Threat from the DPRK (North Korea)

[Warren Dew]

(10-01-2017, 06:26 AM)Mikebert Wrote:

Quote:Biological weapon production can happen in a very limited space with little more industrial support than a refrigerator

And if constrained to be so nuclear weapons can be developed and constructed in facilities that can not be identified as such from the air.  They will just rebuild their facilities in a less detectable fashion.

Nuclear weapons production require either a nuclear powerplant, for plutonium, or a uranium enrichment facility, for weapons grade uranium.  Both of these can be identified by satellite, let alone the air.  Heck, we've identified underground facilities by satellite.

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Quote:And since both you and I agree that WMD weren't the driving force for the Iraq war in the first place, it's irrelevant anyway.

No, you are dodging the issue. If strikes could stop Iraq’s nuke program then how did it come to pass that an invasion based on removing this threat was publicly justified without anyone pointing out that the we could remove the Iraq threat with "strikes".

Just to go over this again, air strikes not only could take out Iraq's nuclear weapons capability but had already done so.  Airstrikes could not do the same for chemical and biological weapons, thus why people who foolishly believed the WMD explanation didn't object to an invasion.

Quote:And if you want to keep insisting that nukes did not factor at all in the case that Iraq was a threat to the US, then please explain why nonnuclear WMDs in the hands of Saddam were so much of a threat that regime change was absolutely necessary to deal with it, while nonnuclear WMDs in the hands of Kim is not.  You can’t possibly believe Kim is somehow “better” than Saddam so that we do not wish regime change in NK.

China has suggested that they would intervene militarily if the US sought regime change in North Korea.  We don't want a war with China, therefore we should push for regime change if it is not necessary.

Iraq had no such powerful patron, so we went with regime change.  Plus, what we really wanted in Iraq was regime change anyway, irrespective of "WMD", which was just an

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Quote:The prevents their ever acquiring counterforce capabilities, and leaves them with very limited deterrent capabilities against large nuclear powers like the US. 

No it only delays it.

False.  If they try to rebuild the production facilities, we just destroy them again.  At some point we let China replace the regime, taking out the current regime first if necessary.

Quote:It is not so clear that China and Russia would not intervene in a war that the US started. I asked you about this before and you haven't addressed it.

Actually, I have addressed it, though possibly in responses to people other than you.