The Pentagon has denied reports from NBC News last night that the US is planning to potentially attack North Korea even if they become convinced that another nuclear test is about to be carried out. The Pentagon insists no such decision has been made.
And while that offers at least a bit of assurance, officials also conceded that the US is in the process of assessing its various military options against North Korea, and declined to say if that included the possibility of attacking North Korea over the nuclear test, meaning it’s not totally ruled out by the denial.
Such an attack would be s a huge escalation, made doubly worrying because there is actually reason to believe that North Korea is about to conduct another nuclear weapons test. This would be their sixth test, with the previous five showing signs of increasing capability.
North Korean nuclear tests were previously followed by angry condemnations and threats of more sanctions. That’s kept the Korean War, which began in 1950, from ever really ending, as North Korean offers to negotiate a settlement have been spurned by US officials for years.
Attacking North Korea outright would be something else entirely, and with a US carrier strike group speeding toward the Korean Peninsula, other nations like Russia are expressing growing concern that’s a realistic possibility. If it does happen,, the consequences would be calamitous.
North Korea has been very blunt in their responses to the possibility of a potential attack, insisting they would carry out retaliatory nuclear strikes against US bases in the region, particularly those in South Korea. US officials doubted North Korea’s capability of actually carrying out such a move.
But the White House would be trying to call a very dangerous bluff by attacking and just betting North Korea doesn’t have deliverable nuclear warheads yet. To make matters even worse, North Korea is known to have a massive conventional missile arsenal, which would certainly be in play if the US attacks.
Even before North Korea had a nuclear program, that conventional arsenal was widely feared for having the capability of not only inflicting massive damage and casualties on US bases in South Korea, but having the potential to do devastating amounts of damage to densely populated South Korean cities like Seoul.
In the meantime, President Trump continues to hype the idea that he can “deal with” North Korea whenever he chooses, and having condemned the idea of diplomacy out of hand, seems to be squaring up for a military confrontation, irrespective of the consequences.
hush, hush… keep it down, down… voices carry… ut oh….
Bomb-pricks such as the ones in Syria and Afghanistan are no substitute for achieving lasting objectives. Economic and financial measures can bring regimes to the conference table as in the case of Iran but-in Trump’s own words-that one produced the worst agreement the world has ever seen. Invasion of Iran? The invasion of France in 1944 taught the importance of good harbors for supply of everything the army needs. So what will be the supply ports for an invasion of Iran? Basra? Karachi? Bandar Abbas? Iran can probably not bomb them from the air but can use short range missiles to create havoc. Moreover the resupply will have to go through Iraq or Pakistan. There will not be a military invasion of Iran unless someone in the White House loses his mind.
Unfortunately the economic and financial measures bringing Trump to the table are all domestic and set by the U.S./Globalist Deep State.
Debt ceiling issues are probably the one worrying him the most.
Trump has until April 28 to get some sort of interim appropriations bill passed to pay for ongoing government activities. After that, to officially get the debt ceiling raised and a real budget passed; obviously there’s no way the U.S. is cutting back on spending.
The Treasury department can run on ‘extraordinary measures’ until late October, which is essentially bookkeeping tricks emptying the spare change jar and shaking down the couch cushions for loose change.
Trump confidently said during the election, not to worry as ‘We print the money’. Well, no, the U.S. government prints debt instruments the Fed pays for with money it prints out of thin air – but only with Congressional approval.
Its doubtful Trump will order the Treasury to ‘print’ money direct.
Well of course they have a plan to attack North Korea. They have a plan attack Canada, are these things done in alphabetical order and they just haven’t gotten there yet? North Korea has been on the bad guys list since 1950? 2000? if they haven’t got a plan by now we should fire the lot of them
It’s funny how the US perceives so many countries as threats yet hundreds of nations with less than a 10th of US military might have somehow lived and had relations with all these countries for the most part without suffering any attacks on their people, territory or shipping!
Man, the last place you want to be right now is South Korea, I have a feeling the US will set off a Nuclear explosion in SK in order to blame it on North Korea and promptly attack before the (radioactive) fog has cleared. This president & cabinet may even want to take the occasion to use Nuclear weapons in “response” just to demonstrate the willingness to use them.
Don’t get feelings. It’s not often the US elects a president that can be played as a patsie by China and N.Korea.
Your biggest problem is in believing your own propagandists who tell us that N.Korea’s leader and his people are all insane.
Played as a patsie by China and N.K.? How did this become their fault? Its the U.S. that won’t even sit down and talk with N.K..
China and N.K. don’t want war; they want the U.S. to send its ‘armada’ home. Its just that N.K. probably doesn’t believe they’ll go peacefully.
The USA,an essential rogue nation with an IDIOT in charge,will never attack North Korea.The cowardice USA attack only countries without defense .Trump is issuing “stinkies” for the continuously shrinking number of his despicable supporters.
You’re right but you’re wrong about N.Korea’s strength. The strength is China’s and the detterent to another US led war is China.
What this is really all about is proving who has a bigger penis, Trump or Kim. We know they are BOTH insane!!!
Trump is proven to be a psychopath but Kim has only been demonized into being insane by US propagandists.
The program never needs to change because it always works with the American people.
It’s revealing to watch young Kim to understand that he’s not matured enough to be giving the orders. He has military experts in China and N.Korea who do that. He’s a figurehead who has a personal appearance that is susceptible to US demonizing..
As usual, the americans are playing Russian roulette with a 6 shooter with 6 bullets in the cylinder. Gotta give ’em credit for being consistent, and retarded.
Too bad we are the ones going to suffer for their total ineptitude on the world stage.
Great Leader Kim has already called Trump’s bluff with that failed missile launch; he’s playing bait the clown. Not sure what if anything he plans to do about his alleged nuke test preparations. Probably saving it for after the Americans leave, if at all.
If the U.S. attacks first and breaks the armistice, N.K. has plenty of real ammo to fire as well, even before China involves itself. On N.K.’s side, of course; a defensive war is always righteous.
No word on what the South Korean government is thinking. Technically they can veto any such attack, which will be Trump’s only fig leaf for backing off this game of chicken.
Raimondo did a piece for the Daily Caller, “There Is No Military Solution to the North Korea Conundrum”; an astute and accurate summary of the problem.
If Raimondo talked about the China deterrent factor then it would have been astute. if not then he’s missing the point once again.
There is a tremendous media effort being made right now to convince the American people that the US has not backed down. The story is that the US didn’t need to back down and didn’t even need to take notice of the missile failure.
Why would you think that to be?
I think that Chinas Xi had a father and son talk with Trump. It’s just too logical to reject the idea but of course it must be kept under wraps and be handled diplomatically. The most important factor is that Trump’s and the US incincibility must not be seen to be compromised.
It’s consistent with the Ukraine, Syria, Iran and all other conflicts where China and Russia have interests. And it’s very hard for Americans to accept right now.
Not just China; Russia is now on alert and both are sending intel ships to shadow the Vinson and warships are being readied. Russia is deploying S-300s to their Vladivostok naval base.
Trump-Kushner made huge miscalculations, and realistically, Kushner is too smart too miscalculate, meaning, he’s just as much a neoliberalcon as the rest of the Democratic elite. They expect to be indulged where there’s no wiggle room left and forced a no-win scenario.
The story is the U.S. can sabotage N.K. missiles and missile development with cyber attacks, which they have foreshadowed since at least March.
Unfortunately, sending in the Vinson carrier strike group and maybe sending in two more, Nimitz, off California presently, and Reagan, in port in Japan, undermines that narrative; if N.K. is contained, why send warships? The U.S. is ignoring any excuse to stand down. N.K. is ignoring that its missiles don’t work
The U.S. also pretty much said it might be able to stage false flags hijacking N.K. missiles.
At best the U.S. wants an endgame towards a united pro-U.S. Korea and eventual access to N.K. for THAAD and other U.S. military uses in future decades. N.K. positions are ‘vital’ to shut down the Eurasia’s Pacific defense potential. If an armchair geopolitical strategist can see that much, imagine what the trained ones in Russia and China see.
So, burned is any exit strategy that doesn’t look like backing down when an unreasonable and excessive show of force is made accompanied by equally unreasonable demands, all leading to transparently totally unrealistic goals couched as “Oh, but they can’t let the U.S. lose face”.
All N.K. has to do is sit and wait. They want independence secured with a peace treaty and to keep their nukes in face-to-face negotiations. They are not afraid to go down fighting. They are playing Sun-Tzu, not Clausewitz. There is either war or peace, not politics by other means. The Germans lost two world wars thinking Clausewitz.
The U.S. set the table as unwinnable, not the Russians, Chinese, or North Koreans. The U.S. CIA even enabled N.K. nukes via Pakistan. The idea that any further concessions are to be had to save U.S. face is unreasonable. China did a lot already, refusing to buy N.K. coal and buying into a China-N.K. split.
N.K. isn’t the only spoiled brat in NE Asia looking to get smacked, but N.K. at least has the explanation (not excuse) of being psychologically traumatized from the first go-round and 60 years of armistice limbo thanks to the U.S. (the other spoiled brat in the equation).