Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Markham
We've exhausted every avenue except limiting trade with China. We did the opposite while China provided the trade with NK in order for them to afford to build their military capabilities.
Now NK has a nuclear and the ability to deliver missiles to Japan and SK. Do we allow them to;
A. Build their missiles until they can deliver to the US or EU? This has been the response so far.
B. Impose trade restrictions on China? Got to be the safest options, China won't go to war with its largest customers.
C. Go to war? A bloody option but with surgical strikes the West can take out most of NK capabilities to wage war. NK can't keep the lights on 24/7 and will the majority of the population choose to back the Kim regime?
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As expected, you completely fail to understand the situation.
A) You are aware Iran and Pakistan has nuclear missiles too, right? North Korea having nukes doesn't change the equation at all. They can never launch at the US. If they did, the US would fire back, and remove North Korea from the map.
B) Trade restrictions with China? Sure. We'll tell everyone in the US to stop buying products from China, Americans will riot, China will sell it's goods to everyone else, and then say "Well, we no longer have a reason not to be nice to North Korea" and then suddenly they become the best of friends. In cast you haven't figured it out, China will never accept "one Korea" that is friendly to the United States.
C) Go to war?
North Korea has one of the world's largest armies in the world. The moment hostilities break out, their army rushes the border. There is nothing the US or South Korea can do to stop this - nothing at all. In under twenty-four hours North Korean troops would be in Seoul, the capital of South Korea... Home to four million people. At that point we will have an all out war on our hands, requiring hundreds of thousands of US boots on the ground.
There is no doubt in my mind the US would win. They said similar things about Iraq. Iraq in 1989 had the world's fourth largest army, yet was defeated so quickly and so badly it was embarrassing. Twice I might add. These countries are not prepared to fight a large scale war, a technical war. Iraq lost so badly because in the opening strikes we took out their entire communications network. It's military couldn't give orders and couldn't see anything. Meantime we had people in the US telling US troops thousands of miles away what to do and where to go.
We only have two options....
1) Do nothing. And nothing changes. North Korea will never attack the US or South Korea. No one dies.
2) Go to war. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of people will die. Including a lot of Americans.
This is why we always pick option one. Option two is just not acceptable.
Of course Trump, with his utterly lack of military knowledge and political experience, seems to think he can solve it. With what - more sanctions? We've been doing this for how long now? Trump backed himself into a corner, threatened "fire and fury" and.... Nothing. North Korea responded by lobbing a ICBM over Japan. Now Trump will look weak. And stupid. Which will really help his 30% approval rating.