North Korea nuclear test would be 'provocative':White House(possible preemptive strike)

Yahoo ^ | 05/07/05 | AFP

[Paul_Denton]

Even if that is so, and I say this as somone who lives in Seattle, North Korea must be taken down by any means necessary. The risk of inaction is far greater than the risk of action to stop them right now.

[Paul_Denton]

Then again, the NK's might be *very* suprised by the yield of their test weapon...almost like someone dropped a B-61 on the site to "enhance" the detonation... Would just be too bad if that reviewing stand was inside the lethal radius.

I like that idea :D

[G.Mason]

Bingo!

[ken5050]

More to the point, who is Kim going to place on the "reviewing" stand?

[Poundstone]

I'm all for a US preemptive strike.

However, this would cause a massive disruption in our relations with the current government of South Korea. That might not be such a bad thing, by the way: the current ROK government is completely deluded and backward in its very conciliatory attitude toward North Korea. I've had South Korean army generals tell me they were appalled at their own government's "diplomacy" (surrender) toward Pyongyang. These same generals said they doubted whether young draftees in the ROK army could even fight.

That's scary. Something's obviously happened to South Korea in recent years to cause it to lose its balls. Guess we're going to have to shoulder the entire load.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #25

Yes, there is such a concern. Deeply troubling.

[EQAndyBuzz]

"North Korea is a bigger threat compared to Iraq. And now all we do is to threaten sanctions. North koreans are good with playing words. While these "word wars" are going on, lots of poor peasants starve to death and the range of North Korea's nuclear weapons is inching closer towards the West Coast."

I would move away from the San Francisco and LA area. Funny thing is if NK did strike California with a nuke and wipe out Frisco, The Democrat party would lose 55 electoral votes?

Wonder if they thought about that yet.

[jslade]

Nimitz Carrier Battle Group To Deploy To Western Pacific May 7th

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #27

Well, they just have to blame Bush for it.:-)

[voletti]

The US ain't gonna attack N Korea anytime soon. Problem is Pyongyang holds Seoul - home to a full 25% of S Korea's population, by the jugular. Seoul's just a few miles from the DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone) and is well within range of the North's Arty shells possibly laced with deadly chem. weaponry...

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Subs could take this out. Why risk pilots ?

[Ramonchito]

Its difficult to predict how the world would react to a nuclear armed North Korea. The antiwar movement is a force to be reckoned with. Even though Bush won the elections, it was a close fight and the people who supported Bush may change their minds and not support him in the future. Probably there might be preemptive strikes against North Korea. One thing for sure is that if North Korea uses her nuclear weapons against the United States or any of her neighbors, there will be an invasion of North Korea. September 11 is what brought the downfall of Saddam Hussein. If there were no September 11, Saddam Hussein would be happily reigning in Iraq today perhaps building nuclear weapons. There was an invasion of North Korea during the Korean War and we hope the Koreans took the lessons of the Korean War to heart.

[airborne]

I would hope so. I want the White House to be ready for any possible scenario.

[RayChuang88]

However, Seoul is also well-prepared for a full-scale North Korean invasion, too. This especially in light of the fact North Korea artillery can easily reach at least the northern parts of the city.

[blam]

"Probably there might be preemptive strikes against North Korea. One thing for sure is that if North Korea uses her nuclear weapons against the United States or any of her neighbors, there will be an invasion of North Korea. September 11 is what brought the downfall of Saddam Hussein."

They want to sell the nukes. I think the real fear is that they would become a source for terrorists.

[varon]

Don't hold your breath that the United States will go postal on North Korea over this test.

Under present circumstances we will be pressed to do the next best thing, file a stern protest against N Korea in the security council of the UN. That'll show 'em! (/sarcasm)

[Gritty]

Despite the fact this entire development was aided and abetted by Bill Clinton and his worthless crew of feckless Liberals, George Bush and the Conservatives are going to take all the heat on this one when this one blows up!

[Ramonchito]

A nuclear strike by North Korea against the United States or any of the industrialized nations in the Pacific would have the same effect as a nuclear strike by any surrogate terrorist, armed by North Korea, against the United States or any of the industrialized nations in the Pacific. What is preventing the United States and Europe from acting more decisively on any terrorist threat or the proliferation of nuclear weapons is the antiwar movement that is strong in Western democracies. When there is massive devastation due to a nuclear strike, the antiwar movement will lose supporters. This happened during World War I and II where the antiwar movement was never heard.

[gogogodzilla]

Duh!

What NBC doesn't report is that the US military standard procedure is to have contingency plans pertaining to EACH one of our enemies.

Another case of the liberal media selectively omitting pertinent information.