It is beyond tedious to encounter all of the incessant hand-wringing and blather about North Korea. The United States should simply extricate ourselves from that region and let the Chinese, the Koreans, and the Japanese fight it out amongst themselves.
“If protecting our own territory and people is American officials’ top priority, and not, as they implausibly claim, ‘regime change’ in North Korea, it’s hard to see why a double-freeze would not be a sensible first step. It would be largely up to China to see that the North Koreans complied with their part of the deal. If they did, perhaps it could lead towards a long-overdue settlement of this Cold War-era standoff and, in time, a reunited, neutral Korea. If not, all bets are off - but we’d be hardly worse off than we are now.”
and that is the weakness Lil Fat Kim and Xi are looking for ... and that would be the go for broke signal to both both armies - NK to SK, China to Taiwan.
This guy is an expert? Then you’d think he’d know that there haven’t been US troops on the DMZ for may years now. The closest are probably in Uijongbu and are about to be moved quite a few miles south of Seoul.
Sure we would- we would be defeated by having withdrawn from the field, any threats we made would be deemed unbelievable and we would still have to deal with a North Korean nuke threat.
We would be far worse off.
Our best bet is annihilation of North Korea. Trump gives the order, somewhere a Trident sub opens its missile tubes and 30-45 minutes later there's no longer a North Korea.
If Seoul or even Japan get hit with residual strikes, well, they've had decades to prepare and not done as much as they should have to hold up their end of the alliance. Their weakness has put us in a situation where we have to choose between our security and theirs. So it sucks to be them.
The delusions looks pretty correct. There is no “Military option” unless we want to get into a full scale war with China. That was a losing proposition 60 odd years ago, and still is today. No amount of bullshit or so called sanctions is going to make NK give up their nukes. Behind the scenes, no doubt China is encouraging and supporting them and that is unlikely to change...ever. Maybe we should just Nuklearize Japan and let them offset some of the areas BS and problems.
Must have been written by an intellectual. That’s really the only sort of person who would invite failure and defeat in the name of being “smart.”
The writer is delusional.
1. He said: “There is one, and only one overriding priority that should now guide U.S. policy on Korea. It’s not regime change in North Korea – despite that regime’s loathsomeness – or even the wellbeing of South Korea or Japan. It’s avoiding Kim’s developing a missile system capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to the United States.”
As of today, that may have become a fait acommpli.
2. He misses entirely what is not in the self-interest of either China or Russia - robust anti-missile systems in South Korea and the growing possibility of Japan and/or South Korea developing their own nuclear arsenals.
A. Neither China nor Russia want to see that.
B. But both those things continue to increase in likelihood as North Korea’s nuclear ambitions are not shut down.
More and more China are seeing that if they do not want nuclear armed Japan and South Korea and both harboring advanced anti-missile systems, then the continuation of the regime in the north is not in THEIR interests as its actions will surely produced outcomes in Japan and South Korea they do not want.
Given the situation ... no.
The solution lies in convincing China that it’s in their best interest to take Fat Boi out and put in a more reasonable leader. They control NK, have no doubt about that. They don’t want to see the US have any greater influence at their back door nor do they presently see the urgency of taking him out because the more he keeps the US distracted from MAGA and other things, the better for China. Remember the Chinese philosophy does not include the concept of “win-win”. Only win. Only for China.
” Everyone knows there are no military «options» the U.S. could use against North Korea that don’t result in disaster. “
Complete bullshit. This is the language of the soon dead.
There are several military option that do not result in disaster to US persons.
Add to this festering pot of N.Korean brinksmanship is the fact that in 5 months, S.Korea will host the 2018 Winter Olympics (9 to 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Korea). Pyeongchang County is located within Gangwon Province, at the northeast corner of S.Korea bordering N.Korea. Rifles will not only be seen at the Biathlon and there may be discussion about adding grenade toss to the calendar.
Gee, I thought both Clintoon and Obma said their treaties would prevent the NORKs from gettinag a bomb. They swore it would.
the first two statements are delusional.