The top US general on the Korean Peninsula, Gen. Vincent Brooks, today issued a statement announcing that the United States is totally prepared to start a war against North Korea at any moment, and that it is only “self-restraint” that has kept the US from attacking so far.
Gen. Brooks went on to insist that America’s self-restraint “is a choice,” and that America can change their choice whenever they want to, ending the armistice and restarting the 1950 Korean War. This comes amid President Trump repeatedly talking up military action against North Korea, and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster insisting that all of the options prepared for Trump involve a military component.
Early Tuesday, North Korea successfully tested their first ICBM, a missile which gives them an estimated 4,100 mile range, meaning it could hit Alaska. The US called an emergency UN Security Council meeting, mostly involving threatening “tougher action” and moving against any nation that continues to trade with North Korea, which they are now describing as “an outlawed regime.”
The initial US response to North Korea’s test, however, was to conduct an impromptu series of missile tests of their own, which officials presented as a “show of force” to prove their capability to precisely hit any target in North Korea whenever they feel like it.
While North Korea has promised to keep testing missiles, it is primarily President Trump, who has been talking up the idea of seeing North Korea ‘dealt with” since taking office, and who keeps insisting that diplomacy has failed and his patience is over, who is raising the speculation about an imminent war.
A US attack on North Korea would be potentially devastating for the entire region, sparking an exodus of refugees from the north into China and Russia, and leading to massive North Korea retaliation which could kill millions of people in neighboring South Korea.
The US as usual beats the drum for more war.
Yeah well good. Korea is just unfinished business. Trump won’t have to convince me. NK must not be allowed to commit nuclear blackmail against the US. If we have to have it out with them, better now than later.
So much nicer to be able to just threaten people with the nukes one already has.
“Have it out with them”- you realize that would require mobilizing the complete US army and reserves, and likely reinstating the draft to bring troop strength up to the kind of numbers that were put into Korea in 1950, don’t you? That the US just doesn’t have those kinds of numbers around any more?
That “having it out” with North Korea doesn’t just mean putting a few bombs on Pyongyang- it means invading and occupying the whole country, potentially permanently, just like Afghanistan?
Are you ready for another five trillion dollar war?
What about considering the alternative: make a deal?
For a self-styled dealmaker, it seems ironic that contrary to the claim that “all options are on the table”, there does seem to be one option that is most definitely not on the table. And that option is, make a deal.
Good intelligent comment. Thanks for that.
You did hear that the USA is now saying that in order to protect Syria maybe they need to be there permanently. How many military bases do we need to keep wasting money on around the world? The US military is the largest employer of the USA. That says something about our society and it isn’t pretty.
My question is how long does the world continue to be bullied by the USA before they ALL start pushing back? None of these countries invaded us. WE INVADED THEM! America is the one with blood all over their hands.
It TRULY SUCKS to be an American in such stupid and corrupt times!
I am still waiting for us to bomb Saudi Arabia for their TERRORIST action on 9-11, but no lets sell the TERRORIST Military Weapon that we know will be turned against us just like Iraq and Afghanistan. BLOWBACK!
You do know the real world isn’t high noon at the OK Corral, right? You know that hundreds of thousands if not millions of innocent people will die if we go this route? Are you a psychopath? Can you seriously paint me a picture where Kim would ever, ever fire a nuke at Alaska? He is aware that the USA would basically demolish his entire country with extreme prejudice if he ever did anything so stupid. If you think Kim is a loose cannon, look at the bizarro currently occupying the White House. I wouldn’t trust that nitwit to babysit my dog for the afternoon.
That has got to be the WINNER of the day! Perfect and right on. You couldn’t pay me enough to babysit that rabid pig.
We cannot allow North Korea to continue to threaten our mainland and allies in the region if nukes are what North Korea wants I say let’s drop some on them before they get a chance to use them on us.We have the capability why waste more time trying to negotiate with this nutcase.USA
Nuclear war…that’s your solution? Are you normally this stupid, or does it take work?
Better now than later.
Better to commit suicide now than later.
Be my guest.
Not in my name!
So we’re worried about our allies in the region and we should drop some nukes in that same region? Do we have smart nukes that won’t affect anything south of the DMZ? And what negotiations are you talking about?
We have tons of abilities that are not public knowledge.
By using them, however, the capability is no longer secret.
It is scary to think we may use nukes rather than expose
the black programs to the world.
Sweet. Why don’t you post the InfoWars links to these amazing secret military capabilities that will allow us to lay low the North Koreans, but they’re not using in current war zones, keeping us there for sixteen years, and more.
Nukes are what NK wants, so that the USA will finally leave them alone. They’ve seen what happens to other countries the USA doesn’t like, that don’t have nukes, such as Iraq and Libya. And as far as the comment, “We have the capability why waste more time trying to negotiate with this nutcase,” that could apply to Kim’s thinking about Trump.
So how are we going to complain when another country nukes us? It was okay for us to nuke Hiroshima, but we are special and people shouldn’t do that to us for what reason? Treat people like YOU want to be treated.
We hit them, F**K it! They DESERVE to hit us RIGHT BACK! It works all ways! Why has there never been an end called to the Korean war?
Those who fail to remember history are deemed to repeat it. Excuse me, do you remember when we declared the war on Korea over? Why don’t we play Trumann again and show the US for their GREATEST act. STUPIDITY!
Why don’t you educate yourself by speaking with some of the Japanese from Hiroshima? Trumann was the BIGGEST FOOL the USA ever had, and NOW we get Trump! God help the world from insanity out of this man and ignorant people like you, that REFUSE to educate themselves.
NOrth Korea will never be the first to start a war, because they know very well it cannot win a war against the US. It will be obliterated. But they have the capacity to give the US a bloody nose, if it ever tried to attack NK. It can deliver a devastating attack on the South and some US military basis in the region before they are wiped off the map themselves, causing huge loss of lives. NK know what is in store for them by looking at what had happened to Iraq, Libya, Syria. If these countries would still have had nuclear weapons to day they would still have survived. Possession of nuclear weapons is an assurance, the anti dote against American “regime change” policies. It
Is purely self defence and survival politics for the North. NK also remembers the devastating onslaught on their country during the 1950 ties. The carpet bombing was so devastating that there were no targets left. More bombs were dropped on NK than during the Pacific war, including 32,000 tons of napalm. 20 present of the population lost their lives. That has taught NK a lesson not to start a war any more and a reason to use nuclear weapons as a means of survival.
Yeah, well the NKs painted themselves in a corner. The have to threaten nuclear blackmail because they’ve got no place left to go. Can you trust a guy who assassinates his own brother? Methinks not. They had 65 years to find another way, and looks like it’s time out.
Why don’t you put yourself in the North Koreans’ shoes for a second, and find that, as a small nation geographically and economically, the world’s major superpower has been keeping troops massed on your border for 65 years as well as lobbing belligerent rhetoric your way since 1950 and enforcing economic sanctions ever since, keeping your country economically on the second tier. Seeing as how the leaders of the USA get the vapors every time the comparatively impotent NK leaders make a declaration against them, I think you should understand why the North Korean leaders mind when a much more potent force threatens their very existence.
Well, when a fourth rate country has to threaten the hegemon daily with first strike nuke attack, and a technical state of war exists for 65 years, seems to me that country’s days are numbered. And I don’t think that developing ICBMs with intention of first strike nukes makes NK “impotent” in any sense of the word. So I don’t see any impediment to Mr. Trump vaporizing the place. My only concern is for the S Koreans, I think they should make the call. But events might outpace policy, so anything is possible right now.
Thats not the issue though. This is not about Kim and his band of murderous little cretins. This is about getting China into a war with the insurgent north Koreans when they invade to forestall the one and done NK assault and 20 million North Koreans looking for refuge in China, essentially what DC did to Europe by encouraging the flood of middle eastern refugees. Also any long war for China puts immense pressure on their financial system.
It’s nice that you have concerns for the South Koreans. How exactly is “Mr Trump” going to vaporize half of a peninsula without the other half being severely affected?
Read ‘The Korean War’ by Bruce Cummings…Seriously.
This is all Kim’s fault. His father and grandfather had common sense.
He has none. Russia and China have one last ditch effort to talk sense
into this potbellied little madman or it’s going to be a bloodbath.
Or the North Koreans, also like the majority of the Middle East, are sick of America throwing its weight around in a part of the world where it has no business, keeping alive an early Cold War-era conflict through sanctions and belligerence, transforming what would usually be a bizarre little corner of the world into a boiling pot of anti-Americanism. When you step on someone’s neck for long enough, you have to expect they’ll get up angry.
Your attempt to conflate North Korea with “the Middle East” is off-base. I opposed every incursion into that region since 1990 and before. I did not vote for Bush, McCain, Obama or Clintons.
This crisis is entirely different. We can’t reverse the Korean Conflict. I posted nothing that gives up on diplomacy – but when the threat refuses to listen to reason or diplomacy, there are consequences.
Are you sure you are talking about Kim or Trump 🙂
Amazing how many morons here – at an Antiwar site no less – jump on the “nuke ’em” bandwagon the minute it looks like ONE missile MIGHT be able to reach…Alaska…which is 1,500 miles from the United States.
I suppose you morons want to nuke China, too? How about Russia? Oh, wait, THEY can actually fire back…
North Korea is no threat to anyone except South Korea. As long as they are not attacked, they won’t attack anyone except possibly South Korea – and since they haven’t done that in…what…SIXTY-FOUR YEARS…how likely is that – especially since South Korea alone could probably stop them, let alone the US jumping in.
I remind you cretins that a war with North Korea would result in 50,000 US casualties in the first ninety days, according to Pentagon war game, with a possibility of a total 250,000 casualties – which is a fourth of the US military forces in the world. Not to mention at least one million civilian casualties on both sides of the border. AND the destruction of one of the US’ largest trading partners – you know, the guys who make a lot of your toys?
You want to bitch about North Korea, YOU go sign up to be sent over there to fight them.
Morons.
This is an intelligent and logic reply. Thanks for that. In the event that NK is forced to retaliate against an American (false flag of course) surprise attack and thousands of American troops were to be killed a positive consequence of this is that if this were to happen (god forbid) the American people at long last will rise up and hold their leaders responsible for their crimes against humanity. Wars are a thing of the past, those who trigger them off should be held responsible and prosecuted.
I’m not sure why there are all these pro-war comments on this article, it must have been linked to at some other right-wing site, i’m guessing. These comments are not the usual ones you get at this site, very knee-jerk and unnuanced.
It’s because some of us are not lemmings following whatever our ideological kin subscribe to, and form our own opinions.
“…US’ largest trading partners…”
I might also add that the prevailing winds for the Korean peninsula in summer will carry radioactive debris across the landmass of another of the US’ largest trading partners – Japan. In winter, prevailing winds would send radioactive clouds northwest into another US trading partner (who btw, happens also to hold a significant amount of US debt – and the ability to fight back with significant capabilities.
I’m pretty sure that the Japanese and Chinese people will look most unkindly on that possibility. And any radioactive clouds that pass over Japan, as we should know from their power plant meltdown, will eventually reach the US west coast. I wonder how the US west coast population feels about that.
I agree…morons.
The USA has lost all capability for foreign relations. The warmongers are in control and they just don’t know how to be diplomatic.
What gives the USA authority to declare war on N Korea for developing weapons systems the USA has developed for decades.
Ignorance and arrogance.
the usa is pyscho. NK does not want to continue a war that the usa has dirty hands in…
Is starting a war for regime change as bad as meddling in elections?
I guess it depends on who is doing the “meddling” and who is getting “meddled,” don’t it?
Let’s see… a permanent enemy leader can actually threaten the US maybe, and Trump the decider has to chose between doing nothing and feeling weak, or dealing with an annoyance by killing countless Koreans and a lot of US soldiers? Here comes massive death by ego, unless something major changes. It won’t lead to human extinction probably at least, so maybe this is the wake-up-call the world needs to restore some real checks-and-balances.
USA has got to be the most amnesiac country in the world. Letting a COWARD like Donald Trump try beating the war drum, when he is nothing but a COWARD! Is he going to go to war himself this time, or is his little bunions going to get him another deferment? Baby Huey tries acting like a big man, when the only thing he really is in need of is that he truly needs his diaper changed, and given his bottle. Glad the family took his nanny Ivanka with him. This family has about as much class as a greased up, stuck pig. This is NOT my POS! Let America have him and continue drag it into the gutter with Trump.
“United States does not start wars” BS!
Since when has government’s cared about casualties and toys? And if wars are a thing of the past then why does every country have a military? Moron award goes to the ignorant lol
And as for north korea being a friendly peaceful nation haha you must be watching there state run news anchor to believe that.