RE: North Korea Now Making Missile Ready Nuclear Weapons
August 13, 2017 at 6:03 pm
(This post was last modified: August 13, 2017 at 6:17 pm by bennyboy.)
(August 12, 2017 at 9:05 pm)Khemikal Wrote: That's the assessment of literally everyone on earth -except- N. Korea's propoganda machine, Jeh.
Hell, IDK where you even got the idea that Iraq had anything less than a modern air defense and professional army. What professional analysts consider unrealistic is not that N. Korea would be crushed with relative ease, but that we could do it without leading to the devastation of Seoul.
Yep, and one possibly less AF member-- but maybe one of the more annoying ones, eh?
I'd put it this way-- might cannot prevent spite, and there's nothing preventing N. Korea from doing great harm to the South in the case of an attack-- there just isn't. There's no way to organize a first strike to get even 10% of the artillery, tanks, missile launchers etc. that are capable of hitting Seoul.
The question isn't whether America CAN beat N. Korea, and in a very decisive fashion. Of course you can. The question is who's going to make the call? Who's going to go down as the asshole whose decision caused the almost immediate deaths of maybe a million or more allies, and a lot of own-citizens as well, without a clear and direct act of war from the enemy?
Well, I guess we know the answer to that, don't we? But I don't think even the Donald wants that kind of fame.
(August 12, 2017 at 10:43 pm)Jehanne Wrote: Most of Iraq's soldiers were irregulars; that's one reason why they were so easily defeated. Also, many of the professional soldiers despised Saddam Hussein, which is why he would not allow them within the city limits of Baghdad for fear of a coup. Indeed, many of the Iraqi air-force defected to Iran before the shooting ever started!!The geography was hugely different as well. Straight desert roads with lines of tanks, and the US with the best bombers in the world!
This is very different from N. Korea, with maybe 90% of their mid-range weaponry embedded in caves and mountains, already within strike range of Seoul without having to move more than maybe 100 yards.
(August 12, 2017 at 11:39 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: What makes you think DPRK regulars would be more loyal? Would you be willing to fight to the death for a regime that starves your cousins? Would you do that much?First of all, the Kim family have been venerated as gods for three generations now, and they have had a pretty much unchanging world view during that time. In Iraq's case, Saddam was propped up within memory of many of the soldiers, and their relationship with the US was in a lot more flux. If anyone doesn't think the N. Korean soldiers have absolute faith and loyalty toward their leadership, I think you might underestimate the power of that level of brainwashing.
Soldiers are not robots. They have to have a reason to fight. Unit loyalty will give them coherence in a tactical situation, but once the shit hits the fan, even that is often traded for intact skin and home with the family.
But I do have a question related to yours. Could N. Korea ever have boots on the ground in Seoul? It seems to me that Seoul is so much more advanced and generally grand than Pyeong Yang that just being there would immediately render everything they were taught about their country a lie. I mean, just across the street from me there's a 70-story apartment with a neon-outlined helicopter landing pad on top-- well, technically there are 4 of them, but they are part of the same complex. How does a N. Korean see something like that and not just break down right away?
