North and South Korea move close to war footing

[nadinbrzezinski]

Pyongyang on Sunday moved SA2 surface-to-air missiles nearer to its Yellow Sea coast, according to South Korean military officials quoted by the Yonhap news agency. The officials said they also detected signs that North Korea was preparing multiple-launch rocket systems in the same area.

North Korea issued fresh warnings of military action, threatening to "deal a merciless military counterattack" at any "intrusion" into its territorial waters. The rhetoric came as four days of US- South Korean naval exercises in the Yellow Sea, involving the aircraft carrier George Washington, got under way - a deployment which the Pyongyang regime says has brought the region to the "brink of war."

The US has also agreed to a South Korean request to deploy the E8-C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS), used in the 1991 Gulf War, according to military sources quoted by Yonhap. The deployment was approved by the US Defense Secretary, Robert Gates.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/8166251/North-and-South-Korea-move-close-to-war-footing.html

Just keeping up with what our news models don't care for even after they got some sleep...I swear if this goes hot the innevitable draft if this remains conventional and long will take the average Idol watching, provincial American by surprise. Oh and running to Canada means serving there...member of the 16 nation alliance the first time around, same for Turkey, Brazil, Ustralia and the UK.

[RKP5637]

1. IMO the draft should return to wake Americans up. Too many wave the flag, shout war,

spout patriotism, chant RW rhetoric and never lose any skin in the game.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. No argument from me but tptb fear a draft

It just might wake up people up.

[tuckessee]

4. The draft didn't stop things last time there was a war in Korea.

The Chinese did.

[Javaman]

5. nope. it never does.

Any draft that is reinstated will be very much like the one during the Viet Nam war. It will be on a limited basis and will be a lottery. And those with connections will skate, while the rest of us, will get shot at.

No thanks.

If you want a draft so bad, then have congress declare war. Then and only then will everyone serve.

In the mean time, we who want peace will continue to protest against our current wars and if there be a draft, I will protest against that as well.

[RKP5637]

11. That's a very good point, "have congress declare war." War with no actual

declaration is BS.

[asjr]

3. I am not ready for WW3, 4, 5, and 6.

[Ian David]

6. I hope my Starcraft-playing friends stay safe. n/t

[Moostache]

7. This is a scary train of thought...

The USA dominated the world economically from 1945 - 2007 largely due to the fact that Europe and Japan had been reduced to rubble following WWII - and it took them 2 full generations (and some insane US trade and tax policy help) to level the playing field and bump the USA out of the catbird seat.

Now with China and India largely on pace to dust the USA economy for the next century, we see war talk in Korea; while we currently remain in active combat in Afghanistan and have a HUGE presence in Iraq. The dominoes for another series of stupidity-induced wars are teetering and appear dangerously close to falling.

North and South Korea seem hellbent on firing up the guns and ending the stalemate.

Pakistan and India are barely able to stay away from each other under non-stressful times, and a regional war on the Korean peninsula may be all they need to start fighting - which could end with nuclear exchanges for the first time in history.

China and Taiwan remain a very touchy issue, and one that would inevitably boil over in the course of all-out Asian warfare.

Throw in the insane ideas of many in the USA that would have an attack on Iran as a good idea, and you can literally start WWIII in a matter of weeks. Think the Germans are really pleased with the EU sapping their prosperity for bailouts of Iceland, Ireland and soon the Iberian Peninsula? I doubt that VERY much! Just wait until the banking dominoes in the UK go down...that would be all she wrote for the EU in any form.

The only thing missing from this toxic stew is an aggressive Japan bent on territorial expansion...

Europe and the USA are already teetering on the edge of bankruptcy - an abyss that their banks are already in and the reality is that the only way out is for these nations to leverage their military power into debt forgiveness and "loan out" the power of their navies and armed forces in exchange for solvency.

Sounds insane right?
So did WWI about May of 1914....or WWII in June of 1939 ("peace in our time" ring familiar to anyone?"...

For the first time since the early 1980's I am afraid of what our amassed stockpiles of nuclear weapons might do to the world. We desperately need cooler heads to step forth and pull us back from the brink. The alternative is horrific.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Nope, you read history

This has a feeling similar to August of 1914. That includes the happy talk of a short war.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Nope, you read history

This has a feeling similar to August of 1914. That includes the happy talk of a short war.

[RKP5637]

12. No, this doesn't sound insane IMO. The diametrically opposed countries/forces are

in a fragile state and a tipping of the balance, some hostile acts, whatever could be the tipping point for for an avalanche as you aptly described. Things unimaginable often start simply and build ...

[FarCenter]

10. South Korea controls a few small islands far west of its main territory, but near North Korea

One of these was shelled from North Korean mainland a few miles away.

North Korea and South Korea can fight over these islands all they want, so long as there isn't any invasion across the DMZ on the Korean penninsula.

Remember Matsuu and Quemoy and John Foster Dulles and brinksmanship during the Eisenhower adminstration. Same deal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Taiwan_Strait_Crisis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Taiwan_Strait_Crisis

[Tuesday Afternoon]

13. scary.

[KG]

14. oh. more dick waving!

jeez, is america really going to war over a border dispute between two pissant countries?