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So Are We Ready If It Comes Down To War With North Korea?
HotAir ^
| 07/23/2017
| Jazz Shaw
Posted on 07/23/2017 2:35:30 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
What with all the new missile tests that Kim Jong-un has been conducting, should we be worried that he’s close to having nuclear ICBM capabilities? Some military intelligence experts think that North Korea is still a ways off from having both a reliable missile that could carry a significant payload across the Pacific and the ability to miniaturize their nukes to the point of fitting on such a missile. But one thing that most observers seem to agree on is that if Kim isn’t there yet he’s getting close enough to cause alarm. (Combined with the general perception that he’s probably the most unstable and possibly quite insane leader in the world right now.)
Hawaii is taking the potential threat seriously, mostly because they are the closest target among the fifty states which North Korea might reach. And the threat is serious enough that they are now instituting nuclear attack drills not seen since the cold war era. (Associated Press)
Starting in November, Hawaii will begin monthly tests of an “attack-warning” siren the state hasn’t heard since the end of the Cold War in the 1980s. The wailing siren will be tested on the first working day of each month, after a test of an “attention-alert” steady tone siren with which residents are already familiar.
Informational brochures, along with TV, radio and internet announcements will help educate the public about the new siren sound and provide preparedness guidance. “If they’re not educated, they could actually be frightened by it,” agency Executive Director Toby Clairmont said of needing several months to introduce the new siren.
Speaking as someone who grew up during a period when we still did “duck and cover” drills in elementary school where all the kids got under their desks and covered their heads (as if putting some firewood on top of you when a fireball is on the way in made sense), this is clearly disturbing. But at the same time, why not be prepared? The big concern there is that Hawaii would have fifteen or, at most, twenty minutes warning of an incoming warhead. Even state officials acknowledge that isn’t enough time for evacuations and most people would have to shelter in place. And Hawaii’s terrain really doesn’t lend itself to building bomb shelters.
So aside from attempting a decapitation strategy first strike on Pyongyang, is there anything we can do? How is North Korea moving so fast on missile development and could we slow that process down? Over at Fox News, Harry Kazianis predicts that “within a few years” Iran will have ICBMs, most likely tipped with nuclear weapons. Yes, he’s talking about Iran up front, but that’s relevant to this story because Harry points out that North Korea has almost certainly been trading missile technology back and forth with Iran for some time now. The first long range missiles that Iran launched were essentially carbon copies of North Korean missiles. It’s not much of a stretch of the imagination to think that they’re sharing nuclear weapons technology as well. The two countries have something of a partnership going and it spells trouble for us on two fronts.
So what can we do about it short of a preemptive attack on either country? Harry has a few ideas.
First, we should name and shame any North Korean, Iranian or outside partners that are helping these rogue regimes collaborate on missile technologies. Pentagon and intelligence officials have told me on several occasions they have strong leads on who is helping facilitate these exchanges…
Second, with such entities out in the open, Team Trump should impose sanctions on such groups as soon as possible. The goal should be to drive up the costs for both sides and make them feel the financial pinch as much as possible.
Third, we should get creative in how we try to stamp out such cooperation. In a 2012 report by the National Bureau of Asian Research, author John S. Park offers the idea of using a a monetary reward program to interdict components or technicians central to ballistic missile development.
Some of these ideas sound good on paper but leave me rather dubious all the same. If we can “name and shame” some other countries who may be involved with the North Korean – Iranian connection and they happen to be less isolated nations who rely more on their connections with the west, perhaps that might be productive. But as for the principals involved, I think Iran and North Korea have already been named and shamed pretty much to the available limit. As for sanctions, I suppose there’s always a bit more which could be done, but we’ve similarly applied sanctions to those two bad actors in massive amounts.
That third idea sounds promising, though. If, as Harry’s analysis points out, North Korea is shipping missile technology around in the open by breaking it up into separate, repurposed components and then reassembling them upon arrival, we might be able to shut that flow down. (Or ate least do a better job than we are currently.) If there are options such as that available and we’re not aggressively exploring them already, we need to be.
Of course, there’s always the alternative. You can send your kids off to school every day to watch this video.
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO
TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: kimjongun; nknukes; northkorea; second100days; trumpasia; usmilitary
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To: SeekAndFind
War with North Korea is more BS than it is reality. There is nothing for us to gain by a war with them. They cannot hurt us. A missile fired like a bottle rocket into Alaska is really not something to fear.
And what is in it for North Korea? There is no reason for them to believe they would survive a war against the US, Japan, and ROK. He might be crazy, but he is not suicidal.
The US seems to think we need an enemy to keep us strong. We should be looking to bring folks home. Not sending more out.
To: SeekAndFind
Their first target will be Okinawa. The Norks have a huge boner over that island. Especially Kadena AFB.
42
posted on
07/23/2017 4:31:21 PM PDT
by
Spruce
To: RC one
We need to evac Seoul as well as any other civilians outside of Seoul that are within range of the NK guns and then start talking about war. There are about 10.3 million people in Seoul and another 10+ million outside of Seoul in other parts of the country that are within range of Kim's military weapons including artillery and ballistic missiles.
Where do they all go?
Wouldn't you think that once the evacuations you suggested start, North Korea would figure out what's happening and open fire?
43
posted on
07/23/2017 4:32:32 PM PDT
by
usconservative
(When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
To: rktman
Trump would not leave a weed standing if NK launched a nuke war against us or our allies. No help for survivers if there are any.
44
posted on
07/23/2017 5:04:50 PM PDT
by
SaraJohnson
( Whites must sue for racism. It's pay day.)
To: Chickensoup
That’s a very good question. I’ve never understood their reasoning for propping up these idiots.
To: usconservative
Try to imagine the implications of what could be millions of dead and wounded civilians. How do we claim victory with something like that? These “hostages” have to be relocated prior to any military action and Kim knows this which is why he doesn’t take us seriously. Rel9cate them and he will know exactly what it means.If he strikes first, than he has finally given us the excuse we need. If he doesn’t, he has lost his leverage and we have changed the game.
46
posted on
07/23/2017 5:27:14 PM PDT
by
RC one
(The 2nd Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances)
To: RC one
I was simply questioning the logistics of re-locating more than 20 million people. Where do they go? There's literally nowhere on the Korean penninsula they can go to escape Kim's ability to kill them. Airlift out is impossible, we don't have enough ships, they're literally "stuck" where they are.
I don't want to sound cold about it, but aren't millions of casualties inevitable in all this?
47
posted on
07/23/2017 5:37:09 PM PDT
by
usconservative
(When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
To: usconservative
Where do they all go?DOM response:
"Issue the 16-25 year old pretty female Korean spinners only a tourist visa to the US. I have room for a few."
48
posted on
07/23/2017 5:39:37 PM PDT
by
ASA Vet
(Make US Intelligence great again!)
To: ASA Vet
Well while we’re at it send a few my way! I have plenty of room now. Ha!
49
posted on
07/23/2017 5:43:10 PM PDT
by
usconservative
(When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
To: Artemis Webb
Not ready aes long as 5th column... Democrats.,,are in place!
To: PAR35
“The attack might be devastating, but only to a small geographical area. A blast over San Francisco, for example,would probably knock out electronics from perhaps Sacramento through the Silcon Valley perhaps to Monterey. The western grid would probably be temporarily impacted”
We wish.
To: usconservative
I didn’t say it would be easy but I don’t think it would be impossible. Ideally, I think Japan could be of great assistance here and I suspect they would like a role to play in this drama anyways. Camps could be set up out of range of the guns. We could airlift and boat lift others. We could bring plenty of them here. This would be one of the final moves in a very long chess game between NK, China, and the US. If Kim deliberately targeted civilians at any point in the relocation, it would be nuke time and China and the rest of the world won’t be able to say much about it. This would be a great move IMO. We shouldn’t be focused on the difficulty of it, we should be focused on the utility of it. And again, we definitely should not assume that millions of dead civilians is inevitable. That’s wrong on many levels.
52
posted on
07/23/2017 7:11:06 PM PDT
by
RC one
(The 2nd Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances)
To: rktman
With stray missiles and sunken boats
53
posted on
07/23/2017 7:12:52 PM PDT
by
a fool in paradise
(Bill Clinton and Al Gore took illegal campaign contributions from the Chi-Coms and 'nobody' cared..)
To: anton
I was in Cambodia this weekend.
I was struck by the similarities, between Vietnam, and Cambodia, with the major difference I could see, that there are a TON more foreign guys in Phnom Penh, than anywhere in Vietnam. Lots and lots of them.
The other major thing I noticed, is there is a general gouging of foreigners by the local Cambodians, things are expensive in Cambodia. Very expensive.
Vietnam is now the second-biggest economy in Southeast Asia, behind only Thailand, and has a strongly growing economy.
There is a lot here, which is the way we want things to be. Sure we had a fight involving many in the country now two full generations ago. Some supported us, some opposed us. Remember though, WE were the foreign force, most visible to locals, on the ground. We were the face, which was most visible, so we were a focus of the other side’s propaganda.
That fight was about the future of the country. The Vietnamese country.
Our interference here was opposed by some of the locals. There was a lot of global focus in the country back then. So as the fighting progressed, lots of countries became involved, in some way. However the major thing to keep in mind I think, is that whatever foreign forces were backing whatever side on the ground, this is not America, this is Vietnam. It was not our fight. We were opposed, especially by those who live in the northern part of the country. That side meanwhile was very much helped by OTHER foreign forces, Russia and Chinese.
I understand the background, and the reasons we were here, I am of the age that I was starting to contemplate coming here, myself, back then. The war was ended, however, before I needed to go. But the main reason we lost in my view, aside from the constant negativism by our media (even then the US media was not our friend) was the simple fact, that we were not Vietnamese. We lost partly, because we were not fighting for our homeland. They were.
Now Vietnam is standing on its own. The government is not democratic, and is very opposed to the individual RKBA, but then again, so are the other countries in this part of the world. China is every bit as communist as Vietnam is, every bit as strongly anti-RKBA, yet we continue (here on this website even) to be STRONGLY pro-China about global trade and its huge disadvantages to American producers, even while not realizing Vietnam is a country which offers a strong other source we should build up, for the future.
I find it quite a nice place. Granted this is nowhere near the same “party” place one finds elsewhere in Southeast Asia, but here is at the same time, quite pro-American in spirit (at least in the South) and perhaps more significantly, uniformly independent from China.
Many do not seem to recognize the importance of that.
While we have completely sold out our own future to China, there is a country here, which is a good potential ally as things go forward.
This is no longer the country we fought in, so long ago now.
The average age here, is in the upper 20’s.
It is time to rebuild relations with Vietnam, in my view.
They could be a very good friend, for America.
54
posted on
07/23/2017 7:17:47 PM PDT
by
cba123
( Toi la nguoi My. Toi bay gio o Viet Nam.)
To: RC one
How long does it take to do that?
55
posted on
07/23/2017 7:23:42 PM PDT
by
OKSooner
(Never take a known wise-ass to the shooting range.)
To: OKSooner
Can’t we just appease him by giving him californicate?
To: Sirius Lee
57
posted on
07/23/2017 10:09:42 PM PDT
by
Cobra64
(Common sense isn't common any more.)
To: usconservative
Removing those 20 million would cripple the global economy, too. SK is an economic powerhouse.
To: Bonemaker
Knock it off. That anti-California crap gets really tiresome. I don’t wish nuclear fire raining down on you.
To: OKSooner
We evacuate cities all the time. It’s not that big of a deal.
60
posted on
07/23/2017 10:49:53 PM PDT
by
RC one
(The 2nd Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances)
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