"The threats are seen as part of an effort to provoke the new government in Seoul to change its policies toward Pyongyang and to win diplomatic talks with Washington in order to gain more aid."
I think we’re the regime’s biggest enablers. They play us like an aggressive panhandler working a busy intersection.
I believe the name of the ship in the Fox story is the USS McCain (not the USS Fitzgerald)?
With anyone other than barry he’d likely get his fool head blown off.
So if NK attacks anyone but SK, we can stop it?
I am sure this makes the South Koreans feel better
Maybe if we send Rodman AND Madonna next time....??
Prime time for a Nork sub attack.
Reminds me of the time I was in those waters and it was cold. I was aboard the USS Enterprise and that was during the Pueblo incident. I worked the flight deck and when the carrier would turn into the wind to launch the planes one would down right freeze to death. We would huddle around the exhaust of the APU units to warm back up.
so does China.
Any day now I expect to start seeing reports of Muslim Brotherhood “freedom fighters” closing in on little Kim’s palace.
I spoke to someone from Australia. He said all the Pacific countries have been talked to by China in the last few years. They have been told to either work with China against the U.S. or there will be severe consequences in the future.
I have spoken to people from the Middle East and Northern Africa. They have been told to oppose Christians and the U.S. Persecution of Christians and anti-American sentiment is at an all time high.
An observation: IMO the N. Koreans are about to nuke their own people to assist in making what food there is go further and last longer. They will use the rest of the planet and the “war” of their own making to do this.
Will not be the first time the leadership of a nation has lied to its people.
The Pentagon cannot even make payroll. Over 750,000 civilians, who are maintainers, nurses, trainers, and every other function will be furloughed for no less than 14 days this year, resulting in a 15% loss in pay.
'Fiddling While the Pentagon Burns'
But as yesterdays press conference with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey made clear, its essentially a Band-Aid for what amounts to a bleeding artery. The Pentagon must still cut $41 billion this year from its budget; it remains over $20 billion short on readiness and operational funds; it is facing a shortfall of some $7 billion in monies needed for the drawdown in Afghanistan; and it has already used up 80% of its operating funds for the year with six months still to go. In his usual, can-do way, General Dempsey said the military can still make all this work as long as the military could shed excess equipment, dump excess facilities, get acquisition reforms in place, reduce redundancy, and overhaul the militarys compensation structure. Well, good luck on all those fronts. More likely, as we say, when pigs fly. In the meantime, training is being radically reduced, maintenance across the services is being postponed, exercises are being cancelled, and the prospect of even deeper cuts to force structure and modernization plans await if the Budget Control Acts sequester requirements are not rolled back by this fall.
This madness has to stop.
The Republicans should never, ever have agreed to rape Defense so that it had to "pay" 50% of the Sequestration cuts, while Entitlements (the biggest driver of debt and deficit) are exempt. This is an obscenity.
We are emboldening our enemies throughout the world with this budget fiasco. Our politicians of both parties REFUSE to acknowledge that Federal spending on health care costs (Medicare, Medicaid, ObamaCare) and other Entitlements are on the verge of consuming almost all spending in this country.
We have STOP THIS MADNESS NOW.
Our military has been sacrificed on the political altar for too long. It has been slashed by $487 Billion beginning in 2011, and then another $650 Billion by Sequestration.
Enough!