North Korea is next on Bush's hit list.

[Cascadian]

It would seem the "hawks" at the Pentagon and the Shrub Administration are beginning to plan out a full-scale attack of North Korea in the very near future. Convinced that planned 6 nation talks will not work, there are those in the U.S. government that are already making plans for war against the North Koreans. I heard it on the Randi Rhodes Show and from these newspapers...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030818/wl_afp/nkorea_nuclear_030818103242

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030818/wl_afp/nkorea_nuclear_exercise_030818053303

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030815.wkore0815/BNStory/International/?query=North+Korea


Remember Colin Powell states that there are no economic offers planned from the U.S.


This can also mean that Seoul and Pyongyang will be in flames and the draft really is coming back!


John

[Cascadian]

1. Here are some other (better) link....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3160823.stm


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3159077.stm



John

[joshdawg]

2. Bu**sh** will not attack N. Korea,

no oil and Kim Jung Il did not attempt to assassinate "my daddy".

[bpilgrim]

3. thats what many said here about iraq...

i wouldn't put it past'em

peace

[tom_paine]

7. But NK has nukes

Which means the pants-wetting Bushevik chickenhawks will be afraid to fight someone who can fight back.

Just like any other garden-variety bully or thug.

[bpilgrim]

9. true

but these are mad man we are talking about

:scared:

peace

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

20. *

*
self editing

[ewagner]

4. Disagree

North Korea was and still is on PNACs hit list.

As long as Wolfowitz and Rummy are running the show (in both DOD and State Department!) you bet there's a big, red bullseye on NK.

[Cascadian]

6. I don't know...

it is looking to me like the possibility of it happening are there. Sure Iraq was about oil and Saddam but in order to distract the population again and save it's own face to convince us of their lie, they will go and invade North Korea. The thing that scares me is that this could backfire and we could be viewing a mushroom cloud on the West Coast.

:nuke:


John

[ComerPerro]

14. Thats just it

I have seen people here say, "Well, it won't happen because North Korea has nukes".

And??????

Why would BushCo care?
Its not like they would die in a nuclear attack. Besides, they are probably dying to use some of the US' nuclear arsenal.

[Kamika]

5. Expect alot of koreans here in that case.

If well go to war there we will probably bring every single relative over here.

And If south korea gets nuked Bush better put every single korean american in jail or he'll die

[knowledgeispower]

8. No

War with North Korea would not be possible. They have a well armed million man army. We would be subjected to a staggering number of casualties (over 50,000 in the first WEEK according to a Defense Department report put together under Clinton in 1994). Combine that with the fact that our military is ALREADY spread thin (and believe me, it would take a significant amount of our military might to take on North Korea), it just is not possible.

[Cascadian]

11. They will use a lot of firepower from warplanes.

That is what I heard on the Randi Rhodes show earlier today. They think they could weigh them down with missles and bombs. Plus a naval attack from the sea. I honestly do not recall a time when we have had a government so hell-bent on war ever! I would not put it past this nutcase we have in the White House. He maybe dumb, but he is dangerous!

John

[ComerPerro]

10. Well, they are right about one thing:

The Six-Nation talks will not work.
BushCo will be sure to see to that.
They didn't want any talks in the first place, and they will do whatever they can to foul them up (If the US even shows up).

[Pepperbelly]

12. won't happen ...

we don't have the forces to invade Grenada right now. We are stretched far too thin for any major operation and invading Kore would be a major op.

I suspect that the activity is designed to deter N Korea from pounding Seoul and pouring across the 38th.

[atreides1]

13. Just An Opinion

The North Koreans can be in Seoul in a few hours, the US troops there
don't have a chance. And there is no guarantee that the ROK Army will
put up a fight.

The 2ID is short one Brigade, their back up, the 25th ID will be only
at half strength. As for the Marines in Okinawa, if the North has the
missiles they claim to have, they won't even get out of the starting gate.

I would go so far as to predict that if war does break out, Japan will
become neutral real fast, and I wouldn't count on Australia or New
Zealand either.

And we might get to find out how friendly the Chinese really are, I
predict they will remain neutral as well.

Look at it this way if the US goes to war against North Korea, which
countries have the most to gain. I'm sure in the end we will win it
but can you even imagine how weak our economy, not to mention our military will be, and just think about the morale here at home, when
the body bags start arriving in groups of 10, instead of just one.

How much of a threat will the US be then, especially against an alliance of Russia and China.

By the way for the draft to work, people will have to show up.

[Cascadian]

15. Russia and China will make harsh statements but...

I don't believe they will do anything. They really haven't helped North Korea with their economic hardships to begin with.


John

[Capt_Nemo]

24. for them it's not about NK

it's about several tens of thousands US troops crawling up their
borders.

They would't confront directly the US for it would
esclate to MAD quite rapidly. But I can see them making a shot
across the bow, (disguised as an unfortunate mistake about territorial
waters/airspace) by destroying a very valuable target (B-2, aircraft
carrier).

After that tensions would be very high, but escalation
could be prevented, and the message to the US would be clear:
this is the line in the sand, cross it and we'll go down but we'll
take you with us in the process.

[ComerPerro]

17. Good analysis

But I feel that with enough proper spin, bodybags coming home by even the hundreds won't even hurt the administration.

One thing I would like to add: This won't happen soon. We are spread too thin.
It will happen in his second term.

[maveric]

16. I wonder what China would think about that?

We had military actions against them 50 yrs ago and I beleive that China sided wth NK and fought against us.

And with NK boasting about their nuclear prowess how would Russia, Japan and South Korea feel about military actions and possibly a nuke incident in their neighborhood?

There could be very serious repercussions here!

[Cascadian]

18. If North Korea does nuke a city...

Being a pariah won't even describe NK. They will be dead at the hand of the U.S. I wouldn't even be surprised if Bush ordered a ICBM on Pyongyang if they use a nuke first.

John

[Brian Sweat]

19. No, its not

We're not going to fuck with North Korea. We are going to try to work things out with them and hope we can avoid a military conflict. We do not want a military conflict with North Korea. North Korea is in easy striking distance of South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. If we start shit with the North Koreans, they will hit these countries and hit them hard. We can take North Korea, but the collateral damage would be tremendous and would probably result in a world wide depression.

[Emboldened Chimp]

21. Relax, it's only August

You don't roll out new products until September. Geez, didn't you know that?

I bet they use the 9-11 anniversary to start their campaign against NK. Any takers?

[ewagner]

22. One last hopeful note

If China and Russia are willing to offer North Korea a Security Guarantee against US Agression. Then Kim might stand down and back off on the rhetoric. There was a thread about that on Friday I think.

edited for typos.

[legin]

23. Mmmmmm...

Technically possible I'd guess.

They are just starting to get their act together re securing the oilfields and the pipeline (within a few months there will be the 10 troops per mile in place). So that basically takes care of what they went over there to get and you really have only got to keep up a convincing pretence that you are trying to build democracy there.

So now you got to rotate home your grade A units in Iraq, for a couple of months R&R, and replace them with National Gaurd troops. The 3rd Infantry is due home in either September or December I forget which. So that means a staggered call up, to try and avert suspicion, of an extra maybe 50,000-100,000 National Gaurd troops. They will need a couple of months briefing and training so that call up process has probably got to start fairly soon.

So with all you grade A units home by December/January, bit of a rest, probably ready for N. Korea about April/May.

[ewagner]

26. Whoa!

That's one chilling analysis.

[spanone]

25. Since the economy won't recover by then, the timing of this war

will be crucial to the election.

[Cascadian]

27. Here's another story!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=68&ncid=68&e=1&u=/nyt/20030818/ts_nyt/ustosendsignaltonorthkoreansinnavalexercise


John