I've been Bushified. Rats.

[mahina]

I am weary of being heartbroken by the news. I'm not talking about the gulf, whose current and past sorrows bring me privately to tears. Not our vets and the innocents impacted in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other nations.

But North Korea? I found myself actually thinking, fine, let's get this thing handled. We're dealing with a loon and this fragile armistice is wearing out. I can not imagine letting this situation continue. Some of us over here feel like we have a big red bullseye on our butt. I am tired of being afraid, not for us, as I am sure that the N. Korean missiles could never actually hit us, but for Tokyo and Seoul.

I could not imagine ever having thought like this pre-*. But here it is, and I hope President Obama continues to be stronger and wiser than I.

Edited to mention that my Grandfather fought in the Korean War, after WWII. For context. And then again to tell you who I don't know that I've marched for peace countless times, and want peace still.

[cliffordu]

1. If the balloon goes up on this, could be quarter of a million people die

in short order.

Shit, they'll lose a couple thousand running through the minefields.

[mahina]

2. Let's pray and hope that this never occurs.

That little * in N. Korea isn't worth one afternoon much less one life.

[cliffordu]

9. The North Koreans have been screwed over, starved to death, murdered and

ignored by that little shit and his father...maybe if the entire cabal was decapitated and Korea was unified, those in the north could be helped.

Compared to both of those fuckers, Saddam was a piker....

[givemebackmycountry]

3. Years ago, I read somewhere that North Korea could reign 2,200 missiles an hour...

On Seoul, South Korea and it could do that for several days uninterrupted.

If true, that's scary as hell.

[mahina]

4. North Koreans are hungry and weakened,

and even though they are thoroughly propagandized, they want him gone too. I'd love some of our wiser members to offer solutions. I'm sure solutions exist.

He's blackmailing the world and almost certainly selling nuclear tech. Wanker!

[JDPriestly]

5. No, they couldn't. They would be nuked after the first missiles.

They are tempting fate.

[Hannah Bell]

6. so could south korea do to north korea. why isn't that scary as well?

so could the US do to mexico, in triplicate, for that matter. isn't that scary?

almost every country in the world could rain missles on its neighbors for some period of time.

why is n. korea particularly scary?

personally, i seriously doubt n. korea could rain 2000 missles/hr for any length of time. in one day, that's 48,000 missles, more than 1 missle per square mile of north korean territory. my neighborhood is a square mile. if there were a missle silo here, i'd notice it, & so would our spy satellites.

north korea has about 500 people per square mile, the US about 80. 80% of n. korea is mountainous.

[krispos42]

7. That might refer to the rockets of a multiple rocket launcher

a.k.a rocket artillery. The Soviets made lots and lots of those. I bet between the tube artillery and the rocket launchers the North Koreans could put out some serious hurt until we were able to do enough counterbattery fire to take out them out.

[Hannah Bell]

8. rocket launcher rockets = "missles"? if so, pretty sloppy reportage.

[krispos42]

11. Probably.

It's got fins and flames shoot out the back, therefore it's a missile.


Or a rocket.


Wha-evah!

[11 Bravo]

19. A sling propels a "missile". A ballistic missile is altogether different.

[cherokeeprogressive]

10. Think about what you just said: "several days uninterrupted".

No. Let's do the math on this... 2200 missiles * 24 hours = 52,800 missiles per day. Let's say "several days" means no less than three. 52,800 per day * 3 days = 158,400.

One hundred fifty eight THOUSAND missiles UNINTERRUPTED. AS IF it would be possible for North Korea to hide almost a hundred sixty thousand missiles and launch them all without anyone figuring out where they were coming from. The would have to be launched individually, from sites MILES apart. Not happening.

NK has an army of little or no mobility. If Kim Jong Il attacked SK, he'd be signing his country's death warrant.

That said, I DO NOT support any kind of pre-emptive military attack on NK, any retaliatory attack, nor any provocation. In fact, I, as president, would advocate abandoning all military bases in SK post haste.

[TexasProgresive]

15. Not missiles but artillery.

[era veteran]

17. Stalinist hub to hub artillery

The last war tactics that would not last long today. N Korea loses command of their airspace in first minutes of war. It would be bloody but they will lose. 35 miles from Seoul to the border.

[TexasProgresive]

21. My understanding us that the North has 100,000 tubes

pointed at Soeul which are in caves and redoubts that would be tough to take out. The estimation I read was that the North could level Soeul in about 3 hours. It was this threat that keep the uber war mongering B*shit admin from going against North Korea except to wave a paper saber.

[Ozymanithrax]

12. North Korea has the largest concentration of artillery in the world...

Before they were stopped using conventional means, they could easily kill a hundred thousand or more. (Soul's population is over 24 million) They are quite capable of leveling Soul, South Korea. The United States would not use nuclear weapons unless North Korea attacked with their own, which they could do.

And the 28,000 American soldiers stationed there, are little more than a road bump. Imagine if half that many were killed in the early part of the war. What would the American people say to 14,000 dead Americans. We would get our war on very fast, and most likely it would be necessary to draft.

A war is not the way to solve this problem. Loons are noisy irritating birds, but their noise is not worth the cost of killing them.

[mahina]

13. Good to think about.

I like the last line of your post very much, thank you.

[opihimoimoi]

14. KnR...Mahina...its time for Peace...COME, WE GO TRY...oops

[mahina]

18. Shoots!

Opihi, are you going to check out the convention this weekend?

[opihimoimoi]

20. Whad convention??? I stay Kaneohe,,,in the dark...LOL...lemme know

[Motown_Johnny]

16. that loon is looking pretty sickly, it may be better to wait this out and see if

the next leader can be reasoned with.