Quote:
Originally posted by cthulu23
Anyway, the Bush administration has never seriously rattled any sabers in the direction of North Korea (other than the Axis of Evil speech). I seem to remember a quote during the build up to war in Iraq where an administration official was questioned about the threat of North Korea as compred to Iraq. The answer was that North Korea was a "diplomatic issue" rather than a military one. No one other than kooks has seriously considered invading North Korea, least of all our military leaders. The idea that the Iraq invasion has anything to do with their willingness to negotiate is not a legitimate one.
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The reason why NK has been treated so delicately is because Seoul, the SK capitol is scant miles away from the DMZ. NK has thousands of heavy artillery pieces in position to turn Seoul into a smoking crater if the shit goes down. Not to mention the million combat troops hanging out close by. It would be a real bloodbath to go to war there. You think 20,000 or so dead Iraqis is a lot, but it wouldn't compare to the millions of Koreans that would die.
It would also be much more difficult to wage a conventional war in Korea, considering it is mainly a mountainous country, whereas Iraq is a big friggin desert. American military might works best when the enemy is far off, where they can be killed with impunity by our aircraft and optics assisted tanks/infantry. That's why the Iraqi army has been slaughtered wholesale in both Gulf wars, while we had a much more difficult time in Vietnam and Korea.
Of course we would win, however it wouldn't be worth the cost. Millions of South Koreans would be killed in the first strike, while hundreds of thousands of North Korean soldiers and tens of thousands of South Korean and American soldiers would die in combat. And famine would sweep through NK, wiping out large swathes of the civilian populous. Therefore, resolving the issue with diplomacy is not the only the more desireable route, it is the only route.
At the time we invaded Iraq, they weren't a real threat. They did, however, have the potential of becoming a threat, atleast to Israel and the middle east, and thus a threat on oil, which is a major concern for not only the United States, but also the whole western world. NK on the otherhand already is a threat, yet it seems they are only a threat because they are mightily worried about keeping their soverignity. They can't get too out of line, not with a vaugely hostile China, South Korea and Japan pinning them in.
NK is not the same problem as Iraq, and they cannot be handled in the same way.