North Korea Practice????

[Nalu]

Re: North Korea Practice????

Hawaii is rife with pacifists, liberals, and anti-military feelings. Here in South Kona, it's practically a religion.

If I was a brutal, crazed dictator, I can think of no better place to aim my weapons for practice.

Another idiotic statement

Hawai'i is a target because of the very presence of the US Military here, not inspite of it.

[Miulang]

Re: North Korea Practice????

I find it rather odd that the White House has reversed its usual "let's hit them before they hit us" strategy with regard to North Korea. Everywhere else, we've looked for excuses to attack the other country if they pulled something like this (and often if they did less than test firing ICBMs). Could it be that North Korea has nothing to exploit (like oil) that we need? Is that why we're resorting to diplomacy and working with the UN Security Council this time? And since China and Russia (2 of the more powerful members of the UN Security Council) refuse to talk about economic sanctions against North Korea, what is the next diplomatic move?

Miulang

[Nalu]

Re: North Korea Practice????

I find it rather odd that the White House has reversed its usual "let's hit them before they hit us" strategy with regard to North Korea. Everywhere else, we've looked for excuses to attack the other country if they pulled something like this (and often if they did less than test firing ICBMs). Could it be that North Korea has nothing to exploit (like oil) that we need? Is that why we're resorting to diplomacy and working with the UN Security Council this time? And since China and Russia (2 of the more powerful members of the UN Security Council) refuse to talk about economic sanctions against North Korea, what is the next diplomatic move?

Miulang

I believe the Bush administration's cautiousness with North Korea may have something to do with Kim Jong Il being the loose cannon that he is, and the fact that Millions of South Koreans are within artillery range of the DPRK. I do believe that the war with Iraq had something to do with oil (Saddam's decision to use the Euro for Oil trading instead of the dollar) but North Korea is an entirely different entity because any conflict with the DPRK will have a tremendous affect on South Korea.

[sinjin]

Re: North Korea Practice????

I found this enlightening:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita.../dprk-dark.htm

[Adri]

Re: North Korea Practice????

I find it rather odd that the White House has reversed its usual "let's hit them before they hit us" strategy with regard to North Korea. Everywhere else, we've looked for excuses to attack the other country if they pulled something like this (and often if they did less than test firing ICBMs). Could it be that North Korea has nothing to exploit (like oil) that we need? Is that why we're resorting to diplomacy and working with the UN Security Council this time? And since China and Russia (2 of the more powerful members of the UN Security Council) refuse to talk about economic sanctions against North Korea, what is the next diplomatic move?

Miulang

I suspect that the US administration has boxed itself in with its actions in Iraq. Our military is stretched and I think we'd be in real trouble if we faced heavy military action in North Korea as well as the middle east. Also, if we attack another country without first being directly attacked (especially preemptively and especially after Iraq), I think we'd have no one standing beside us in the world community. Politically, we'd look pretty much like unstable, insane warmongerers and most other countries would worry or speculate about who we'd attack next or whether we're going to attack them next. So we have to try harder with diplomacy now than we might have before the current military action in Iraq. I also think there's increasing speculation that we only attack countries we think Don't have weapons of mass destruction (thus the impetus for Iran to develop some in a hurry). I'm not saying that last one is factually correct, just that I've seen a fair amount of speculation over it.

I know most are saying that the North Korea missile tests were a failure but I wonder if it's true. Some small part of me wonders if 1) they never intended to hit land, because if they did that would be a pretty irrevocable step towards war; and 2) if they're lulling us into thinking they're not as prepared as they might be. and even if they missiles did not perform as one might expect in actual use, the tests probably gave the North Korean military and scientists info on how to make it better (for them).