McMaster says US must be prepared for military operations in North Korea

[Macaquerie]

There are about 2 million Americans ready to go to war with NK if ordered to do so, what the American people think about another war is irrelevant for at least 6-12 months. Simple realities.

The war isn't going to be over in 6-12 months though, and if our past track record is any indication, it won't be over in 12 years either, so it's probably not a great idea to stumble into this because we wanted to act tough.

[Ulmita]

Russia has no place in these negotiations, they are not the USSR.

Russia borders with NK. Russia has more reasons to be in the negotiations than the US.

[Ripster42]

Russia borders with NK. Russia has more reasons to be in the negotiations than the US.

I actually had to look this up, I was like, no way! Ya, apparently 17km. This might be the first thing I've learned from you in all your posts I've read.

[kamuimac]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...rth-korea.html



Well this feels familiar. Replace North Korea in the second line with Iraq and nuclear weapons with weapons of mass destruction and this feels a whole lot like 2003.

nothign surpirsing

population of young males with huge apetites has grown significnatly in US - time to send them to die in war to prevent any social revolutions

and hamsters will keep runing on wheels like they did for centuries

[Kiri]

Russia borders with NK. Russia has more reasons to be in the negotiations than the US.

Well, if we talk about actually relevant targets, that border is pretty much irrelevant. What is important here is that North Korea has very little reason to threaten Russia, unlike with the US. Russia has little interest in NK, does not prop up NKs mortal enemy and has always had a stance of supporting national sovereignty, unlike the US.

[Deleted]

The number one warmonger country at its best. I hope that one day the US will pay for all their war crimes of attacking sovereign countries and that their citizens will finally dispelled from the spell Edward Bernays and his successors have cast over them.

[Breccia]

If NK has no fear, NK has little reason to come to the table. If China has no fear of US action, China has little reason to come to the table.

This is false.

There are reasons people do things. Fear of punishment is one. Desire of rewards is another. Trump is currently, by his own admission, trying to bribe China with a better trade deal in exchange for help with North Korea. This was the same meeting where he realized North Korea was not so easy a subject after talking with China for 10 minutes. Granted, offering China a good deal after all his anti-China stance during the election is still a combination of hypocrisy and promises broken (how's that currency manipulation going?) but I don't think you can say China negotiated out of fear. In fact, in this context, they have better "cards" than we do.

As @Macaquerie said, we haven't offered North Korea any carrots. Why can't we, for example, come up with a situation where NK gets a ton of food, medicine, and comfort goods in a way that Kim Jong Dumbass can tout as a great victory for DPRK? "I have beaten the Americans in the field of diplomacy!" he will shout with raised arms, as his followers cheer without the encouragement of aimed guns for once. "Now listen to the rap stylings of Dennis Rodman while 150 blonde girls dance!"

- - - Updated - - -

Why would anyone take our threats seriously

Based purely on the last 102 days, because Syria.

Trump has proven he's willing to take unilateral military action and fire into not just sovereign territory, but sovereign territory with a super power backing them. It is a very real risk that he would do the same with North Korea.

I did not say he would. I hope he does not. But, that's why you'd take the threats seriously. Unfortunately, if NK takes them TOO seriously, they launch first.

[Kellhound]

The war isn't going to be over in 6-12 months though, and if our past track record is any indication, it won't be over in 12 years either, so it's probably not a great idea to stumble into this because we wanted to act tough.

Its not a matter of acting tough, its a matter of containing the inevitable implosion of NK.

- - - Updated - - -

Russia borders with NK. Russia has more reasons to be in the negotiations than the US.

Russia has no place because they have nothing constructive or punitive to offer, and the tiny sliver of boarder does not change that.

- - - Updated - - -

This is false.

There are reasons people do things. Fear of punishment is one. Desire of rewards is another. Trump is currently, by his own admission, trying to bribe China with a better trade deal in exchange for help with North Korea. This was the same meeting where he realized North Korea was not so easy a subject after talking with China for 10 minutes. Granted, offering China a good deal after all his anti-China stance during the election is still a combination of hypocrisy and promises broken (how's that currency manipulation going?) but I don't think you can say China negotiated out of fear. In fact, in this context, they have better "cards" than we do.

As @Macaquerie said, we haven't offered North Korea any carrots. Why can't we, for example, come up with a situation where NK gets a ton of food, medicine, and comfort goods in a way that Kim Jong Dumbass can tout as a great victory for DPRK? "I have beaten the Americans in the field of diplomacy!" he will shout with raised arms, as his followers cheer without the encouragement of aimed guns for once. "Now listen to the rap stylings of Dennis Rodman while 150 blonde girls dance!"

- - - Updated - - -



Based purely on the last 102 days, because Syria.

Trump has proven he's willing to take unilateral military action and fire into not just sovereign territory, but sovereign territory with a super power backing them. It is a very real risk that he would do the same with North Korea.

I did not say he would. I hope he does not. But, that's why you'd take the threats seriously. Unfortunately, if NK takes them TOO seriously, they launch first.

Ah yes, reward bad behavior, always an excellent idea that never encourages future bad behavior......

Giving NK aid just postpones the inevitable collapse, while being unlikely to actually stop the development of missiles and nuclear weapons.

[Breccia]

Ah yes, reward bad behavior, always an excellent idea that never encourages future bad behavior

You act like I suggested giving them a bunch of stuff in return for nothing. You're either strawmanning it or not interested in a serious discussion.

Iran has been making a fuss because Trump has suggested we will pull out of the Nuclear Deal, which even Trump admits Iran has been following. And that wasn't "rewarding bad behavior" either.

And besides, clearly what has been happening for the last 20 years hasn't been working. We're closer to war than ever. Something different needs to be done here, before NK takes our threats too seriously and launches first. Or baits us into launching first, which is almost certainly war with China. I see no reason we couldn't at least try to buy their nuclear program off them, and have joint US-Chinese inspections involved. If nothing else, it's worth discussing. The stick isn't working.

[Kellhound]

You act like I suggested giving them a bunch of stuff in return for nothing. You're either strawmanning it or not interested in a serious discussion.

Iran has been making a fuss because Trump has suggested we will pull out of the Nuclear Deal, which even Trump admits Iran has been following. And that wasn't "rewarding bad behavior" either.

And besides, clearly what has been happening for the last 20 years hasn't been working. We're closer to war than ever. Something different needs to be done here, before NK takes our threats too seriously and launches first. Or baits us into launching first, which is almost certainly war with China. I see no reason we couldn't at least try to buy their nuclear program off them, and have joint US-Chinese inspections involved. If nothing else, it's worth discussing. The stick isn't working.

You do understand that we HAVE in the past given NK aid with the understanding that they stop performing certain actions, which they then continued to perform.
Of course Iran is following it, it was an agreement that basically gave Iran everything they wanted while having little impact on their ability to produce a nuclear weapon.

[GennGreymane]

Americans are not ready for an actual commitment. Much like in their love lives. (dont be mad mods, this is clearly a joke about the word commitment)

[Breccia]

Of course Iran is following it, it was an agreement that basically gave Iran everything they wanted while having little impact on their ability to produce a nuclear weapon.

Even Trump admits Iran is following the Nuclear Deal. Iran's ability to construct a bomb is greatly reduced. What you have is conjecture not backed by the results.

[satimy]

With the current readiness crisis? With years of deferred maintenance, a shrunken force, and a massive modernization shopping list over the next five years? Good joke. The US won't do shit.

War against North Korea would take 6 carriers. The US has 10 in service with one nearing delivery and one under construction. Currently 3 are deployed. 3 are in pre-deployment work up to replace three deployed over the next 6 months. Two are in Planned Incremental Availability (end of maintenance). Two more are cut open right now undergoing mid-live refueling, one of which won't be returned to the fleet until 2021. That means the US could get 6 out there if it needed to, but then have an traffic jam of deferred maintenance on the other end that would see ships inactivated for years waiting their turn for repairs.

The United States currently has about 3000 Cruise missiles. War against Iraq in 2003 took about 800, when its stockpile was nearly 10,000. North Korea has many more targets than Iraq did. The US builds about 150 cruise missiles per year. If the country doubled replenishment funding, it would still take many years to replace the munitions expended. Oh and the Tomahawk production line is likely shutting down as the Navy begins a successor program, missile to be determined sometime mid next decade.

The United States lacks the ability to fight a single major war without severely screwing itself in the aftermath until early to mid next decade. War against North Korea will severely weaken our conventional deterrence against Russia and China. While a better use of force than say, ISIS, it is still extremely unwise at this juncture, especially until the Budget Control Act is repealed.

Thanks Afghan/Iraq Wars/Obama/BCA. Oh and thanks American people. For a country "tired of war" (nonsense, we went shopping) we've spent over a decade and a half being hysterically non-serious about the costs and expense of it. The country needs to make some hard fucking choices about its role in the world and how its going to spend its money, or a lot of people are going to die.

10 carriers lol, I guess China would lose to North Korea in a war as they only have 1. The question is can you kill them fast enough before they glass Seoul. Either way it's not worth our money and I could care less about Korea. That 10 carriers, wow.

[Ulmita]

10 carriers lol, I guess China would lose to North Korea in a war as they only have 1. The question is can you kill them fast enough before they glass Seoul. Either way it's not worth our money and I could care less about Korea. That 10 carriers, wow.

China and Russia will not allow NK to fall, make no mistake about it. The last thing they want is to have the AEGIS right on their borders.
US administration knows this all to well, thats why they aren't doing anything all these years. This war, can NOT be won via a military clash.

- - - Updated - - -

Russia has no place because they have nothing constructive or punitive to offer, and the tiny sliver of boarder does not change that.

hahahaha, you make me laugh, God bless dude.

[Kellhound]

Even Trump admits Iran is following the Nuclear Deal. Iran's ability to construct a bomb is greatly reduced. What you have is conjecture not backed by the results.

3 out of 5 agree with you... Not a resounding number, and creating enriched uranium is not exactly bleeding edge. Basically Iran exchanged a year (actually the estimate is the break-out time went from 2 months to one year) setback in the timeline to create a nuclear weapon for everything they wanted.

- - - Updated - - -

China and Russia will not allow NK to fall, make no mistake about it. The last thing they want is to have the AEGIS right on their borders.
US administration knows this all to well, thats why they aren't doing anything all these years. This war, can NOT be won via a military clash.

- - - Updated - - -




hahahaha, you make me laugh, God bless dude.

And you do nothing to counter what I said, because it is the truth. Russia has nothing to offer and as such has no reason to be involved.

[Jeezy911]

I think the best scenario would be to let NK attack first. Obviously not a nuke, assuming they have them but a little provocation wouldn't hurt. The fake media will blame Trump regardless but I think for the sake of the great country of South Korea something has to be done soon.