probably so lol....it's been fun arguing about politics and all this stuff....i think we can all agree that its great to live in a country where we can freely express our ideas and opinons without fear of government persecution :thumb:
Yeah very poorly thought out. McCain said the same thing I did last night all over the news. Very poorly thought out indeed. You think trade is something that can change the course of this situation overnight? OK, "all US companies, you can no longer trade with China. You have to find comparable goods now from India." You know how many US companies would go under just in the transition alone? Taiwan has already purchased subs from us.....they have asked for us to arm them. Now we just follow through and make that happen. That's called leverage. Man, who has a poorly thought out idea?
John McCain is for a lot of stupid things like McCain/Feingold. The fact that he advocates something does not make it wise. I didn't say it was an easy or a qucik fix. It would certainly hurt our economy, but it would absolutely cripple China. They know this which is why they will not work against us. What benefit does it give us? We can nuke China and North Korea from our silos or from subs. We don't gain anything by arming proxy states. Besides that the strategy of putting weapons in friendly countries has worked out very poorly in the past. Maybe you should read up on what happened when we put nukes in Turkey in the 60's. It was this little thing called the Cuban Missile Crisis. Arming our allies in the region would serve only to antagonize China. Why alienate a potential ally in this situation? Until they prove to be an obstacle China is on our side in this matter. Yours.
While China doesn't mind North Korea embarassing the US, they have little real control over Kim and his henchmen. Influence, yes, but no control--this nuclear test surprised them. They don't want to see Korean reunification, which they think would be democratic and western, even though China would dominate trade and influence over reunified Korea. China wants to keep a North Korean regime that is a more dependable and less volatile client state as a buffer to the US troops on the ground in South Korea, Japan, and Okinawa. Kim is starting to be more trouble than he is worth to the Chinese. If he starts a war, then South Korea could end up unified. I think the Chinese will engineer a regime change in North Korea within a year. Kim knows this and it is why he is apparently trying to provoke the US into attacking North Korea so he can divert the revolutionary sentiment within his country to patriotic response to foreign attack. Not Taiwan. Taiwan is a barganing chip for us to use later on in a potential war with China. Right now we need to keep Taiwan neutral and continue to guarantee its independence. Japan is another matter. They are already upscaling their military and have especially added new Aegis missile destroyers and submarines. They manufacture their own F-15s and have a modern air force. As a response to N. Korea, they are adding a new missile defense capability. There has been talk of a nuclear deterrent being built and fielded by Japan, but public sentiment is high because of the 1945 experience. Now they have to trust the US to respond if Kim attacks them with a nuclear weapon but many in Japan would like their own independent nuclear capbility. Of course this would provoke China, both Koreas, and the Phillipines who remember the Japanese occupation of their countries in WWII. They despise the Japanese. It makes little military sense to arm Japan with our nuclear weapons. It takes control away from us and it is much more effective to just use them ourselves with our own forces in the region if they need to be used.
God makes war when it is necessary, but he does not delight in it. He ordered the Amalekites wiped out because they were a pagan nation whose activities were detestable to God. To play Supa's advocate here, the Marine mentality seems to be otherwise. It seems that you are looking for war and delighting in that possibility. Not saying that that is the case, but it sure seems that way.
By God, Salty is exactly the kind of single-minded ruthless individual we need out there on the point. We need warriors who solve the problems given them by kill, kill, killing the enemy. That's the job and they do it well. Of course, Supafan is correct in that we need another type of thinking entirely to resolve the geopolitical realities of the Korean situtation. Bombing solves many problems, but not all of them. And full-scale ground war in Korea causes more problems than it solves. It is no more winnable today than it was in 1950 for two reasons. These ain't Arabs who put their underwear on a stick as soon as you shoot at them. These brainwashed gooksters will stand and fight. War with Korea means war with China . . . and Korea has never been worth a war with China, especially since we don't know really where the Russians stand. Nuclear-armed North Korea makes it an even more volatile situation. I think we must be prepared to bomb them including use of tactical nuclear weapons if they invade South Korea or attack Japan. We must have enough heavy metal on the ground to get the job done--right now we don't. It will be a chemical and biological weapon war as well. It will be one gnarly fight. But a pre-emptive attack on North Korea right now plays into Kim's hands and puts us at immediate odds with China, who doesn't particularly approve of Kim, but definitely won't allow US troops along the Yalu River without a fight.
I completely disagree. China and Russia are the ONLY reason N. Korea exists. They give them food and oil which Lil' Kim diverts to his army away from his people. China could get Lil' Kim to do whatever they wanted but they don't want to do anything to stop him. China likes having a tool to prod us with knowing we'll do nothing about it. You forget that we have already armed Taiwan and continue to give them military support. Just advance that idea along with Japan and twist China's arm a little. And for Supa, the reason China does not want an armed Taiwan is, they have dreams of getting Taiwan back into the Communist fold someday. Taiwan with nukes and nuke subs will be much harder to get back in the fold. Everyone knows we can hit China from here......what we want though is China to have to deal with an armed Taiwan just like we have to deal with an armed N. Korea. And yes, those ICBM's in Germany really worked out horribly for us back in the 80s. Just brought on the demise of the Soviet Union.
There is massive difference. China can hardly be considered a Communist country anymore. All that for the party ra ra stuff is gone. China wants to be rich. Sure they would love to get Taiwan back, but they are not going to start world war to do it. They would much rather have trade with the US and positive economic growth. They lose all economic viability by trying to retake Taiwan because we will cut off trade and blockade their ports. Dealing with an armed North Korea is just as unsettling for the Chinese as it is for us. It hampers their control on the region and hurts their trade. They can't be a super power until they are the regional power. N Korea hampers that. Also, Taiwan could hit China with our nukes. NK is years away from being able to hit the US. It isn't the same level of threat. An armed Taiwan does nothing to further deter North Korea. It only alienates China. Proliferating nukes to friendly nations is bad idea. Lastly ICBM's had been in Germany since the early 60s. By the time we the 80's rolled around the Soviet Union had ceased to be a viable enemy and was trying to stave off internal collapse. The presence of bombs in Germany didn't aid that.
North Korea Threatens War Over Sanctions By HANS GREIMEL From Associated Press October 11, 2006 SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea stoked regional tensions Wednesday, threatening more nuclear tests and saying additional sanctions imposed on it would be considered an act of war, as nervous neighbors raced to bolster defenses and punish Pyongyang. South Korea said it was making sure its troops were prepared for atomic warfare, and Japan imposed new economic sanctions to hit the economic lifeline of the communist nation's 1 million-member military, the world's fifth-largest. North Korea, in its first formal statement since Monday's claimed atomic bomb test, hailed the blast as a success and said attempts by the outside world to penalize North Korea with sanctions would be considered an act of war. Further pressure will be countered with physical retaliation, the North's Foreign Ministry warned in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "If the U.S. keeps pestering us and increases pressure, we will regard it as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical corresponding measures," the statement, said without specifying what those measures could be. read the rest . . .
