Two generations of madmen have misruled North Korea. The father was virtually invited to invade South Korea. SecDef Louis Johnson was a political hack and his role as a founder of the American Legion did not make him an expert on military strategy. He withdrew our forces from South Korea and left the South Korean military with only light weapons. On the diplomatic front. Secretary of State Acheson announced that South Korea was not within our defensive perimeter. In Japan, General MacArthur was of the same opinion.
Stalin was not eager for a military confrontation with the West but Kim convinced him that victory would be easy. Stalin provided support and even some Soviet pilots. The South Koreans were outgunned but fought valiantly as they and meager American forces were pushed to an enclave around Pusan. Then the brilliant Inchon invasion cut the North Korean supply links and the Yalu River was in sight. China intervened and the Allies were pushed back. MacArthur was relieved and the matter ended with an approximation of status quo ante.
During the last year of the LBJ administration, North Korea captured the USS Pueblo and its crew. The ship was laden with intelligence gathering equipment and much was destroyed. No effort was made to intervene and the crew was imprisoned and tortured. The crew was subsequently released but the ship remains in North Korean hands.
While it was long kept at Pyongyang as a propaganda tool, it was moved to the other side of the Korean Peninsula. This involved transiting international waters where and interception was possible. This transfer took place during the last days of the Clinton Administration.
The Pueblo remains on the list of commissioned naval vessels and its taking was an act of piracy if not of war. Every day that it remains in the hands of a rogue nation controlled by a demented tyrant is an insult to the United States.
The second generation Korean dictator is accumulating a store of launch platforms and warheads. He may well be offering nuclear weapons to a variety of unsavory customers. He has threatened to attack any ships attempting to interdict such exports.
While a surgical strike against North Korean nuclear facilities is one option, a less destructive approach might be more cost effective. This could be a covert action to either scuttle or re-take the Pueblo. While the vessel is of little value, a successful action would humiliate the Boy Dictator and could give his military leaders reason to contemplate a coup that could avoid an even costlier war than the first one.
While a surgical strike against North Korean nuclear facilities is one option, a less destructive approach might be more cost effective. This could be a covert action to either scuttle or re-take the Pueblo. While the vessel is of little value, a successful action would humiliate the Boy Dictator and could give his military leaders reason to contemplate a coup that could avoid an even costlier war than the first one.
While the vessel is of little value, a successful action would humiliate the Boy Dictator and could give his military leaders reason to contemplate a coup that could avoid an even costlier war than the first one.
Or, you know, provoke a further retaliation. Your troops are, I point out, within artillery range of North Korea.
Honestly, Art – the conservative motivation of “piss off the liberals” is only doable in domestic politics because the liberals are unlikely to hang wingnuts from the lampposts. So far. “Let’s poke at the rabid dog because we can’t think of anything better to do” isn’t a strategy – it’s senility.
According to the CIA Fact Book available online, North Korea has assembled the most dense artillery battery the planet has ever seen on the DMZ and it has one purpose; incinerate metro Seoul within ten minutes if they should ever be invaded. Art doesn’t know this because he doesn’t read and is too busy trying to say something about himself than he is putting two sentences together that actually make any sense.
To strike North Korea militarily is a guarantee of thousands of South Korean casualties and it the reason why nobody has dared to do so in the past. Those who reflexively advocate military strikes against NK do so for two reasons. First, it is the only thing they know, and second, it makes him feel big and tough to proclaim it out loud safe and secure from any of the repercussions. Visit your local saloon on a Saturday night and you’ll find plenty of these sentiments.