Most authorities do. Kim is in trouble economically and politically and he may think he has no other way out. He may invade to avoid internal revolt, soon. In any case we must be prepared for what he can do, not what we imagine he might do. Eventually they wouldn't succeed, if we fought them with air and naval power and if China stayed out of it. That's a big IF since they didn't stay out last time and still consider North Korea a client state. But it would take time to accomplish. We never did it in the first Korean War and it would not be easy now. Seoul is too close to the DMZ to defend and half of South Korea's population lives there. North Korea could overrun the pennisula and make a mess of the place before we could deploy the kind of forces needed to push them back over the DMZ. Just like they did the last time when they were just as outclasses militaritly. I believe you have selective reasoning. I am astonished that someone would still believe that the effort to remove imaginary WMDs was essential in Iraq, when North Korea indisputably has 8 chemical weapons plants, 4 biological warfare plants, and about 10 nuclear devices. North Korea constantly threatens our allies and our bases in the region and has even threatened to attack the US. But you see no threat there? The chances of Americans dying from nuclear attack by North Korea is many, many time higher than islamist nuclear threats.
That's not what I'm saying. In the eyes of the Chinese placing nukes on Taiwan would be the equivalent of placing nukes in Beijing. There is no point in acting against an ally. We don't have to do anything to N. Korea. Let the Chinese engineer their destruction.
So the short answer to martins question is: We shouldn't take military action right now, but we must do far more than nothing. We must be better prepared for Kim taking military action himself. We must respond quickly and violently if he does and we must use the whole military, so it can't be squandered elsewhere. But in the long term, it is in our best interests to engineer a collapse of the North Korean regime by inducing China to use the leverage only it has. It would preserve the Japanese and South Korean economies which would be devastated in a war, with the least cost to the US in dollars and lives.
every country has "the right" to attack anyone they want. that doesnt mean much. international law is mostly a farce, might and will is all that really matters (i am not pulling this out of my ass, this is what the int'l law profs at lsu will tell you.) again, red, what is your strategy, arent you really just saying one thing over and over here? isnt your only point that we should leave iraq? what specifically do you favor doing now with korea? nothing? ok then we agree. edit: i apologize for asking what you just answered above, i posted before i saw that post. (also i think my risk of dying from a terrorist strike is far greater than a korean attack)
Only problem with this hope is though, N. Korea is China's play thing used to embarass and thumb their nose at us and the world. N. Korea says and does things that China wants to say and do but can't because of their standing in the world. If China wanted N. Korea to stop their nuke expansion, testing, counterfeiting operations, it would take one phone call. But they don't want them to stop. So wait, that's fine. Wait and keep getting promises from the Chinese. But IMO, we should start signing treaties and contracts with Taiwan and Japan to arm them with nukes in an attempt to speed up China's desire to deliver on those promises.
First of all, thinking China will engineer N. Korea's destruction without us having any leverage at all is naive. The only leverage we have to prompt China to do anything is the possibility of arming Taiwan and Japan. No one is saying war with China or N. Korea here as a first step. But in the battle of wills, we have to be prepared to use the only leverage we have which is Taiwan mainly. We've already told China and the world that any aggression towards Taiwan is an act of war on the US. So now, start signing contracts to arm Taiwan with state of the art nuclear subs and see if that can speed this process up. Have Japan sign a Defense Dept. contract to start construction of underground bunkers and silos to house missiles......etc.
Sorry, but there is no way you can equate Israel with NK or Iran. Israel has never tested a nuclear device, and if it did it would not use one against its neighbors or sell WMD to rogue states. This cannot be said of NK or Iran.
We hold all the leverage with China. Their economic stability and growth is based squarely on trade with the U.S. We can substitute trade with India to replace them. They do not have that luxary. Taiwan is not ours to levarage. Your idea is so poorly thought out I can't even begin to argue with you.
