Danishfurniturelover
the prettiest spice girl
Woke up to it all over the news channels out here. Looks like it could be on, that North Korea guy is mental.
I can see a preemptive strike on that missile factory incoming.
Scary stuff really considering the lineup of nutballs that is the lineup of world leaders these days.
We'd see a build-up prior to that happening. USPACFLT upping its deployment cycle, shifting its active BMD assets (at the time, likely to be 10 or so Tico and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers out of the 20 assigned to the Pacific Fleet) into the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan, air buildups in Okinawa, Misawa, Kadena and the South Korean airbases in Osan and Kunsan, forward deployed Army and Marine assets, Patriot and THAAD batteries being hustled into Japan and SoKo as fast as they can be sent across and the Ronald Reagan (among other carriers) shifting from restricted availability into deployment.
The KPA will see it coming. So will we. And the problem with launching a pre-emptive strike on North Korea is that calling their bluff is a very dangerous move - and not for the United States, since no North Korean missile will ever successfully cross the Sea of Japan/Hokkaido/Central Pacific (covered by COBRA DANE and other sea/land radar systems in Alaska and the Aleutians)/Hawaii gauntlet of BMD and radar systems to actually reach the East Coast. U.S BMD and early warning systems were built to track the threat of the *Soviet Union* launching many thousands of missiles across the Pacific - it can handle ten or so North Korean missiles, if they ever get off the ground.
No, the danger will be for Japan (which could be hit by North Korean ballistic missiles), and *especially* South Korea - because the outbreak of war will see Seoul and other major urban agglomerations within a certain range of the DMZ bombarded by thousands upon thousands of static artillery pieces firing conventional and chemical rounds. There will be thousands (possibly tens of thousands) of civilian casualties within the first hour of any conflict.
That's the problem - a pre-emptive strike *cannot* neutralize all the many thousands of artillery guns and MBRLs stationed on the border with the express intent of targeting SoKo cities upon the outbreak of any war. That's the problem with Seoul, Ch'unch'on and Sokch'o (among others) being so far north - they are permanently within range of North Korean artillery purposefully placed to open fire on them. That is as much (if not more) of a deterrent to any pre-emptive strike than the actual nukes are (and the nukes aren't *that* much of a deterrent - they are few enough that they can probably be located, suppressed or otherwise negated using EW before they get far into the air).
A rational South Korean government wouldn't agree to a pre-emptive strike unless it was prepared to suffer the initial, heavy civilian and economic cost of crossing the DMZ. The U.S wouldn't push SoKo to do so, unless it wanted to risk losing SoKo to Chinese influence (since Beijing would counter by offering to pressure Pyongyang into ceding South Korean political aims *without* the need for a war, or at least a war on SoKo's part).
Of course, we have Donny in power so all bets are off. So you may well be right, despite all the rationales I've offered above as to why it's unlikely.
Well, at least if we're going to see the senseless loss of thousands of American, Japanese and Korean lives (both North and South) because some orange imbecile decided it would be a good idea to ignore the intricacies of Asian geopolitics entirely...at least we'll get some good music out of it, if Vietnam was anything to go by.
Good post. Sound logic. Only problem is not only is Agent Orange (POTUS) a class 1 imbecile but Kim Jong-Un isn't exactly mentally stable it appears. Mix those two factors and you've got a highly volatile situation.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/778963/kim-jong-un-north-korea-attack-usa-war-south-korea