North Korea goes full retard

a_skeleton_03_sl said:

No you wouldn't because you are a bitch.

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oh snap

Big Phoenix_sl said:

I dont think I would of been able to do it without the support of you two.

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You don't seem to be able to do much without support.

Maybe his wife enjoyed the tit pics herself!

Haast_sl said:

Incorrect, it worked fine. It lasered rockets out of their air in testing.

The problem is that it was very expensive to maintain and impractical for real-world situations (it was a huge, slow, unarmed target and had to be close to the launch sites). So it was (correctly) deemed not ready for prime-time and sent to the scrapyard.

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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo".

Correct me if I'm wrong but on the topic of going to war with nk there are two things I understand differently. #1 In the event we attack I assume all viable military assets would be destroyed from range with no need for forces on the ground other than those used to safeguard the border. If so, what need would we ever have to go in and dig out a fortified position? Why not simply starve them out?

#2 Why would nuclear weapons even be considered? There is no reason I can think of for widespread devastation of any reason that could not be done better and more safely with the absolutely massive conventional explosives we could deploy. The point of a nuke as i understand it is that it can be put on a missile rather than be carried by a bomber thereby being much more likely to avoid interception versus a target with advanced aa capability. Maybe I'm just arrogant in my assumption that anything capable of intercepting our bombers would already be in fifty pieces and on fire by the time our air assets could even make it into range.

Taloo_sl said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but on the topic of going to war with nk there are two things I understand differently. #1 In the event we attack I assume all viable military assets would be destroyed from range with no need for forces on the ground other than those used to safeguard the border. If so, what need would we ever have to go in and dig out a fortified position? Why not simply starve them out?

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Are you suggesting starving out a country of 24 million people? A regime who will clearly have no issue starving it's civilians to keep it's military and leadership fed?

That worked 500 years ago, but I don't think the rest of the world would appreciate it in 2013.

Taloo_sl said:

Why not simply starve them out?

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They have an open border with China so starving them probably wouldn't work well. China is also somewhat likely to defend them just to keep us from moving in so a military steamroll of Korea could turn ugly depending on how China is feeling.

China is a huge wild card and I think people under estimate how much they like how things are right now with their crazy neighbor and how pissed off they'd become if we get involved there. Especially if we actually enter NK soil. Which I expect would result in a similar response like we saw the last time we tried to do it.

Short of NK throwing a nuke on a couple of Panamanian registered yachts and sailing them to some midsized, under watched, coastal city and detonating them or a full on invasion of SK the best course is likely to just let NK's internal struggles take care of things.

Zhaun_sl said:

Are you suggesting starving out a country of 24 million people? A regime who will clearly have no issue starving it's civilians to keep it's military and leadership fed?

That worked 500 years ago, but I don't think the rest of the world would appreciate it in 2013.

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Taloo_sl said:

If so, what need would we ever have to go in and dig out a fortified position?

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Pancreas_sl said:

The North Koreans are already cut off to a large extent and have maintained power through a martial state. So removing their leaders from power will require dismantling their military. That is probably the most unappealing and downright shitty assignments I could possibly think of. North Korea might be insane, it might be starving but it has been locked in a siege mentality for 60 years. I am sure the mountains along their borders are some of the most heavily fortified and bunkerred positions on the planet right now. Nothing fancy, just thousands of miles of tunnels and concrete (minus the reinforcing steel).

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No, what I'm "asking" is why we cannot stay completely off the ground for the duration of any meaningful conflict. Barring subs about which I have no real knowledge I cannot see NK being able to make any form of naval assault without it being intercepted. If I assume they can how I don't imagine they have the material to maintain a viable navy for long v the attrition of trained personnel and materials they would certainly have to deal with. In that scenario what stops us from being able to defend the border indefinably after their artillery has been neutralized? Malnourished peasants are not going to advance on the border while being slaughtered in the sickening way they surely would be no matter how indoctrinated they are. At least not with the weaponry or tactics that would be required to overcome our ability to defend it. There may be 24 million North Koreans trained from birth to believe our allies and ourselves are worse than Satan himself(go fuck yourself, I'm aware but I fail at analogies). But there are not 24 million North Koreans gathered in an unstoppable mass ready to overwhelm the assets in place on the border. As a hypothetical say they are, how long could such a concentrated mass continue an assault with the impossibility of maintaining an adequate number of supplies to keep that many people fit to walk, much less attack a defended front? It's a logistic impossibility as far as I'm concerned.

Other than humanitarian aid I see no reason we would even want to cross the border in a conflict with N Korea.

Kedwyn_sl said:

[...]I think people under estimate how much [the Chinese] like how things are right now [...]

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I am not sure China likes how things are right now. I think they just like the current situation better than a number of the scenarios in case thestatus quois no more. What they would like the most for North Korea is probably still a somewhat authoritarian communist regime, but without the crazy. A bit like Vietnam or Laos. There really is no clear path to reach that situation though.

China knows if NK attacks first the US will have to respond and they will most likely step aside. The smart move for them would be to attack NK before us and be the good guys, but that seems unlikely.