Rummie outdid Hitler in terms of man-killing and war hysteria. Not sure how they stack up there, you know a lot of the people Hitler killed were women and children. And Hitler wasn’t big on war hysteria, he just sorta rolled the tanks across Europe instead. So before we all say KJI is crazy…
Oh wait, I remember now. He is crazy. Batshit motherfucking insane, as a matter of fact. Really boggles the mind that he manages to stay in control of a country where there are more than, say, one other person with a gun.
This from a nation to which Stalin is a role model.
laigle: Yep, it really does boggle the mind. And, oddly enough, it was South Korea’s president (years ago) who got killed for his heavy-handed rule. Freaking amazing.
Do I really have to go over Hiroshima and Nagasaki …every… …single… …time… a mention of nuclear policy comes up?
I love the bomb. I would not exist without it. You should love it too. What this has to do with the price of eggs in North Korea or China, dunno.
The more substantive issues involve a “hot” war in Asia. I’m against it on principle. The problem I’m having is that I fear North Korea has been plowing so much of their total resources into military spending that they really see every problem as a nail. The US has far more to lose from an unstable Asia than North Korea does. A “potential losses” imbalance is always dangerous.
Moreover, China is rapidly building and modernizing its nuclear forces in secret – at a cost of billions of dollars – to some end. “Deterrence” sounds great unless you study it. In the Case of both China (Taiwan) and North Korea (SK) there is a particular reason for wanting to “use” the nuclear hammer. Problem is, the US and others might be willing to respond with the nuclear sledgehammer. That’s “deterrence.” Welcome to the new Cold War.
I know it sounds quaint or insane, depending on your political leanings, but the North Koreans really think they can “unite” (by force) the Korean Peninsula. Everything North Korea does is seemingly focused on that end. Selling arms anywhere to anyone that might destabilize the world and involve the US in conflict elsewhwere is fair game also. China still thinks that Taiwan is going to roll over and let the PRA come in and take over. Something must budge, but nothing will – dangerous, with a capital “D”.
After watching all the specials where apparently Kruschev and Kennedy thought world politics was a battle of wits between them, instead of mostly inexorable forces at work behind them has put a damper on my hopes of rational analysis. Being the “gutsy” one that charges ahead, pretending to ignore the cost in human life gives you the strategic “advantage.” Which is no advantage at all in the end, really.
Nuclear war is always negative sum game. See, “War Games” (1982). The WOPR has spun out just about all the permutations. 