Does the US have the assets to assist South Korea if we're needed?

[Stinky The Clown]

[HopeHoops]

1. You can bet they have been in place for quite some time now.

[AlabamaLibrul]

2. Because what we really need is Korean War pt. 2, and our fourth Vietnam. n/t

[MH1]

3. Assist, yes. Do what it takes to win all-out war with N Korea? Doubtful.

Due to our overstretching in Iraq and Afghanistan and not restoring our capacity.

(Unless of course we just do the politically and morally unthinkable, and use our air force to turn every possible missile base in N Korea into rubble, in a coordinated massive strike. We could probably do that technically.)

If this takes the worst possible course then it will be time for a draft. But of course it probably can't go there because we have allowed our military to become too dependent on foreign countries that might not back us.

What we can hope for is that cooler heads prevail and come up with a better answer. I think the families of dead S Koreans deserve reparations from the North. But the North has no money (that they aren't using to build weapons). And if they're willing to shoot artillery into a populated South Korean island in the first place, why would they accede to reparations? So, what is the better answer that can actually happen?

[NNN0LHI]

4. No because China owns all our assets and they are on the North Koreans side

[Dr.Phool]

6. Don't you mean China owns all our asses?

[Dr.Phool]

5. I doubt it.

We don't seem to have assets to extend unemployment anymore.

Then again, this could be another "jobs program".

[Phoonzang]

7. South Korea has the 6th largest standing army in the world and

8 million reservists waiting. Not to mention some of the best military technology (ours) in the world. They're more than capable of handling North Korea without our full commitment.

That being said, nothing will come of this current incident like nothing has come of the incidents over the last 50 years involving casualties on both sides. I mean they sunk a sub killing 46 people a few months ago. It's N. Korea's way of asserting it's dominance and paving the way for Kim Jong-Un to take charge of the military.

[Lucky 13]

8. Sure we do! From social security, department of education, medicare, health and human services, HUD

... we have unlimited resources to plunder!

[katnapped]

9. +10 bazillion (recs)

Yup, we gots plenty...just need to eviscerate that pesky Social Security, Medicare, and some other needless stuff

[Iggo]

10. That war has been going on since the 50's, and we never went home.

No peace treaty. Only a cease fire.

[tuckessee]

11. We have enough nukes to kill every commie on the Peninsula ten times over.

That's the only hope American militarists have of whooping the North Koreans.

An army that can't even defeat after 10 years of warfare a bunch of cave dwelling goat herders who lack all modern weapons has no chance against a tough, professional military like North Korea has.

[Demstud]

12. Yes

North Korea can't win an all out war, but would likely make it as ugly as they could. S. Korea has a very large well equipped military, and we've always had a significant military presence there. From what I've read from experts, it's not so much a question of whether N.Korea would fall, but how many people they would take with them. They aren't strong enough to "win" a war on their own, and are unlikely to receive great support from China, but they will certainly make things very ugly on the way out (causing as much destruction as possible with their missiles and covert sabotage/terrorism teams).