Any progress is very good news. let's hope they stay turned over. Al Murtha province is mostly uninhabited desert, of course. The desert Bedoin provinces and the mountain Kurdish provinces are the best chances for Iraqi self-sufficiency. But I don't hold out much hope for the Sunni and Shiite provinces in the Tigris and Euphrates valley. There are just too many issues that these guys are going to have to fight out and settle someday. It ain't our fight.
Yea, to hell with logical, diplomatic means of resolving problems. Let's just go and blow up everyone who disagrees with us.
We put troops in Europe after WWII because that was where they were needed. In recent years we have begun to pull troops out of Europe and station them in other parts of the world where there is a greater need. It would not surprise me to see most, if not all troops, pulled out of Europe in coming years.
People always say this before we go to war. The same thing was said about what would happen when we fought iraq. I say total BS. Short of a nuke, there is no way NK is capable of numbers like this. Seoul may indeed be hit, but not this bad. The air campaign alone would wipe out most of NK's delivery methods. The initial shock of a full out attack would bring NK to her knees. Of course, this is assuming that china stays the hell out of it, which I doubt they will. The way I see it, all of this talk is pretty much useless. It seems that we aren't going to take any meaningful action against NK, which means, we're putting it off so my son will one day have to take care of it. What a pity.
Indeed. The probability of war in Europe is very low right now. But there are other places where the probability is high. The Middle East and the western Pacific are the current and future hotspots.
Absolutely. I agree with you 100%. That is why we have moved troops from Europe to the Middle East. I don't know if the Far East has received in increase in troop strength, but if the situation with NK worsens that is a strong possiblility. One more remark. I am completely at loss of words for the approach South Korea has taken toward North Korea. South Korea has far more to fear from North Korea than any other nation. Yet, it seems to be taking the same appeasing attitude that China and Russia has taken. The South Korean president, Roh Moo-hyun, has come out and harshly denounced Japan's UN resolution calling for sanctions. I suspect strongly that this attitude has a lot to do with Seoul's desire for reunification with NK. Reunification? There is only two ways that can happen: Either SK will have to relinquish its hard-fought freedom and become a communist nation, or NK will have to become a democracy. I don't believe either of these will happen, so what is all this talk about reunification? Roh needs to stop trying to appease NK for the sake of a naive, ill-thought-out plan of reunification, and start taking a harder line.
South Korea stands to lose the most and to lose it quickest in an all-out war with North Korea. 500,000 to a million casualites, mostly civilian are nothing to scoff at. If war happens it will be on their turf and they want it to be their decision, not a reaction to something the Japanese have done. They still hate the Japanese for the brutal WWII occupation. South Korea has several issues: 1. They aren't sure if the US is willing or currently capable of stopping a North Korean Invasion. 2. If the US must use nuclear weapons to stop a North Korean invasion, it will be on South Korean territory where it happens. 3. They worry that the North Koreans can destroy Seoul in minutes after a war starts and now they even may use nuclear weapons. 4. They aren't willing to provoke China right now because of #1. 5. The North Korean people are culturally identical to South Koreans and there is hope that aid and influence to North Koreans could encourage a regime change in the North without total war. Kim's impoverished population is not a happy one.
