Threat from the DPRK (North Korea)

[Warren Dew]

(09-26-2017, 07:07 PM)Mikebert Wrote:

(09-21-2017, 01:00 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(09-21-2017, 09:46 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(09-21-2017, 01:11 AM)Warren Dew Wrote: As Kinser pointed out, rationality doesn't change from West to East.  The mathematics of game theory and Nash equilibria are universal.

As long as we knock out his capability to produce new nuclear weapons - which is the easy part - we gain hugely, even if he retains a few weapons.  For example, he currently has no counterforce capability, but at his current rate, he will in five or ten years, giving him first strike options.

That's the same thinking that we employed when we entered Vietnam, and you see how that went.

Wrong.  We went into Vietnam to keep South Vietnam alive, which necessitated ground troops.  A strike to destroy North Korea's nuclear program doesn't require ground troops.

And what sort of "strike" do you think would destroy North Korea's nuclear program?  Surely you haven't forgotten the Iraq war? The original objective for that war was to destroy Iraq's WMDs, particularly their nuke program.

You actually believe that?  No, the objective in Iraq was regime change, not just to destroy the "WMDs", and certainly not just to destroy nukes.  Even those that believed in the WMDs believed that they were chemical weapons, and chemical weapon production facilities are far easier to hide than nuclear weapon production facilities.

No, the reason to go into Iraq was to get rid of Saddam Hussein and get out of the sanctions that were a humanitarian disaster and also were becoming politically untenable, and to control what kind of government succeeded him.