Apparently the US and South Korea are pushing back against North Korea. I’m not usually a fan of saber rattling but in this case I feel it’s warranted.
How do you feel about it?
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/07/30/general_warns_u_s_allies_ready_to_unleash_overwhelming_force_against_north.html
“Saber rattling” is a bluff, and a useless bluff at that, if your adversary knows, 100%, you’re not going to do anything. NK’s leadership seems (at least seems to me) to be completely convinced that US will not attack them militarily. Because of hundreds of thousands of casualties (or millions, if nuclear weapons are used) on the South Korean side if that happens. US and SK have no stomach for that whatsoever, it is very obvious.
So US has no leverage. China has some economic leverage but is not willing to use it now, and I don’t think will ever, in foreseeable future, because a unified Korea is a bigger threat to it than the crazy North Korea, apparently.
And the NK nuclear weapons genie is out of the bottle and is not going back in.
The key to the bluff is persuading the other side you are actually crazy enough to do it. If they believe you are crazier than they are, they might hesitate. This is the basis for Cold-War-era Mutually Assured Destruction and similar strategies.
That said, in this case, the person we are trying to out-crazy is Kim Jong-un.
A daunting task.
Someone in another thread suggested that we shoot them down.
Park a missile cruiser or destroyer nearby, and shoot them down in international waters.
By “them”, you mean the DPRK missiles? My understanding is that the missile intercept technology we have is still pretty iffy. If we shoot at one of their test missiles and miss, we look like even bigger doofuses.
I thought we had become rather good at it, I was mistaken.
Also, an unnecessary provocation at this point, IMO. AFAIK there are no indications that the North Koreans have a deliverable missile-launched nuclear weapon.
Yet. They are not that far away from it. Give them a couple of years. The couple of year that they (see my first post) definitely are going to get.
You’re giving me too much credit. 
I really don’t know either. Hopefully one of our resident experts in the area will drop in soon.
I’m crazy.
Preempt NK, then look at Iran, Syria & Iraq real hard and be obvious about it. And be ready to follow through.
If we are not/don’t, we are going to lose it all anyway by sitting on our asses.
YMMV; IMHO Forum; etc…
By “preempt North Korea”, you mean “bomb Seoul to rubble before they do”? Remember, we’re not the ones with the biggest stake in what happens.
Yes, let’s convince them to abandon this research and instead put millions into figuring out how they could, say, ship a bomb to the US.
I assumed he meant our own bombers.
It’ll show Kim what “crazy” really looks like.
The ability to read what is not there and to jump to less than great insight as to what a person is saying is really mind boggling.
I know I am hard to follow without resorting to Dick & Jane so here goes;
Thread is more or less about what to do about NK.
One of the many interpretations is to hit them before they hit us.
To suggest we strike Seoul, with no hint of humor is really , well strange. :smack: NK is rattling sabers at the USA so we don’t mess around and just blow them away preemptively. Solves a lot of problem for SK also. 
Should I make my sentences even smaller?
Bawahahahaha :eek: :rolleyes:
Miller seems intent on proving that he does not understand what people are saying even more. :rolleyes: ad. in. fi. night. um… ← *
YMMV, I assume of course.
Assume
Assume
Just like the “bottle scene” in The Long Goodbye! That’ll show 'em!
AFAIK , South Korea does not want the U.S. to “attack” the DPRK.
Seoul wants the ABM defense shield but we have never proved that
we can destroy a DPRK missile or aircraft.
This is because they have not yet entered our defense perimeter
and our protected airspace over South Korea and Japan.
I’m sure President Trump is up to it.
I’ve often wondered what would happen if a NK missile test had a malfunction that landed the missile in, say, a remote area of Hokkaido. Or maybe Attu Island, the westernmost of the Aleutians. If there were no Japanese or American casualties, would the U.S. have sufficient pretense to attack North Korea’s missile-launching sites?
First, I don’t think you can “attack NK missile-launching sites” without triggering an all-out shelling of Seoul. Second, I don’t see why US needs “pretense” to attack NK. If US could figure out a plan to attack NK without massive casualties for South Korea (and if they could get SK to agree to it), the attack could be tomorrow, without any “pretense”. NK has given enough reasons to do that over the years. Having a crazy rogue state with nuclear weapons is reason enough.
I think this would be a case of “Legally justified but practically unwise.” Any attack on North Korea is likely to lead to retaliation that will have a heavier toll than is worth it (although such a North Korean retaliation would probably be quite limited, since NKers are still rational - maybe “only” hundreds of Seoul residents dead, millions of dollars damage).
So if a North Korean missile hits Japan or South Korea or the USA and doesn’t actually cause real harm, I’d guess that there’d be no retaliation except for sanctions, maybe some cyber-sabotage, etc.