Posted on 10/11/2006 7:03:38 PM PDT by Flavius
PLANS previously drafted by the Pentagon predict 52,000 US military casualties and one million civilian dead in the first 90 days of conflict if America attacked Pyongyang. The US leadership is looking at international economic and diplomatic sanctions against North Korea as its primary response to Monday's nuclear test.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
Actually virtually all of the estimates I've seen of the North Korean artillery that is within range of Seoul are wildly overestimated - most of them seem to assume every artillery piece the NKs have is within range of Seoul which is patently ludicrous.
Isn't this the reason we went to IRAQ? Of course we also DID NOT want Saddam's WMD to get into the hands of other terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda.
I remember speculation after 911, about the number of deaths there could have been had the PLANES been loaded with some weaponized Chemical, Biologicals or even a dirty bomb.
Amazing how fast our nation has FORGOTTEN that.
Presently, the people our nation could NOT stomach 52,000 deaths in such a short period of time, we have become much too feminized and fight ONLY wars that don't call for such a great human sacrifice or our SIDE, AND that we can minimize both the destruction of our enemy's infrastructure as well as minimize our enemy's deaths.
Send a bunch of US Border Patrol agents to China on a training TDY first.
China will be flooded with a lot of NK illegal aliens. We could use some tips on how to deal with our own illegal alien problem.
Our first strike should be a neutron bomb.......kill all the commies manning the artillery aimed at Seoul.......resulting in few South Korean deaths. We must go nuclear with these crazies! The UN go to....well you know where!
1 Megaton Surface Blast: Fallout One of the effects of nuclear weapons detonated on or near the earths surface is the resulting radioactive fallout. Immediately after the detonation, a great deal of earth and debris, made radioactive by the blast, is carried high into the atmosphere, forming a mushroom cloud. The material drifts downwind and gradually falls back to earth, contaminating thousands of square miles. This page describes the fallout pattern over a seven-day period.
Assumptions Wind speed: 15 mph Wind direction: due east Time frame: 7 days
3,000 Rem* Distance: 30 miles Much more than a lethal dose of radiation. Death can occur within hours of exposure. About 10 years will need to pass before levels of radioactivity in this area drop low enough to be considered safe, by U.S. peacetime standards.
900 Rem Distance: 90 miles A lethal dose of radiation. Death occurs from two to fourteen days.
300 Rem Distance: 160 miles Causes extensive internal damage, including harm to nerve cells and the cells that line the digestive tract, and results in a loss of white blood cells. Temporary hair loss is another result.
90 Rem Distance: 250 miles Causes a temporary decrease in white blood cells, although there are no immediate harmful effects. Two to three years will need to pass before radioactivity levels in this area drop low enough to be considered safe, by U.S. peacetime standards.
*Rem: Stands for roentgen equivalent man. This is a measurement used to quantify the amount of radiation that will produce certain biological effects.
A war with North Korea will last for few weeks and then North Korean army will cease to exist. They simply cannot continue to fight longer because they will not have food to eat.
Who said anything about sending troops in?
Don't forget that Seoul is within range of NK artillery and rockets. The NK won't have to move into position as they are already in position.
This is why such a high level of civilian casualties.
They should know what we did in WWII.
http://www.rense.com/general19/flame.htm
We'll go nuclear before we lose 52,000 in 90 days.
Can you say airstrikes on the demilitarized zone as they come across? On the other hand, our enemies seem to like tunnels.
NK is not Iraq. Logistics are considerably different there. As are political considerations in that region.
2 million soldiers may not be well trained or armed, but that's a lot of cannon fodder.
I would also disagree with many here that appear to see tactical nukes as a panacea and the solution to our inability to conduct a large scale ground war in that region. I'm not being negative, but we need to be realistic about the practical limits of our military machine. The Bush administration, for whatever reasons, has not embarked on the military buildup that we saw in the Reagan years.
I certainly hope our intel people are having success over there.
Once the North Korean army moves it will be annihilated by our Air Force, I mean total annihilation.
China would back them just to weaken us. They would be unlikely to want to go to war with us over them but if we were the initial aggressors then perhaps not.
Yep.
But it would also depend on what our goals were.
Putting US boots on the ground throughout the country would be a nightmare. Perhaps there could be another plan?
I have no idea, but what if the entire military infrastructure were to be attacked, repeatedly, via aerial assets? Once the smoke settles, let South Korea have what remains in the same way that East Germany was returned to West Germany.
A few tough weeks, but perhaps better in the end? I am a novice at this; other opinions appreciated.
You don't understand, our troops on the DMZ these past 50+ years have been a sacrificial symbol of resolve. Anyone who has ever served in Korea recognized the fact that they were most probably expendable if the "SHF" during their tour!
We do not have enough assets in theater to knock out one million men. We would kill 50,000 and that would leave 950,000 to overrun the south. It will be a battleground which harkens back to the tactic of the Chinese. Loosing hundreds of thousands of their men is meaningless to them. They are chattle to Kim.
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