The Dear Leader is playing with his artillery

[dannubis]

[Al B. Sure!]

The US military did scale down the military when WW2 ended. Lots of returned servicemen went back to civilian life, machinery decomissioned or scrapped.

USA was having a full on war on two fronts for a while with a military that would be ridiculously large for peace time. Yeah, they kept plenty but cut back plenty.

Yeah well of course they weren't going to keep around a several million man strong army without a war going on but the US military was still far and away the best military in the world at the time (partially because every other country but the Soviet Union was decimated) and its standing force was second in size to only the Soviet Union and maybe China.

This is also a response to Whoah.

[Whoha]

Regardless, you do not restart a war economy on the drop of a hat, and our government was not "serious" about challenging either Russian or Chinese involvement in Korea, which would have meant nukes in lue of a 10 million man army with hundreds of thousands of tanks and aircraft, and thousands of warships and merchant vessels that we had scrapped.

[Hauldren Collider]

I hope Israel teaches North Korea a lesson!

I recognize that this is a troll, but it's a complete non-sequitor. Why would Israel care about North Korea?

That said, I suppose if they created a virus that would topple Kim Jong Il's regime without anyone dying, I'd be quite supportive of their "meddling"...

[Wezil]

There is obviously no stomach for confronting NK on their BS. The only question I have is - How much are we willing to pay to avoid it? Channeling Mr. Chamberlain...

[Hauldren Collider]

There is obviously no stomach for confronting NK on their BS. The only question I have is - How much are we willing to pay to avoid it? Channeling Mr. Chamberlain...

QFT (This is pretty much the point I've been making, I think), though it is worth noting that a) Seoul is very vulnerable to NK artillery and b) NK could plausibly collapse on its own.

[Wezil]

a) Yep.

b) If it does that won't be pretty either.


The BIG argument against doing anything is obviously point "a". Left out of the calculations however is the suffering of the NK people as long as this regime stays in power. They don't count in our humanitarian equation.

[Asher]

I recognize that this is a troll, but it's a complete non-sequitor. Why would Israel care about North Korea?

I'd hope because they're far more likely to nuke the world than Iran is.

[Wezil]

Btw, as an aside...

It isn't certain Seoul has to get flattened. NK publicly stated last summer that they consider the ceasefire to no longer be in effect (see the sinking of the ship and recent artillery attacks as evidence they mean it). I say take them at their word.

How long would it take for an all out air strike to destroy the NK artillery positions? Can we get most of them before they even have a chance to fire? I know of no international rules of war that say you have to wait for your declared enemy to strike first.

[BeBMan]

Personally I don't see Munich 38/Chamberlain/appeasement as a valid comparison. It reminds me much more on a typical US cold war stance which was certainly committed to break Soviet dominance over Europe while at the same time the US did not actively seek a direct military confrontation (for obvious reasons).

That may certainly have been bitter for those affected (which meant in the worst case: getting killed, like in Budapest 1956, Prague 1968) etc etc. but if you think of the alternative it looks rather resonsible.

For NK it all depends, if they continue with that kind of **** there's certainly a point at which there's no other option than to retaliate with force, but open war will not be easy and cost esp. South Korea much more than a warship and tens of lives, and it will certainly not be over in one or two days even if China does not get involved at all.

[Wezil]

When we stop feeding their million man army I'll agree it's not appeasement.

Our support (humanitarian and otherwise) is the only thing keeping them going.

[N35t0r]

Yeah, get half their population killed that'll teach them to stop

[Barnabas]

Yeah, get half their population killed that'll teach them to stop

It is not like they are not already living in hell.

Deliver them from life

[Wezil]

N35t0r - An unfed military is an unhappy military. See HC post #96 - option b.

[BeBMan]

Largest food donors are China and South Korea afaik, the US IIRC offered non-food stuff like oil for concessions in the nuke question. I'm not sure right now if they're still receiving anything from the West since they claimed they got nukes or did the two (?) nuke tests.