US fears 'hell' of a response [North Korea]

Hearld Sun ^

[maquiladora]

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.

A report this week by US-based security and military analyst Stratfor predicts North Korea could return fire on Seoul with "several hundred thousand high-explosive rounds per hour" -- with up to 25 per cent of shells filled with nerve gas.

Other estimates say the US would need at least 500,000 ground troops to secure against a North invasion of the South.

"When US military planners have nightmares, they have nightmares about war with North Korea," the Stratfor analysis says.

Despite the risks, Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations expert Michael Levi, along with several Australian analysts, believe a North Korean nuclear test would increase the likelihood of a US military response.

Pentagon strategists continue to work on military contingencies but all scenarios forecast massive casualties and a high likelihood of escalating war.

When confronted with Pentagon drafts in 2004, US President George W. Bush was reported to have been horrified at the human cost. Updated Pentagon plans outlining bombing of North Korean nuclear sites, border artillery and troop emplacements call for:

ROUND-the-clock strikes using Stealth and Lancer aircraft and naval-launch cruise missiles to destroy nuclear and missile capability and set the research program back years.

AIR bombing, possibly including US tactical nuclear weapons, to penetrate metres-thick concrete protecting the North's nuclear research complex at Yonben.

But Stratfor's assessment said even if limited strikes were ordered against only nuclear research facilities, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's unpredictability meant a high potential for huge retaliation.

[Gradient Vector]

"What you said....Unleash the dogs of war. These people think that the W Europeans are pushovers, they may have forgotten history. If they think the US will sit still while our leaders "play war" for fun, remember who lit the fuse on the first Nukes. We are slow to anger, but terrible revengers."

Except the North Koreans aren't going to start a war. We used nukes on Japan because they had attacked us, then made it very clear they'd fight to the last man woman and child.

A nuclear first strike on a enemy that isn't about to attack you is just as bad as marching 12 million Jews and assorted Europeans to gas chambers, except we'd kill more, and sprinkle our allies with radioactive fall out.

There won't be war in North Korea. They know they can't win, and we know we'd loose alot of South Korean civilians. Its MAD on a smaller scale.

[gogogodzilla]

6. By now, many of the artillery and rocket positions are known and plotted fixed targets.

7. It's the 21st century and fixed targets can be eliminated more effectively with current precision guided munitions than ever before.

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While it's most likely true that we'd know where the North Korean forces are located... it's just as true that North Korea has had 53 years to fortify their positions.

And the North Korean's have a great fondness of building underground bunkers.

[TeddyCon]

Has Stratfor yet predicted that we could also make South Korea a free-standing island if the Kimmies so much as joke about shooting spitballs into Seoul?

Didn't think so

[jeremiah]

It would take an attack within the borders of this country, before we reach the point of ultimate anger. I believe I was referencing more than the NK problem. The Muslims see themselves as more capable of the destruction war brings, they have not looked upon the horrors that a Russian bear can inflict (14 million dead) The Germans or the Italians (6 M +) or the Americans who don't slaughter for political gain, but to inflict defeat in a most serious manner.

[Joe Boucher]

And as usual there would be an outcry from a hugh portion of the folks in S. Korea.

[atomic conspiracy]

It is amazing how the favorite meme of the alarmist media, ignoring the existance; let alone the power, of ROK (South Korean) forces; continues to hold.
It is literally a standard position to pretend that this powerful and numerous force does not exist. This policy is yet another smoking gun of media complicity in Kim's machinations.

[GAB-1955]

I call the media's observations on South Korea the "M*A*S*H Effect." Many people haven't been there and they still think the country is filled with rice paddies and poor people, even as they drive their Hyundais to work.

[gura]

"What you said....Unleash the dogs of war. These people think that the W Europeans are pushovers, they may have forgotten history. If they think the US will sit still while our leaders "play war" for fun, remember who lit the fuse on the first Nukes. We are slow to anger, but terrible revengers."

Sometimes I think we only thing we really fear as Americans is our own anger set into motion.