7 Replies to “North Korea conflict about to get real”
We have a very limited time before North Korea becomes a much bigger threat, we have to remove the threat to the entire world before they achieve their goal of becoming a major nuclear power. As long as China and Russia stay out of the fight between the US and our Asian allies with North Korea there is no need for our or their nuclear weapons to be used. If we wait Kim will continue to bully others with the threat of his nuclear weapons and he will sell them to other nations just as he is selling Chemical Weapons. The entire West is under the threat of a chemical attack by ISIS, the weapons they are planning on using may have been made in North Korea. The world can’t take the risk that he won’t use his nukes on other nations or sell them to nations or terror groups that will use them on other nations.
As Eeyore put it in the title of this comment threat The North Korean conflict is about to get active”very active. We also have to wonder what China, Russia, Iran and Turkey will do once we start taking North Korea out of the nuclear business? We know the first two have something planned and this probably involves the second two.
As the most deservedly aggrieved and transgressed upon party in this entire matter, isn’t it time for Japan to do some coalition-building that establishes a comprehensive maritime blockade of North Korea?
The very least that this could do is rip the mask off of continued Chinese and Russian support for the Norks. As in; if one neglects to distinguish between the USSR and modern Russia—something that is all too easily accomplished—there emerges a pattern of LCPs (Large Communist Powers) nursemaiding this despotic little Stalinist shitholehellhole.
Of course, at the very worst, such intervention also could trigger the exact conflict that everyone’s trying to avoid (but won’t admit is inevitable, without that same intercession).
All the same, when it comes to “denuclearization” of North Korea, mightn’t it be best to have Communist China be the one who draws up the timeline and (then) irrevocably commits to ensuring that it is met?
I realize that my suggestion seems rather akin to asking a fox to guard the hen house, but this would also place China’s international prestige on the line.
Handing China its headthe onerous task of resolving their self-made peninsular crisis would be one of the strongest, yet, adroitly (and diplomatically) couched challenges that Japan, Trump, and the West could pose to Beijing.
SIDEBAR: Far too few Westerners understand the importance in Asian cultures of “face” (as in; losing or gaining same). This notion—along with a traditional abhorrence of direct or insufficiently nuanced confrontation—combines to create a dense atmosphere of status that revolves around obligation and standing or repute.
For a brilliant analysis of this, sometimes impenetrable aspect of Asian and Middle East culture (the root and branch of so-called Oriental “inscrutability”), please read Sarah Rosenberg’s superb essay, “Face – Beyond Intractability“.
To continue; if America’s state department had ever acquired even this (i.e., Rosenberg’s) monograph’s most basic understanding of high and low context cultures, the Pacific Theater of WWII might have been largely avoided entirely and this modern conflict with Islam might have been (decisively) ended YEARS AGO.
PS: This same (admittedly difficult to obtain) knowledge of high and low context cultures might even have narrowly averted Mao’s success in establishing Communist China.
Yes, this is how crucial a basic understanding of high and low context cultures continues to be and I hope that all who read this might examine Sarah Rosenberg’s valuable essay.
As mentioned above, she sheds undeniable light upon why these, never-ending, interminably fruitless “negotiations” (as in; farcically nuanced, delicately phrased, and supremely USELESS deliberations) with Islam are of ZERO use—in ways that make wholesale nuclear attacks seem like clever ripostes—when it comes to resolving even the least significant points of dispute with this murderous, incalcitrant doctrine.
I’ll stop now…
Japan’s Constitution doesn’t allow them to use military force outside of their waters, Abe is trying to get that changed but until this happens they are limited in what they can do. If you were a nation in that region would you want to put your people in harms way knowing that Japan would be setting back home doing nothing?
The Japanese peace at any price groups are very active to prevent the needed changes from occurring.
In reality, Japan might manage to squeak through your rightful criticism (about having any “skin in the game”) by offering to fund the several billion dollars needed to finance such a large-scale military operation.
In no way is this intended to let Tokyo off of the hook. All the same, if Japan took the entire financial hit for enabling a strategic boycott of North Korea, they’d (at least) have some sort of street creds.
Richard, you are absolutely right about the indecency of allowing Japan to fade into the background while everybody else steps up to the plate.
No such thing is merited or even worth considering. All the same, it’s imperative that the West and East Asia rapidly assembles some sort of near-term coalition that imposes a comprehensive maritime blockade against North Korea (as opposed to outright war). The only alternative is a direct, front-on attack that (however necessary) remains a generally undesirable, second tier, strategy.
Even more than Japan, South Korea is required to demonstrate its own commitment with regard to opposing the Norks. Nothing of the sort has come forth from Seoul and this makes South Korea increasingly useless with respect to helping resolve the North Korean crisis.
Equally revoltingly, over three decades of American executive administrations have demonstrated a totally unproductive failure of will when it comes to neutralizing North Korea.
As usual, only when things go all pear-shaped (coincidentally, just like Kim Jong Un) does there seem to emerge any sort of urgency about resolving this (previously irremediable) situation.
Future historians will devote endless tomes to wondering about the astonishing coincidence of Trump arriving on the scene right when everything seemed incapable of any resolution.
How strange to think that it required a Negotiator-In-Chief (whose nose could be used for a can opener) to overcome or, at least, break the ice of these perpetually frozen political floes.
That this usually frigid, hardcore ideology might get fractured by such a strangely oppositional ideologue is nothing short of hilarious.
You idea of Japan paying for part of the operation has been done a couple of times, the US accepts this as a reasonable option because we were the one that wrote the treaty that says they can’t use force outside their waters. This is just one of the things that are going to chance as WWIII progresses into massive violence. The big question is will this be a good move or a bad move. is for history to decide.
FYI: Abe is also trying to change the Japanese Constitution so they can build nukes legally and use them if necessary. This move has less support then the one allowing Japan to use force outside its waters.
FYI 2: All of the signs say that while Russia seems to be pushing North Korea to an armed conflict with the US they (Russia) will set out the war between North Korea and maybe China and the US. They will be watching to see what new weapons we will use and how they stand up to the newer defenses that they have given North Korea.
Call the coming conflict field testing the Russian weapons against the US. Rumor Control says we have some hidden weapons that are only talked about in Science Fiction books. I can think of several of them that I hope we have.
“The Japanese peace at any price groups are very active to prevent the needed changes from occurring.”
You’d think that Kim Jong Un’s fireworks shows might have changed that by now. As in, peace at the risk of annihilation is too high a price to pay.
As always, Richard, your willingness to provide such considered replies is deeply appreciated. Few others on the Internet have demonstrated a degree of commitment similar to yours with respect to ensuring that these various military-technology-related issues get the full attention that they deserve (and need).
“Abe is also trying to change the Japanese Constitution so they can build nukes legally and use them if necessary.
This is just one of the many rich rewards awaiting Red China—and to a lesser extent, Russia—for fostering this peninsular snake pit of nuclear proliferation, criminality, and global terrorism.
“This move has less support than the one allowing Japan to use force outside its waters.”
Patience, laddie. Baby steps are in order here. The saddest part being that 20 league boots are called for in this current meghilla.
“They will be watching to see what new weapons we will use and how they stand up to the newer defenses that they have given North Korea.”
I would liken this to the Spanish Civil War and the Falkland Islands, where (in relatively minor conflicts) next generation technology was taken out to scare the women and childrenhorses.
Perhaps it might be wisest for Western forces to (initially) simply overwhelm these most modern defensive batteries as part of a general policy that holds complete neutralization of externally contributed weapons and systems as a top priority.
While expensive, there would be little in the way of a “tell” as to what it really took to extirpate these foreign-installed outposts. An added bonus would be the likelihood of scuppering a number of “advisor” crews who were sent in to operate these complex systems (while “training” the locals). Big win!
In the original Korean conflict, America was still seriously lagging in the deployment of jet fighter aircraft and other advanced technologies. Fortunately, that is no longer the case. It’s time to turn those tables and show up our military rivals as the copycats and IP (Intellectual Property) thieves that they are.
In the late 1960s, the USA won a tremendous victory against its Cold War and non-aligned foes by landing astronauts on the moon and safely returning them home.
Doing this a dozen times only served to cement the notion that American military hardware (and general technology) was far superior to that of our opponents. Especially after the early-phase shellacking we took from Soviet Russia during the Space Race’s open years.
While I intensely dislike turning Seoul into some sort of “sacrificial lamb” in this looming conflict, South Korea has had more-than-ample time to marshal whatever sort of large-scale strategy—something that (amidst appeasement and succumbing to blackmail) they have pointedly failed to do.
Be that as it may (and however despicable the notion is), Korea’s Peninsula may well end up being yet another “testing ground” for the Superpowers’ next generation of military technology. As I have mentioned before, America taking even a single North Korean (Chinese or Russian) nuclear strike is out of the question—even to the point of seeing Seoul getting bombarded by North Korea’s totally questionable artillery assets.
Too few seem willing to admit that Psycho-Fat-Boy seems all too willing to play a totally bluffed busted flush against America’s winning hand. So be it.
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We have a very limited time before North Korea becomes a much bigger threat, we have to remove the threat to the entire world before they achieve their goal of becoming a major nuclear power. As long as China and Russia stay out of the fight between the US and our Asian allies with North Korea there is no need for our or their nuclear weapons to be used. If we wait Kim will continue to bully others with the threat of his nuclear weapons and he will sell them to other nations just as he is selling Chemical Weapons. The entire West is under the threat of a chemical attack by ISIS, the weapons they are planning on using may have been made in North Korea. The world can’t take the risk that he won’t use his nukes on other nations or sell them to nations or terror groups that will use them on other nations.
As Eeyore put it in the title of this comment threat The North Korean conflict is about to get active” very active. We also have to wonder what China, Russia, Iran and Turkey will do once we start taking North Korea out of the nuclear business? We know the first two have something planned and this probably involves the second two.
As the most deservedly aggrieved and transgressed upon party in this entire matter, isn’t it time for Japan to do some coalition-building that establishes a comprehensive maritime blockade of North Korea?
The very least that this could do is rip the mask off of continued Chinese and Russian support for the Norks. As in; if one neglects to distinguish between the USSR and modern Russia—something that is all too easily accomplished—there emerges a pattern of LCPs (Large Communist Powers) nursemaiding this despotic little Stalinist
shitholehellhole.Of course, at the very worst, such intervention also could trigger the exact conflict that everyone’s trying to avoid (but won’t admit is inevitable, without that same intercession).
All the same, when it comes to “denuclearization” of North Korea, mightn’t it be best to have Communist China be the one who draws up the timeline and (then) irrevocably commits to ensuring that it is met?
I realize that my suggestion seems rather akin to asking a fox to guard the hen house, but this would also place China’s international prestige on the line.
Handing China
its headthe onerous task of resolving their self-made peninsular crisis would be one of the strongest, yet, adroitly (and diplomatically) couched challenges that Japan, Trump, and the West could pose to Beijing.SIDEBAR: Far too few Westerners understand the importance in Asian cultures of “face” (as in; losing or gaining same). This notion—along with a traditional abhorrence of direct or insufficiently nuanced confrontation—combines to create a dense atmosphere of status that revolves around obligation and standing or repute.
For a brilliant analysis of this, sometimes impenetrable aspect of Asian and Middle East culture (the root and branch of so-called Oriental “inscrutability”), please read Sarah Rosenberg’s superb essay, “Face – Beyond Intractability“.
To continue; if America’s state department had ever acquired even this (i.e., Rosenberg’s) monograph’s most basic understanding of high and low context cultures, the Pacific Theater of WWII might have been largely avoided entirely and this modern conflict with Islam might have been (decisively) ended YEARS AGO.
PS: This same (admittedly difficult to obtain) knowledge of high and low context cultures might even have narrowly averted Mao’s success in establishing Communist China.
Yes, this is how crucial a basic understanding of high and low context cultures continues to be and I hope that all who read this might examine Sarah Rosenberg’s valuable essay.
As mentioned above, she sheds undeniable light upon why these, never-ending, interminably fruitless “negotiations” (as in; farcically nuanced, delicately phrased, and supremely USELESS deliberations) with Islam are of ZERO use—in ways that make wholesale nuclear attacks seem like clever ripostes—when it comes to resolving even the least significant points of dispute with this murderous, incalcitrant doctrine.
I’ll stop now…
Japan’s Constitution doesn’t allow them to use military force outside of their waters, Abe is trying to get that changed but until this happens they are limited in what they can do. If you were a nation in that region would you want to put your people in harms way knowing that Japan would be setting back home doing nothing?
The Japanese peace at any price groups are very active to prevent the needed changes from occurring.
In reality, Japan might manage to squeak through your rightful criticism (about having any “skin in the game”) by offering to fund the several billion dollars needed to finance such a large-scale military operation.
In no way is this intended to let Tokyo off of the hook. All the same, if Japan took the entire financial hit for enabling a strategic boycott of North Korea, they’d (at least) have some sort of street creds.
Richard, you are absolutely right about the indecency of allowing Japan to fade into the background while everybody else steps up to the plate.
No such thing is merited or even worth considering. All the same, it’s imperative that the West and East Asia rapidly assembles some sort of near-term coalition that imposes a comprehensive maritime blockade against North Korea (as opposed to outright war). The only alternative is a direct, front-on attack that (however necessary) remains a generally undesirable, second tier, strategy.
Even more than Japan, South Korea is required to demonstrate its own commitment with regard to opposing the Norks. Nothing of the sort has come forth from Seoul and this makes South Korea increasingly useless with respect to helping resolve the North Korean crisis.
Equally revoltingly, over three decades of American executive administrations have demonstrated a totally unproductive failure of will when it comes to neutralizing North Korea.
As usual, only when things go all pear-shaped (coincidentally, just like Kim Jong Un) does there seem to emerge any sort of urgency about resolving this (previously irremediable) situation.
Future historians will devote endless tomes to wondering about the astonishing coincidence of Trump arriving on the scene right when everything seemed incapable of any resolution.
How strange to think that it required a Negotiator-In-Chief (whose nose could be used for a can opener) to overcome or, at least, break the ice of these perpetually frozen political floes.
That this usually frigid, hardcore ideology might get fractured by such a strangely oppositional ideologue is nothing short of hilarious.
You idea of Japan paying for part of the operation has been done a couple of times, the US accepts this as a reasonable option because we were the one that wrote the treaty that says they can’t use force outside their waters. This is just one of the things that are going to chance as WWIII progresses into massive violence. The big question is will this be a good move or a bad move. is for history to decide.
FYI: Abe is also trying to change the Japanese Constitution so they can build nukes legally and use them if necessary. This move has less support then the one allowing Japan to use force outside its waters.
FYI 2: All of the signs say that while Russia seems to be pushing North Korea to an armed conflict with the US they (Russia) will set out the war between North Korea and maybe China and the US. They will be watching to see what new weapons we will use and how they stand up to the newer defenses that they have given North Korea.
Call the coming conflict field testing the Russian weapons against the US. Rumor Control says we have some hidden weapons that are only talked about in Science Fiction books. I can think of several of them that I hope we have.
“The Japanese peace at any price groups are very active to prevent the needed changes from occurring.”
You’d think that Kim Jong Un’s fireworks shows might have changed that by now. As in, peace at the risk of annihilation is too high a price to pay.
As always, Richard, your willingness to provide such considered replies is deeply appreciated. Few others on the Internet have demonstrated a degree of commitment similar to yours with respect to ensuring that these various military-technology-related issues get the full attention that they deserve (and need).
“Abe is also trying to change the Japanese Constitution so they can build nukes legally and use them if necessary.
This is just one of the many rich rewards awaiting Red China—and to a lesser extent, Russia—for fostering this peninsular snake pit of nuclear proliferation, criminality, and global terrorism.
“This move has less support than the one allowing Japan to use force outside its waters.”
Patience, laddie. Baby steps are in order here. The saddest part being that 20 league boots are called for in this current meghilla.
“They will be watching to see what new weapons we will use and how they stand up to the newer defenses that they have given North Korea.”
I would liken this to the Spanish Civil War and the Falkland Islands, where (in relatively minor conflicts) next generation technology was taken out to scare
the women and childrenhorses.Perhaps it might be wisest for Western forces to (initially) simply overwhelm these most modern defensive batteries as part of a general policy that holds complete neutralization of externally contributed weapons and systems as a top priority.
While expensive, there would be little in the way of a “tell” as to what it really took to extirpate these foreign-installed outposts. An added bonus would be the likelihood of scuppering a number of “advisor” crews who were sent in to operate these complex systems (while “training” the locals). Big win!
In the original Korean conflict, America was still seriously lagging in the deployment of jet fighter aircraft and other advanced technologies. Fortunately, that is no longer the case. It’s time to turn those tables and show up our military rivals as the copycats and IP (Intellectual Property) thieves that they are.
In the late 1960s, the USA won a tremendous victory against its Cold War and non-aligned foes by landing astronauts on the moon and safely returning them home.
Doing this a dozen times only served to cement the notion that American military hardware (and general technology) was far superior to that of our opponents. Especially after the early-phase shellacking we took from Soviet Russia during the Space Race’s open years.
While I intensely dislike turning Seoul into some sort of “sacrificial lamb” in this looming conflict, South Korea has had more-than-ample time to marshal whatever sort of large-scale strategy—something that (amidst appeasement and succumbing to blackmail) they have pointedly failed to do.
Be that as it may (and however despicable the notion is), Korea’s Peninsula may well end up being yet another “testing ground” for the Superpowers’ next generation of military technology. As I have mentioned before, America taking even a single North Korean (Chinese or Russian) nuclear strike is out of the question—even to the point of seeing Seoul getting bombarded by North Korea’s totally questionable artillery assets.
Too few seem willing to admit that Psycho-Fat-Boy seems all too willing to play a totally bluffed busted flush against America’s winning hand. So be it.