US closer than ever to 'nuclear war with North Korea,' Mullen says

[TomSea]

US closer than ever to 'nuclear war with North Korea,' Mullen says
Adm. Mullen on 'FNS'

Nation's top military officer on Pentagon's plan to manage endgame in Iraq, growing commitment in Afghanistan?

Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen on Sunday gave a dire predication about U.S.-North Korea relations, suggesting the countries are closer than ever to a nuclear war with no diplomatic solution.

“We're actually closer, in my view, to a nuclear war with North Korea and in that region than we've ever been,” Mullen, a retired Navy admiral, told ABC News' “This Week.” “I don't see the opportunities to solve this diplomatically at this particular point.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/31/us-closer-than-ever-to-nuclear-war-with-north-korea-mullen-says.html

[Sanguine]

He's right, there is probably no diplomatic resolution.

[DB]

He's right, there is probably no diplomatic resolution.

I think there is likely a diplomatic solution. But it doesn't involve NK directly.

China is the ultimate puppet master here. If China is made to pay a high enough cost they'd do something about their proxy of evil.

NK is the fruit of China and Russia's long standing foreign policy/intervention. Without their direct backing, using them as a pawn against us, all the suffering and death of millions of people caused by NK wouldn't have happened. That legacy is owned by both countries and shouldn't lightly be forgotten.

[Sanguine]

I think there is likely a diplomatic solution. But it doesn't involve NK directly.

China is the ultimate puppet master here. If China is made to pay a high enough cost they'd do something about their proxy of evil.

NK is the fruit of China and Russia's long standing foreign policy/intervention. Without their direct backing, using them as a pawn against us, all the suffering and death of millions of people caused by NK wouldn't have happened. That legacy is owned by both countries and shouldn't lightly be forgotten.

Their nuclear program needs to be destroyed.  I don't know that China will effect that.

[Victoria33]

"Mullen also suggested Sunday that Trump has created an 'incredibly dangerous (international) climate' with North Korea at the “top of the list.”

Calling leaders tacky names is soooo presidential.  He is the laughing stock of every country and no country believes a word he says.

[DB]

Their nuclear program needs to be destroyed.  I don't know that China will effect that.

NK only exists because of Chinese support/protection.

[Sanguine]

NK only exists because of Chinese support/protection.

Agreed, but becoming a nuclear nation changes the whole ball game.

[montanajoe]

Their nuclear program needs to be destroyed.  I don't know that China will effect that.

As I've  posted multiple times and for those who have never there the DMZ is essentially a suburb of Seoul. The DMZ itself is honeycombed with tunnels that are large enough for an Abrams tank and could easily pour a million or more troops into the South in a matter of hours.

NK has advanced nukes, the challenge is not to destroy the program, but for the US to face reality and make the use of those weapons on the part of NK a dumb option. The young Kim has whipped our ass, the question is whether domestic politics will give him even more latitude to stick our face in it
   

[Frank Cannon]

Agreed, but becoming a nuclear nation changes the whole ball game.

@Sanguine what is the story with that avatar?

[Sanguine]

@Sanguine what is the story with that avatar?

I'm a big fan of Leonardo.

[Frank Cannon]

I'm a big fan of Leonardo.

Leonardo De Jones? Worst pimp I ever met.

[Sanguine]

Leonardo De Jones? Worst pimp I ever met.

Happy New year to you, Frank.

[DB]

As I've  posted multiple times and for those who have never there the DMZ is essentially a suburb of Seoul. The DMZ itself is honeycombed with tunnels that are large enough for an Abrams tank and could easily pour a million or more troops into the South in a matter of hours.

NK has advanced nukes, the challenge is not to destroy the program, but for the US to face reality and make the use of those weapons on the part of NK a dumb option. The young Kim has whipped our ass, the question is whether domestic politics will give him even more latitude to stick our face in it
 

Put a billion dollar bounty on his head and see what happens...

[IsailedawayfromFR]

The nuclear war will not be between the US and NK.  It will be between NK and its immediate neighbors South Korea and Japan.  If NK goes against China as well, it will cease to exist.

[Suppressed]

NK's got plenty of future develpolment, from thermonuclear to ERWs. ERWs would be very attractive to them.

[WingNot]

I'm a big fan of Leonardo.

[Sanguine]

You're right; I should have been more specific.

[Victoria33]

The DMZ itself is honeycombed with tunnels that are large enough for an Abrams tank and could easily pour a million or more troops into the South in a matter of hours.

@montanajoe
@TomSea

Montana, You are right.  My Air Force son was stationed at our airbase there and he said with NK having those huge tunnels, they could pour through there with tanks, anything they wanted to take through those tunnels, and our airbase and men, being not far from those tunnels, would be overrun and destroyed quickly.  No one seems to consider what would happen to our airbase and men there.

[truth_seeker]

There is not seen to be a downside to losing a war with the US.

The last time we decisively won a major war, the losers (Japan, Germany) would become the 2nd and 3rd largest economies in the world.

[LadyLiberty]

I love the parody account on Twitter:

The Mossad‏ @TheMossadIL

Following

The Mossad Retweeted
LBC
The button's useless. We rewired it to make animal noises.

             LBC  @LBC
             Verified Account

             Kim Jong Un has used his New Year message to warn the US that he has a "nuclear button" on his desk that                                                            is always in reach http://l-bc.co/hthEqb
             9:12 AM - 1 Jan 2018

[Fishrrman]

Sanguine wrote:
"He's right, there is probably no diplomatic resolution."

Who (in this forum or elsewhere) was ever foolish enough to think that there could ever be one? Who's willing to stand up and admit that they once were?

Where nuclear weapons are involved, and where a third-world country is drawing close to obtaining them (Iran as well as Pakistan), no leader (of that third world nation) in his right mind is going to agree to a "diplomatic resolution".

They have their "eyes on the prize", so to speak. The greatest international prize of them all. Having function nuclear weapons trumps (carefully chosen word) diplomacy 100% of the time.

There is no non-violent solution possible in such cases.
Such "developments" must be nipped in the bud.
Consider Gaddafi and Libya some years' back.
What persuaded -him- to give up his quest for the bomb?

[bigheadfred]

You're right; I should have been more specific.

Hey, it's @Frank Cannon. Why try???

[Gefn]

"Mullen also suggested Sunday that Trump has created an 'incredibly dangerous (international) climate' with North Korea at the “top of the list.”

Calling leaders tacky names is soooo presidential.  He is the laughing stock of every country and no country believes a word he says.

I’m going to say calling leaders is puerile. Anyone over the age of five should know better. This kind of behavior is what little children do on the playground. POTUS is three score and ten.

There’s a quote from Einstein that says something about WW IV being fought with sticks and stones.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

I’m going to say calling leaders is puerile. Anyone over the age of five should know better. This kind of behavior is what little children do on the playground. POTUS is three score and ten.

There’s a quote from Einstein that says something about WW IV being fought with sticks and stones.

Hmm.  Winston Churchill, the man who once defined tact as “the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.”  used to call Hitler 'The little corporal'. 

Guess Churchill should know better as he was a child on a playground.

[Suppressed]

Hmm.  Winston Churchill, the man who once defined tact as “the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.”  used to call Hitler 'The little corporal'.

The Little Corporal was Napoléon Bonaparte.

Churchill referred to Hitler as the "Bohemian Corporal".





Edit to add:
http://national-socialist-worldview.blogspot.com/2009/01/bohemian-corporal.html

"The Marshal and the Corporal.
Struggle with us for peace and equal rights."

Hitler was occasionally called "the Corporal" ("der Gefreite") not as a put-down but as a reference to his valor in the First World War. The nickname "Corporal" was worn as a badge of honor. Here we see it used in a pro-Hitler campaign poster from 1932, a context where the working-class connotation also seems to be exploited.


[. . .]

The fact that Churchill and some other people called Hitler a "Bohemian Corporal" doesn't make it so. Supposedly Hindenburg and some Wehrmacht officers had called him that, but whoever called Hitler "the Bohemian Corporal" wasn't trying to be strictly accurate. For one thing, Hitler wasn't Bohemian; his native dialect was Lower-Bavarian, and he had served in the Bavarian Army.

It seems unlikely that the epithet "Bohemian Corporal" was meant as a put-down. At least, not the corporal part of it. Napoleon Bonaparte was known as "the Little Corporal" all his life even though that was not the highest rank he achieved, and it was not an insult but a mark of the bravery that he had shown as a corporal. Hitler was also distinguished as a brave soldier, even to the extent of refusing a promotion that would have reduced his personal risk. Hitler himself in wartime preferred to be a corporal, so why would it be a put-down? Perhaps the Germans who called Hitler der boehmische Gefreite, like the French who called Napoleon le petit caporal, were alluding to his personal bravery, or likening him to Napoleon.