US Sends B-2s to South Korea for Military Drills

[Baclava]

Source: ABC News

In a show of force following weeks of North Korean bluster, the U.S. on Thursday took the unprecedented step of announcing that two of its nuclear-capable B-2 bombers dropped munitions on a South Korean island as part of joint military drills.

U.S. Forces Korea said in a statement that the B-2 stealth bombers flew from a U.S. air base in Missouri and dropped munitions on a South Korean island range before returning home. It was unclear whether America's stealth bombers were used in past annual drills with South Korea, but this is the first time the military has announced their use.

The statement follows an earlier U.S. announcement that nuclear-capable B-52 bombers participated in the joint military drills.


U.S. Air Force B-2 stealth bomber, left, flies over near Osan U.S. Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, March 28, 2013

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/us-sends-2s-south-korea-military-drills-18829344

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America! Fuck yeah!

[sharp_stick]

1. Just letting little Kim

know what launching an attack on the South might bring.

[Purveyor]

2. Little Kim knows, 1000's of dead...on both sides. Weeeeeee!!! eom

[sharp_stick]

5. I hope he does

there's been some talk that he's trying to quell some military unrest and consolidate his power. Which would make all the strangely idiotic saber rattling make sense.

His old man may not have done a good enough job purging the ranks of potential upstarts before kicking the bucket and some of the Generals see an opportunity.

Now we'll see if he can pull things back. Kim Jong Il was a master at just walking up to the line and then turning around, I hope sonny boy learned.

[awoke_in_2003]

24. Increase that by a factor...

of ten, at least.

[Baclava]

4. we'll trump your sabre rattling with our big swords

something like that

[sharp_stick]

7. Basically

North Korea has a really really outdated air force.

Flying this thing around and publicizing it is pretty much flipping the bird at them.

[L0oniX]

3. Lockheed Martin approves. n/t

[Blue_Tires]

23. All the overgrown kiddies in the Pentagon get to pull the toys out the toybox

[bemildred]

6. Dick waving is a game we understand. nt

[DeSwiss]

26. ....

[TwilightGardener]

8. Well, KJU warned us not to fly the B-52's again. So we said, OK, here's

something different. Still just part of the exercise, though. NK needs to take heed and knock it off.

[Kip Humphrey]

9. We should be dropping food packets over N.Korea instead. N.Korea is saber rattling because

its people are starving (again!).

[premium]

11. No, we shouldn't.

The people wouldn't get the packages, the military and government would. The NK authorities have a history of doing that, we send them aid, it goes to the military and government personnel.

[Posteritatis]

31. And its people are starving because of its government.

That said, any attempt to do that would be met by the North shooting down the aircraft anyway.

[premium]

10. Wouldn't President Obama have had to give the ok for these B-2's?

These are the most sophisticated bombers in our inventory and to send them to SK is a major escalation in a show of force.

[Baclava]

13. I don't know...no nukes were on-board - just a little training exercise from the Joint Chiefs

or something...but I'm sure he knew about it

[sharp_stick]

14. I'm sure he did

When dealing with North Korea you'd have to expect that Obama and his entire cabinet are involved in any major decision.

[premium]

17. Thanks.

I figured that he would have to give the ok for such an escalation. Hopefully the NK leadership and military got the message.

[James48]

12. The greatest part about flying the B-2 Stealth Bomber to South Korea

You don't even have to actually do it.

You simply announce in the press that you have done it, and save the fuel bill.


After all, the B-2 Stealth Bomber can't be seen on radar, they are INVISIBLE, right?


Ssssssoooooo, unless you actually tell the press that you did it,

how is North Korea going to even know????

(Picture of a Squadron of Stealth Bombers flying in Korea yesterday.)

[Baclava]

16. oh, I'm sure they let them have a good look at them

[Poll_Blind]

15. The guy has working nukes and is openly threatening to nuke us and others.

He's a third generation cult leader of a country enslaved for almost the last 70 years. He's gone so rogue, the Chinese (who set up the dictatorship), aren't able to control him anymore.

I don't know what else we're supposed to do or can do except make it really fucking clear that if Bunny Foo Foo decides to start bopping field mice on the head, he's likely to be vaporized on the first attempt.

This threatened response is not cool or awesome or righteous. There's a crazy guy pointing waving a gun in a room full of men, women and children. And even that we're mostly okay with. We're letting him know that if he starts shooting, so are we.

This situation, right now, just is. And it's North Korea's doing.

PB

[TwilightGardener]

18. That's pretty much the size of it. Do we back down, or show resolve?

It's a shitty situation, but they're driving it.

[Moostache]

19. This is insanity.

We are walking down a path of death and mass destruction with a known idiot from a tyrannical family of sociopaths....DID WE LEARN NOTHING FROM SHRUB?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!

This latest Kim Jong whatever is an over-privileged, under-aware buffoon doing things and playing with the big toys to appease daddy's friends. For fuck's sake, we should not allow the world to have an actual nuclear exchange because of this...we need to find a way to identify and eliminate the North Korean equivalents to Cheney/Rummy/Wolfowitz/Rice.

Our American Idiots have already cost the nation trillions of dollars and untold opportunities to stem the tide of social and environmental collapse, we should not allow North Korean Idiots to make things exponentially worse.

Where are the goddamn adults in the room already?

[TwilightGardener]

20. They've been working on nuclear weapons for decades. You think appeasement and cowering

in fear is the answer?

[Moostache]

32. I said nothing about appeasement - you pulled that out of the aether quite well though...

I do not think that having a biggest dick contest with offensive nuclear weaponry is the answer - EVER.

I hate this bullshit idea that has engulfed the worldview of so many, the idea that ANY kind of negotiations or direct talks is somehow "weakness" or "appeasement". It takes infinitely MORE courage to be willing to sacrifice personal political capital in the pursuit of peace. Peace does not have to follow war...it can be maintained without ever firing off the big guns and bombs; but since 2001 and the advent of this horrific "post 9/11" world, you'd think the mere suggestion of diplomacy is tantamount to treason. I guess I missed the memo.

I am sorry that people appear to still be all too willing to accept the foreign policy idea of "Ready. Shoot. Aim." It was a disaster under Shrub and it would be an even bigger disaster under PBO. The letter after the name means lees to me than the actions of the man being described in this case.

There are about 10,000 other, better options than flying out B2 bombers to Korea, making an already known unstable punk kid get more irrational in the offing; and unless you are a ghoul secretly pining for nuclear war (to see what it looks like when our military gets to shoot off one of the REAL bombs?), you'd recognize that.

[TwilightGardener]

33. This is a well-known, pre-scheduled exercise. It absolutely would be appeasement if we

obeyed Jong Un's command last week that we stop our bomber flights for the exercise. We didn't threaten him at all--we only pointed out the flights after they were over and done with, presumably to send a signal to our allies and NK and China that we aren't backing down from threats. Edit to add: I am not happy to see a war start. My husband was stationed in S Korea and I am very worried about our personnel in particular.

[Moostache]

34. I do not wish to pick a posting fight over this...may peace win out for all concerned.

I apologize after reading my earlier replies - they read more combatively than I wished to express. May calmer heads in positions of power be the voices that win the day.

[TwilightGardener]

35. We want the same result, trust me. No need to apologize at all.

[pediatricmedic]

21. They ran the 38th parallel in formation with F-16's and A-10's

Do you think NK will shut up with the silly threats or not?

[Baclava]

22. Flying B-2's on mock bombing runs is sending a big message, not trying to shut them up

maybe 'pay attention' is more like it........they're not making a secret of it for a reason


A U.S. Air Force B-2 stealth bomber flies near Osan U.S. Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, on Thursday.

[premium]

25. The fact that China hasn't protested this

should send a very powerful message to the NK leadership.

I sensing that China has just about had it with these lunatics.

[Baclava]

27. yeah - be interesting to see how China reacts

their dog is off it's leash again

[Poll_Blind]

37. Yep. Astute observation. China isn't a bung of folks in green uniforma waving...

...little red books around, anymore. Far from it. China is a giant business. And shit like the North Koreans are pulling is bad for business.

EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS.

PB

[Alamuti Lotus]

28. that'll show 'em! making nuclear threats is WRONG WRONG WRONG(*)

*except when certain parties do it, then it is plusgood.

[TwilightGardener]

29. You must have missed the part where they threatened to incinerate us...with nukes.

We're just letting them know that we're listening, and taking them seriously.

[Malik Agar]

30. Those things are badass

Even though they are quite pricey, these stealth bombers are the scariest plane ever created. I'm glad they're in our arsenal and not anybody else's.

[davidpdx]

36. I think the US flying the B-2s over here showed the North exactly what they'd get if they attacked

I saw this yesterday in the US Embassy South Korea Facebok page. I live about 36 km from the boarder.

I posted this yesterday in GD as I didn't really feel this was a LBN

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022577858