Threat from the DPRK (North Korea)

[David Horn]

(09-23-2017, 06:00 AM)Galen Wrote:

(09-20-2017, 04:03 PM)David Horn Wrote: You're acting like Kim is rational in the western sense of the term.  I would suspect that an attack on his nuclear program would trigger an artillery barrage of Seoul.  More to the point, I doubt we can knock out either his nuclear of missile program entirely, so we gain nothing at huge expense.

Actually, Kim is behaving in a very rational manner.  He learned the lesson of Libya, which is that if you don't have nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them then your nation is subject to regime change courtesy of the US government which, as ruler, you are unlikely to survive.  I suggest that you ponder what the gold dinar would have meant to the petrodollar and the ability of the US to export inflation has it has done since 1974.

I've heard that line a hundred times.  No, Kim learned from the experience of his father and grandfather.  He may also have learned from Vietnam.  In any case, the more we raise the stakes, the more likely that this will lead to something horrific. 

The Chinese may have some clout.  We don't.