dagblog - Comments for "War Games"

I put the Guam touch in there

Orion — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 22:09:25 +0000

I put the Guam touch in there just for personal reasons, artappraiser. Heh heh. Of course you are right. =P

Again, this is all about

artappraiser — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:38:20 +0000

In reply to War Games

Again, this is all about South Korea and Japan, not Guam (and need I add that the real problem is that China and Russia do not like the U.S. policing that hood?)

US warns North Korea of increased isolation if threats escalate further
White House says US will not be intimidated by 'bellicose rhetoric' and is fully capable of defending itself and its allies
Ewen MacAskill in Washington, guardian.co.uk, 29 March 2013

[.....} Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the non-proliferation and disarmament programme of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, played down the threat. "North Korea is upping its rhetoric to a world-class level, but it's still just rhetoric. They have no capability to hit the US mainland with anything – except through cyberspace. Their only tested missiles can fly a maximum of 1,600km, less than half the distance to Guam."

Fitzpatrick, who is scheduled to lead a thinktank discussion at the institute's Washington office next Thursday on whether the US policy of patience has run its course and instead it should pursue reunification of the Korean peninsula, said Friday that while North Korea is limited in its ability to hit US targets, it poses a threat to South Korea and Japan.

"Their Scuds and Nodongs can hit anywhere in South Korea and Japan. Using them would be suicidal, of course. The far more likely scenario is a pin-prick attack in the nature of the 2010 attacks. This time, however, South Korea is determined to respond with an eye for an eye, in order to restore deterrence. North Korea's ensuing response could trigger a larger conflagration."

Jim Walsh, a specialist on security and nuclear weapons at MIT, played down the prospect of an attack on the US, but said: "The reason it is scary is: you can get war even when no one intends to have a war. All the sides – South Korea, North Korea and others – are now leaning into each other, and if someone makes a mistake, I am concerned that that mistake will escalate into something larger than anyone expected.

"Suddenly you have a young man in a closed country who has to decide whether he is going to respond to your actions."

The risk was not of a North Korean attack on the US but on South Korea that would bring in the US, he said. [.....]

Furthermore, from other reading, I get the impression that what the Obama administration is trying to do here is say to Kim Jong-un: if you want to continue to play the same game your daddy did and get away with it, you're going to have to learn to play it exactly like he did or not at all, because we can easily show you out as a bluffer in front of your people.

P.S. Where's Dennis Rodman?

We always stopped at

Bruce Levine — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:05:35 +0000

In reply to there is little to no chance

We always stopped at horseshoes, and since I didn't know how to play horseshoes I didn't understand what I was saying. But hand grenades and nuclear war I get. Who knew?

there is little to no chance

EmmaZahn — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:20:26 +0000

In reply to http://globalpublicsquare.blo

there is little to no chance that it could successfully land a missile on Guam, Hawaii or anywhere else outside the Korean Peninsula that U.S. forces may be stationed.

Not really all that reassuring. It recalled a phrase we sometimes used as kids: Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and nuclear war.

http://globalpublicsquare.blo

ocean-kat — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:46:49 +0000

In reply to War Games

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/28/no-north-korea-cant-h...

North Korea's announcement via state TV that it was preparing to target Guam, Hawaii and the continental United States – and had readied its “rocket and long-range artillery” forces for the purpose – has inspired a cacophony of speculation across the globe.

But the fact is that despite the bombast, and unless there has been a miraculous turnaround among North Korea’s strategic forces, there is little to no chance that it could successfully land a missile on Guam, Hawaii or anywhere else outside the Korean Peninsula that U.S. forces may be stationed.

North Korea doesn't appear to have the capability to carry out its latest threat to attack U.S. bases in Hawaii, Guam or the U.S. mainland. From what we know of its existing inventory, it does have Scud derived missiles that could complicate the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and they could likely reach Japan. But anything further is probably an empty threat.

North Korea readies rockets

EmmaZahn — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 05:17:45 +0000

In reply to The U.S.'s answer: U.S.

North Korea readies rockets after U.S. show of force | Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed off on the order at a midnight meeting of top generals and "judged the time has come to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists in view of the prevailing situation", the official KCNA news agency said.

"He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets of the KPA (Korean People's Army), ordering them to be on standby for fire so that they may strike any time the U.S. mainland, its military bases in the operational theaters in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea," KCNA said.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported there had been additional troop and vehicle movements at the North's mid- and long-range missile sites, indicating they may be ready to fire.

The U.S.'s answer: U.S.

artappraiser — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 21:31:41 +0000

In reply to War Games

The U.S.'s answer:

U.S. Begins Stealth Bombing Runs Over South Korea

By Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times, March 28/29, 2013

SEOUL, South Korea — The American military made a rare announcement that two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers ran a practice bombing sortie over South Korea on Thursday, underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend its ally amid rising tensions with North Korea.

The two B-2 Spirit bombers made a nonstop round trip from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, demonstrating the United States’ ability to “provide extended deterrence to our allies in the Asia-Pacific region” and to “conduct long-range, precision strikes quickly and at will,” the American command in the South Korean capital, Seoul, said in a statement.

It was the first time the American military publicly confirmed a B-2 mission over the Korean Peninsula. As the bombers dropped inert munitions that they carried 6,500 miles over the Pacific to an island bombing range off South Korea’s west coast, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel conferred with his South Korean counterpart, Kim Kwan-jin, on the phone, reaffirming the United States’ “unwavering” commitment to defend the South.

After suffering from the American carpet-bombing during the 1950-53 Korean War, North Korea remains particularly sensitive about American bombers. It keeps most of its key military installations underground and its war cries typically reach a frenetic pitch when American bombers fly over South Korea during military exercises. The resulting fear and anti-American sentiment is used by the regime to make its people rally behind the North’s “military-first” leadership.

Both B-52 and B-2 can launch nuclear-armed cruise missiles. The Pentagon used their training sorties over the Korean Peninsula to highlight the role the long-distance strategic bombers play as part of Washington’s “nuclear umbrella” over South Korea and Japan [....]

Okay, I hereby render unto

Richard Day — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:19:42 +0000

In reply to Why would the United States

Okay, I hereby render unto Saipan Brad the Dayly Line of the Day Award for this here Dagblog Site, given to all of him from all of me.

hahahahahha

For some reason I am more

Richard Day — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:18:12 +0000

In reply to The North Korean populace has

For some reason I am more frightened this time.

We do not have Rummy and Cheney running our military any longer; so my fear is less than it has been in the past.

I recently read an article on Gates and according to the sources listed therein, he was the one man who kept us out of Iran in 2010.

I did have an uncle who fought in Korea and a few other older friends and we lost some 38,000 soldiers and my understanding was that Ike just floated the idea of nuking North Korea and the war was over!

China cannot be happy about what is going on and certainly does not appreciate our military 'presence' in the area--see Huffpo.

But I am scared right now.

That is a naive post. Based

Orion — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:17:06 +0000

In reply to Well also we already tried

That is a naive post. Based on the name too, I think this may be the result of some of the Guam folks I networked with.

North Korea is full of millions of people who have never had a Big Mac, a Frappucino or ate fresh at Subway. All those things alone are enough for an interest by the United States. Then there is all the rebuilding that goes on in any country that gets bombed in to pieces, etc.