That's the least of my military worries when it comes to NK. Infiltrate and seize, they don't have many warheads and no reliable carrier systems. Could go hand in hand with stealthbombing all their artillery which threatens Seoul into molten rubble and trying to get the Beloved Leader before an actual invasion starts. The latter - getting Kim Jong-un and any family members - might be the most important objective pre-invasion. I'm not sure their generals are dumb enough to think they would stand a chance. Take their god emperor away and they might yield. Depends on how far the brainwashing goes, though. They might also fight until the last man.
Sounds just fine ..... if nothing goes wrong. Mice and men and all that. So they have only a few warheads and unreliable carrier systems. They've still got that stuff. And I'm sure their artillery threatening Seoul is very well dug in (see Khe Sanh). But even if the chances of a successful military invasion are reasonably good --- as they were in Iraq --- the freaky-fluky nuclear what-ifs ought to give the Pentagon (and the South Koreans) nightmares.
I think he worries about that. He certainly has been engaged in a sustained purge. If he was even worried about his half-brother, we've got one nervous dude on our hands. If the Soviet military didn't stand up to Stalin in the late 30s, it's hard to imagine the NK brass doing it now.
Not even sure what kind of missiles they have. Redstone equivalent? Reconditioned V2s? They can still reach SK and Japan. I hate for one to land on the Tamiya model factory.
The only way North Korea falls to the US militarily is if it forges a pact with China: China invades, depose, and leave, the US and SK occupy, rebuild, and pay for the whole thing. Too much assumption of risk on China's part that they get stuck holding the hot potato (especially with the trillion dollars of US debt they're holding), and they'd never agree to a joint operation from the north. Or, you know, the world simply buys the country from the Kims. A trillion dollars and immunity from prosecution would probably free Korea right up. Fun as that idea is to toy with, I don't see it happening. No, NK will only fall to economics and diplomacy. China refusing that coal shipment is a good start.
I figured a fair number of North Koreans wouldnt survive the war so their care and maintenance would not be an issue.
Considering the point of the whole thing is supposed to be to save the North Korean people, that's remarkably cold-blooded, even for you.
https://m.townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2017/02/28/trumps-special-guests-tonight-n2291801 Speaking murders Trump intends to highlight the "Angel Moms" in his speech tonight. They are US citizen mothers who have had a child murdered by illegal alien criminals. This is politically a very good move by Trump as it lays bare what the true cost is for letting so many illegal aliens roam free and refusing to enforce the rule of law.
IIRC the North Korean regime has been responsible for the premature deaths of 2-3 MILLION of their own people. Against that, losing 5% of the population in a confict that eliminate such an awful regime forever would seem to be a net bargain. Sure it might seem cold blooded, but lots of things are in real life.
It's unlikely that the US could forcefully end the Kim regime in North Korea without significant destruction to South Korea. Which, in addition to the humanitarian horror, would be costly for the world economy. Furthermore, the younger generations in South Korea are not interested in re-unification. China just canceled its coal imports, cutting off NK's revenue. North Korea is dying the death of a thousands razors, and has been for decades. It will collapse on its own sooner or later.
North Korea seems ripe for a drubbing. They have the most vile leader in decades, executing people with flamethrowers for slouching, executing people for suggesting how to run a turtle farm better etc, and they also just committed an assassination on another country's soil, using an actual WMD as the murder weapon. They're setting themselves up pretty well to be the target of the next American Smackdown IMHO.
Far be it from me to defend the Haircut-Kim Regime, but: 1) there's the trifling matter of China; 2) why does the US have to play World Policeman? (Especially with its pathetic record in that department.)
Our record isn't all that pathetic. Indeed, I'd argue that our most recent military adventurism (also the Vietnam War) has been contrary to the self-declared spirit of US foreign policy since the end of World War II. The US became the guarantor of the world order because, as you know, at the end of World War II the US accounted for about half the world's economy and military strength. According to the then-prevailing theory of how giant, continent-destroying wars got started, the US had to step in as the guarantor of the international market system to prevent the emergence of competing trade blocs all attempting to undermine the others and achieve "self-sufficiency" for themselves.
The only US "intervention" when I felt like cheering was when Bill Clinton had finally had enough European hand-wringing and Serb butchery, and bombed Bosnian Serb artillery positions around Sarajevo and elsewhere, thus forcing the Bosnian Serbs to the negotiating table. On Kuwait and Kosovo I'm torn. Otherwise, what do we have? Korea? Well, OK, but the US itself bears some responsibility for doing everything possible to foment hostility with China and the USSR. In any case, it came our of Korea with plenty of military egg on its face. It was an incredibly unpopular war at home and would surely have prevented Truman's re-election. And it was a vile war on both sides. Vietnam? No discussion. Another hopeless war that the US lacked the will to see through. And just as well. A hugely murderous waste of resources. And a failure. Panama? It'd be laughable if so many civilians hadn't been killed. Grenada. Wow, the US sure kicked their ass, big whoop. Etc. Etc. Oh, I forgot Iraq and Afghanistan. Rip-roaring success both. (rolls eyes)
Well, I didn't mean that in the sense that US interventions were justified. You know my opinion of most of our military interventions. My point was more that the US-led international system has worked out better than the realistic alternatives. Most of the things you've mentioned I regard as essentially criminal endeavors, but nonetheless I think they're preferable to more general wars like the first and second world wars. https://policytensor.com/2017/02/04...ional-order-survive-president-donald-j-trump/
CNN's top headline right now says the Yemen raid did indeed yield names of hundreds of Al Qeada operatives in Yemen. So it appears the Democratic Party talking point that some how no intelligence was gained in the raid is completely false. Dems need to stop shooting themselves in the foot by lying. Stick to the truth and there will still be lots to criticize the President on plus you don't sink your own credibility in the process.