Posted on 10/11/2006 7:03:38 PM PDT by Flavius
PLANS previously drafted by the Pentagon predict 52,000 US military casualties and one million civilian dead in the first 90 days of conflict if America attacked Pyongyang. The US leadership is looking at international economic and diplomatic sanctions against North Korea as its primary response to Monday's nuclear test.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
Within 6 hours the North Korean troops would be reaching civilian areas with more food than they have seen in their lives. They will stop to eat, loot, and drink.
Undersupplied and poorly fed troops has most times done poorly in offensive campaigns in part for the reason above. When entering an area of abundance they spend more time and energy looting than advancing.
If I recall the reason Lee fought at Gettysburg was that some of his troops was looking for a boot factory when they engaged the enemy. Might of been a different civil war battle.
As for the civilian cities within NK artillery range. Chemical and/or Nuclear attack is one thing but regular HE rounds isn't going to kill as many as you think. When those rounds start coming in what will most civilians do? Go into the safest place in their house or workplace or school or go out into the open? Arty kills best those standing around in the open. It will take a large amound of rounds to kill people huddled in their basements or in the basements of the skyscrappers. There will be fires and that will cause deaths but cities has been shelled before without the massive casualities being projected.
History has shown that the size of an Army isn't as important as how well it is trained and led. The Persians made that mistake with the Greeks at least a couple of times.
Within a few weeks any North Korean advance will be either bogged down or defeated.
MOABS, daisy cutters, fuel-air bombs, F-18s, cruise missles, Tomahawks, Seasparrows, etc; those 3 - 4,000 artillery pieces wouldn't last one hour.
don't forget his harem, his Bond movies and the ultimate vice....his passionate love of Daffy Duck.
That would be good trick, because they only have one million men in uniform. And why would they ever put all their troops in one spot anway? U.S. forces would literally blacken the sky with large anti-personnel bombs, (MOABS, daisy cutters), cruise missiles, tomahawks, F-18 attacks, etc. And don't forget the ROK Army, their artillery, airforce, and their own rockets and missiles. If NK ever stood a million men directly on the border they'd be target practice.
EXACTLY! In my experience in Vietnam it was the ROKS who were the most feared of all troops. The vietcong were terrified of them.
MOABs and Daisy cutters have their limitations. Alarge one being they need to be dropped from a large plane. Large planes = easy targets.
Tomahawks are nice, if you have them. F-18s, not really useful in certain types of terrain.
We have had a few easy fights. Remember Kosovo? We killed a lot Serb civilians but really didn't militarily dislodge the Serbian Army. The terrain in Korea is similar, meaning air power is nice but it won't do you much good.
But isn't the whole point that if they are not stopped now, the damage they will soon be able to inflict in the coming years will be far worse? After all, if we do not fear what they'll do with their nukes when they have enough of them, then there is no need to even talk about war with them anyway. Then there's the liklihood they will sell their bombs to the terrorists and watch us go up in smoke as they stand "innocently" in the distance, safe from retaliation.
Japan will retaliate as well as South Korea if attacked. IIRC, the President has stated that an attack on these two allies or our vital interests in the area will be seen as an attack on the United States. If "dear leader" missteps here and launches a rocket and it hits the Japanese mainland nuke or not ,all bets are off.
To hell with that plan. Now the NK wants to have nukes and play in the big leagues we should simply treat lil Kim with the same resolve that we gave the Soviets:
If we get into a war with you we plan to burn your country to the bedrock. Your move.
The SK Army is no joke. I wouldn't bet against them myself. Of course, NK artillery WILL kill a million people in Seoul.
Your post is correct, the NORKs do have a huge, capable military. But in a sustained war with a big industrial nation, (U.S., China), their weakness would surface and they'd be in deep trouble; that being a severe lack of supplies, re-armaments, food, spare parts, ammuniton, etc.
Pull'em out before the nukes drop. Kim nodong Il would pee his pants when told that U.S. troops are being pulled out, he'd know what was coming..... and might even begin talking about letting the U.N. in to inspect his nuclear sites. It's tough being a dictator who's dictating to 10 million or so corpses.
Oh yeah,and we would just let that happen.We have the firepower to annilate 1 million very quickly. Remember the highway of death coming out of kuwat?
A North Korean Army swarming into the South would likely spell the end of them in days, or hours. People tend to forget about the SOUTH Korean Army, they are well trained and tough as nails. The South Koreans have been preparing for an invasion from the North for a long time, and are ready. Coupled with U.S. forces and almost total control of the air, the North would not have a chance if they invaded---- not a single chance.
On the other hand, it would be very unwise to just try to invade NK before say, a 90- day, 24/7, air/sea bombardment. For that matter, if we just bombed out their nuclear sites there'd be no need to invade anyway.
That affair in Serbia was a travesty. As you said, we killed a lot if civilians in the city of Belgrade. But the Korean DMZ is not Belgrade, and the Serbian 'war' was another PC-limited affair, where our cheif concern was to not look bad before the world and be extremely careful. Neither did we use our big anti-personnel bombs. If we ever did face NK in war, we would have to completely forget about PC and "rules of engagement". The only rules of engagement would certainly have to be "kill them all as fast as humaly possible and don't worry about civilian casualties".
As for those big planes carrying the big bombs, they'd have escorts that NK could not be able to challenge without being shot out of the sky.
Deja vu moi, too. Was it before 2000? Back then or around whenever NK broke the deal with Clinton, we had a Freeper who was an airforce target director guy on some island in the Yellow Sea after the Korean war. His job,at the time was to direct nuke bombers to the best commie targets (NK or ChiCom) something like that. Someone remembers better than I. He was good at explaining contingency planning.
yitbos
Active link to some maps of North Korea.
Although China should be tasked with Neutralizing their bastard step-child, NK, it will probably be left up to The USA and Russia to get the job done.
Start with conventionals - pause, and talk for 24 hours - resume with heavier ordnance.
Immediate and first problem is to neutralize the cannons already zeroed-in on Seoul - a tricky, down-and-dirty job. Should be interesting...........FRegards
Yikes! That's a long url! Sorry, but it works.............FRegards
Sir, it's not that simple. SK is right over the border. Any nuclear explosion, the aftereffects will hit SK and Japan. Possibly the major cities in China near NK as well.
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