Ok...attempt at movin on....

[pamsback]

  I would like to know what people are thinkin about North Korea. They've tested a nuclear weapon that set off earthquakes. They've test fired short range missiles. They've threatened to attack South Korean and US ships. They've withdrawn from the armistice that ended the Korean war and declared war on South Korea.

Just more bluster and big-talkin or legitimate threat?

[Anmar]

I think it's mostly bluster.  It turns out their first test was a failure.  Many people believe that it wasn't really even a nuclear weapon.  They have one of the worst economies in the world, their people are starving, and i think they are trying to blackmail the US and it's neighbors into getting some kind of Aid.  They actually try it every few years and it's worked every time. 

The idea is, if N. Korea gets nuclear weapons, they would be desperate enough to sell them to the highest bidder, so the great law abiding countries need to give them money so they no longer feel the need to develop and sell weapons.  This went on under Clinton and Bush, and they both ended up paying N. Korea.

In my opinion, Bush should have focused on Kim Jong Il instead of Saddam Hussein.  It would have fixed so many more problems and been so much easier than Iraq.

[Wilma]

That just answered a question I had, too.  I had heard, just once this morning, about this, then not another word.  To me it should be news as it could lead us into another war.  I think like Anmar, it is another ploy to get American aid.

[larryJ]

There has always been that tension between North and South.  When I was there in the sixties we were always on alert for attacks or infiltrations by spies.  We actually caught one near our missile site or I should say the guard dogs caught him so there wasn't much I (the medic) could do for him before he died.  To answer your question, Pam, it is mostly bluster as he doesn't have the ability to carry out another war especially if the Chinese aren't going to back him.  His people are starving and his economy makes ours look like a boom era.  Even he knows he could never win anyhow.  Anmar is right in that he is trying to blackmail us and the rest of the world into giving more aid to his country.  God forbid he should just say, hey I am sorry about all the threats and stuff.  Please help us.  What's that saying about bees and flies and honey?

Larryj

[Warph]

Anmar and Larry might be right.  I'm sure there's a lot  of saber-rattling going on but, I'm thinking more on Anmar's idea of the situation, "... if N. Korea gets nuclear weapons, they would be desperate enough to sell them to the highest bidder".... and this is scary as hell.  Even the hawks say there's not much America can do, in response to North Korea's nuclear test.  But that doesn't mean the U.S. military isn't prepping for a war with the Kim Jong-Il regime, just in case.

According to the Pentagon, in March of this year, American and South Korean forces teamed up for the "Key Resolve/Foal Eagle" war game. 13,100 troops from outside Korea — and tens of thousands more, already stationed in the country — participated in the massive exercise, which focused on "deploying troops and equipment to Korea in the event of an attack," according to a their military press release.

Some U.S. and South Korean commandos made airborne jumps together from a helium blimp; others, from helicopters hovering above the Korea Strait.  A third group ran a mock "operation to secure a suspected chemical weapons lab."  Unconventional weapons experts drilled in responding to a simulated strike involving "hundreds of WMD."  Navy helicopter pilots swept for mines, while Marine fighter pilots flew with their South Korean counterparts to "wipe out" simulated enemy aircraft.

The Americans and their allies kicked all kinds of butt in the exercise, of course.  Other war games, testing out the North Korean scenario, didn't end quite as cleanly.  In one  forecast, they figured 100,000 or more dead civilians in the first few days.  And that was if the U.S. could assemble the half-million to million troops needed for such an assault; none of the participants thought such a staggering number of troops could be gathered together, given all of America's military commitments around the world.

Let's hope it is all bluster on Kim Jong-Il's part.  What ever it is, this thing isn't going to go away for sometime.

[Anmar]

Warph, I'm curious as to what your opinion is...

do you think that the American military is stretched too thin to go to war with North Korea?

In retrospect, do you think that North Korea is more of a threat than Iraq was?

[Warph]

Yep to both questions, Anmar.