freecounterpoint: Surprise

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Surprise

Bush Says U.S. Does Not Plan to Attack North Korea

The article doesn't state that, in order to do so, he would need to summon the boy scouts and the salvation army. clowns.

10 comments:

The Darkroom said...: Here's the deal, North Korea: although we are unable to make a dent in loosely trained bands of barbarians wielding molotov cocktails, we could easily attack and defeat you.

If anything came out of iraq, it's the clear notion that the us military ain't all it's hyped up to be.; 10/11/2006 12:31 PM
Mr roT said...: Right. It took a full seven minutes to disperse or annihilate Saddam's RGs.; 10/11/2006 12:34 PM
The Darkroom said...: Right - saddam's declawed army retreated promplty and the us has been trying to win the war ever since. nice toll on civilians though.; 10/11/2006 1:07 PM
Mr roT said...: So I guess you are disappointed that we're not going in to kill Lil' Kim?; 10/11/2006 2:18 PM
Mr roT said...: Incidentelly, Pepe, shouldn't the title here be 'Supplies!'?; 10/11/2006 2:20 PM
The Darkroom said...: It was going to be supplies, but only you would relate.

Of course i am not disappointed that the us isn't bombing senselessly yet another country! The issue is that now that all cards are on the table and the us has proved to be a paper tiger, its threats can no longer be taken seriously. Had iraq not been such a fiasco, the threat of attack (as opposed to an actual attack) might have carried more weight. In other words, there is a middle ground between the bombing or hiding like eunuchs.; 10/11/2006 4:57 PM
Tecumseh said...: So who is the clown? Nyah, nyah, nyah!; 10/11/2006 6:59 PM
My Frontier Thesis said...: Do you guys ever get the feeling that the reason Pepe is so outspoken and flippant with his comments towards America is that he has a distorted perception of the reality of America and its history, and even that of North America?

Pepe, once the steam stops shooting out of your ears and nose, and once you stop shaking, check out Henry Marie Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana: Together With a Journal of a voyage up the Missouri River in 1811, (1814; reprint, Chicago: Quadrangle Books, Inc., 1962).

When you read it (or I didn't even ask: do you read?), don't forget the historical context in which Brackenridge was writing. I only say this because ideologues and politicians don't bother with historical context -- if they did, it'd be very difficult to rip on historical actors.; 10/11/2006 8:43 PM
Tecumseh said...: The issue is that now that all cards are on the table and the us has proved to be a paper tiger, its threats can no longer be taken seriously. Had iraq not been such a fiasco, the threat of attack (as opposed to an actual attack) might have carried more weight.

OK, let me treat this as a serious proposition (instead of an ideological one, which in all likelihood it is), and try to rebut it.

As JJ said, "it took a full seven minutes to disperse or annihilate Saddam's RGs". In other words, the strategic bombing campaign (followed by rapid ground troops attack) did Iraq in in no time (and remember, Saddam had one of the largest standing armies in the world). So this is the lesson to remember: if Uncle Sam gets really pissed off, he can swat a country like Iraq like a fly on a pile of merde.

Now, OK, the US got bogged down subsequently in a shitty counter-insurgency campaign. That's another ballgame -- much more difficult to achieve, what with all the pinko-lefty-commie media yapping and cheering for the bad guys. But is it relevant?

Getting back to Lil' Kim: the relevant bit is strategic power: air force, naval carriers, space assets, strategic rockets -- the works. Nobody ever said cross the 37th parallel and march to Pyongyang -- that would be insane: what for? And, if there is an attack by NK against SK, it will be the SK army who will have to do the heavy work, it's their effing country to defend, after all.

What we're talking about is the strategic detterent capability that the US must maintain, in order to contain sundry madmen and crackpots, and, if need really arises, squash. And the 2003 campaign in Iraq showed in spades that the US still has that capability. Nothing that has happened since then has really degraded the strategic deterrent of the US armed forces -- at least with respect to NK.

Now, if you ask me about China, that's another matter altogether: there, we're really slipping in realtive terms. Long term, that's where we need to be careful. But one thing at a time -- hopefully, we can deal with the separate threats to our security in isolation, and take our time to do it methodically. What really worries me, though, is the ability of the US forces to deal with more than two serious threats at once. Last time the US was in that position was in December 1941. Hopefully, we will not see a repeat of that situation in our lifetimes, nor will our children...; 10/11/2006 9:16 PM
The Darkroom said...: or I didn't even ask: do you read?
I remember once reading a book of Walgreen's discount coupons but I was on the toilet and bored. Does that count ?; 10/12/2006 12:45 PM