U.S. Warns North Korea Of Overwhelming Response

[Iroscato]

A warning of consequences if North Korea chooses to use nuclear weapons against South Korea and the U.S. ...This is no longer the former Obama administration's foreign affairs appeasement policy.

"U.S. warns North Korea of 'overwhelming' response if nuclear arms used" - Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump's defense secretary warned North Korea on Friday of an "effective and overwhelming" response if it chose to use nuclear weapons, as he reassured South Korea of steadfast U.S. support.

"Any attack on the United States, or our allies, will be defeated, and any use of nuclear weapons would be met with a response that would be effective and overwhelming," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said at South Korea's defense ministry, at the end of a two-day visit.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southk...SKBN15I060

In other words, pretty much the exact same policy that it's always been. Guess Obama didn't use MANLY enough words for you to achieve orgasm, A?

[A Theist]

A warning of consequences if North Korea chooses to use nuclear weapons against South Korea and the U.S. ...This is no longer the former Obama administration's foreign affairs appeasement policy.

"U.S. warns North Korea of 'overwhelming' response if nuclear arms used" - Reuters



http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southk...SKBN15I060

Guess Obama didn't use MANLY enough words

No. That's not true. He did get tough and MANLY with Syria when he made that 'red line' threat.........hmmmm.

[Iroscato]

Guess Obama didn't use MANLY enough words

No. That's not true. He did get tough and MANLY with Syria when he made that 'red line' threat.........hmmmm.

Do you...do you need a moment?














Some Kleenex, perhaps? :|

[Rev. Rye]

Yeah, you're probably right. Historically, appeasement and not warning a hard-headed ego-maniac dictator always worked.

Well, that did actually work if you figure that Chamberlain's actual aim (like many historians today) with the whole Munich Accords process was a plan to buy time for Britain to properly re-arm after the massive backlash against militarism after WW1. That said, there's serious debate about how optimistic he was about Hitler at least making some lip service at stopping with the Sudetenland and whether or not, even in their weakened states, Britain could have beaten the Nazis in 1938, but it's become clear to any student of history that the whole "Guilty Men" meme simply does not work at face value.

It's worth noting that this is actually an extremely contentious chapter of world history, but here's my take on it:

In 1938, the prospect of a coming war was extremely unpopular in Britain. After all, 20 years before, "The War to End All Wars" ended and that accomplished nothing of note except millions of young men sent to their graves and a geopolitical situation that was actually a lot less stable than before the war. It more or less single-handedly kick-started Anti-war literature, taking something unusual and turning it into a major theme in world literature. And then, Adolf Hitler decided to start annexing parts of Europe into his warped view of Germany. It's worth noting that the worst aspects of Nazi Germany had yet to be codified (the Final Solution would not be finalised until January 1942) and Hitler's megalomania was nowhere near as apparent to the world community as it would be mere years later, but, nevertheless, this development disturbed many, and the world ended up in a very awkward situation: either repeat history with yet another repeat of the Great War with a higher body count, or let him continue unmolested.

Star Trek fans may recognise this as a Kobayashi-Maru: an unwinnable situation where participants are tested on how they handle it. The problems of just letting Hitler do as he wanted are self-evident, but since war was so unpopular (with the British public, but they noticed that the French would also have a worse time, given what Germany had done to them a generation prior), especially if it seemed like it was somehow him who botched the peace talks, simply standing up to him as many today would hope would have been a horrible decision. Instead, he ended up suggesting a provisional solution wherein Hitler would be allowed to annex small sections of Czechoslovakia where a large number of ethnic Germans (who tended to be pro-Nazi) lived. But, of course, it should be noted that Chamberlain was actually well-aware of Hitler's expansionist nature and re-armament and knew it was necessary for Britain to do the same as early as 1935, but knew it would have been political suicide to let the public know about it before they were convinced that Hitler was dangerous. It's worth noting that, in the immediate aftermath of the talks, he was widely respected, with even FDR sending a telegram saying "Good Man" in response, with only Winston Churchill dissenting in their praise. And, of course, as soon as he came back, he supervised the covert re-armament of the British armed forces, so that, by the time Hitler invaded Poland a year later, they would be up for the task of stopping him. Honestly, all things considered, he did a damn fine job.

Really, the area where he failed was not his appeasing to Hitler, but in his doing a poor job of fighting him. Of course, he eventually did declare war on Germany





but by the time he was ready to send troops to Poland, it had fallen, leading to a very awkward period called "The Phony War" where very little fighting actually happened. It was then that Chamberlain decided to resign in favor of Churchill, who proved to be a lot better at running the war and stirring up the people, but he still worked with Churchill, stirring up support for him (at the time he was still controversial; one Bertrand Russell essay mentioned him in the same breath as the Fascisti and the Klan; and, divorced from his Wartime actions, he still kind of is. See "Operation Unthinkable" to see why, or ask an Indian) and working on his war council, until he was diagnosed with terminal cancer months after his resignation.

TL;DR: There's actually a lot more to the Munich Agreement than most people realise.

[Foxaèr]

Trump just wants a war.

After all, it seems that wars during Republican presidencies lead to making money.

Which incidentally still increases the deficit rather than decreases it.

[Rev. Rye]

Hitler didn't have nukes?

Of course, he did try, but between his point-blank refusal to use "Jewish Physics" (read: everything from Einstein on) to putting several groups in charge of figuring it out, which ended in a combination of these groups trying to sabotage each others' efforts and trying to focus on other, more pressing wartime defense matters, it was destined to fail. It's a shame Los Alamos didn't figure that out until it was too late...

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Trump just wants a war.

After all, it seems that wars during Republican presidencies lead to making money.

Which incidentally still increases the deficit rather than decreases it.

I disagree about Trump wanting a war.  For one thing we have no one to fight.  If anything he will be more of  peacenik instead of a warmonger.

[vorlon13]

Hitler didn't have nukes?

Of course, he did try, but between his point-blank refusal to use "Jewish Physics" (read: everything from Einstein on) to putting several groups in charge of figuring it out, which ended in a combination of these groups trying to sabotage each others' efforts and trying to focus on other, more pressing wartime defense matters, it was destined to fail. It's a shame Los Alamos didn't figure that out until it was too late...

There were physicists in Japan that recognized immediately what kind of bomb was used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (!)

Even doctors in a hospital in Hiroshima immediately after the attack realized the weapon was qualitatively different from anything they had ever encountered before because all their unused x-ray film was fogged.

In  the early days of the war in Japan a physicist requested a more powerful vacuum tube for the power supply on their cyclotron device.  With the war on, they couldn't get it.  Little details like that that were only found out about after the war ended by military types in the US is the sort of thing that leads to sleepless nights. People don't think much about Japan building a nuke in the 40s, but it wasn't beyond the last doubt sort of thing.  That they had scientists interested in such things and could suss out weapon effects when they were finally used is scary.

Watch Heroes of Telemark sometime.  Just keeping Norwegian heavy water out of NAZI hands was realized to be a very important task to do in the midst of a war that was pretty much filled to the brim with important tasks that needed done.

If I recall correctly, Heisenberg had chunks of refined uranium metal suspended by chains in tanks of what heavy water they could get.  Not quite a nuclear reactor, but close enough that perhaps the 'why' of it not working might have suggested to Werner something else that might have done something interesting . . .

Recall Edison and the light bulb, he tried 6000 ways that didn't work first.  I don't think Werner Heisenberg would have needed very many bites at the apple to have worked out something pretty unpleasant.

[abaris]

In  the early days of the war in Japan a physicist requested a more powerful vacuum tube for the power supply on their cyclotron device.  With the war on, they couldn't get it.  Little details like that that were only found out about after the war ended by military types in the US is the sort of thing that leads to sleepless nights. People don't think much about Japan building a nuke in the 40s, but it wasn't beyond the last doubt sort of thing.  That they had scientists interested in such things and could suss out weapon effects when they were finally used is scary.

Beyond the last doubt, probably not. Beyond reasonable doubt, sure. They neither had carriers nor the materials to build the bomb. The Germans didn't have it either, which was known. But they at least had a carrier system in theory, with the V2.

All this fear mongering of if we don't do it, the others will do it, is very old hat and never had any probability from the get go.

When they were finished in Los Alamos they had used all the Plutonium available in the world at this point in time. And they knew it. Everything else is sheer propaganda to justify what happened then.

Japan was ready tu surrender on one condition: That the emperor stays untouched. And that happened anyway - after they dropped the bombs.

[Rhondazvous]

Oh, my... If North Korea starts misbehaving and chucking all of them nukes at US, like they've clearly been doing for the past 8 years - Trump might "put them on notice"... 

This, along with the dumb wall, muslim ban and whatever else the p*ssygrabber's been up to for the past two weeks - those are all just empty gestures, with the only aim being appeasement of Drumpf*cks. Enjoy the honeymoon, while it lasts...

That’s why he painted himself up as a Christian so he’d never run out of fools. They’ll wait 2,000 years for him to respond to North Korea and build his wall.