Tchild wrote:I see NK as a sort of "extortionist" country, lacking real industry, access to capital and being removed from the global marketplace, its military regime is acting like an organized crime syndicate, extorting bribes and handouts on a national level from other countries.
NK is playing a game of chicken with the rest of civilized society, using the threat of economic disruption, death and violence if it is not economically placated. I do not believe that NK really intends to go to war, but that seems to be its one last bargaining chip for respect and money. Its research into nuclear weaponry will add strategically to this economic game of chicken.
My view is that one needs to understand the NK mindset and if necessary pay the bribes to avoid war and destruction.
Since the United States has shown perfect willingness to utilize a cost vs benefit analysis in going to war with other countries; Iraq and Afghanistan, it is apparent that paying bribes to NK by the developed world has a positive cost vs benefit equation that makes paying the bribes high on the benefit side for the U.S. and its trading partners.
I am against war, but wars happen, most usually not for any nationalistic jingoism, but as the financial status quo becomes unbearable for one or more countries.
That former U.N. ambassador was on the news yesterday and said something very similar. What's his name again? Bolton?
It's sad that North Korea can get away will killing South Koreans and they are absolutely no reprecussions. If war breaks out, China is not going to back North Korea against a U.S.-allied South Korea. Let's finish taking down the pathetic dictators of the world and liberate the North Korean citizens. South Korea and the United States has every excuse to do so.
"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." ~~ Martin Luther
Presbyter wrote:It's sad that North Korea can get away will killing South Koreans and they are absolutely no reprecussions. If war breaks out, China is not going to back North Korea against a U.S.-allied South Korea. Let's finish taking down the pathetic dictators of the world and liberate the North Korean citizens. South Korea and the United States has every excuse to do so.
Hello,
After the lessons of Afghanistan and Iraq are you willing to devalue the dollar further to debt-finance a war in which would cost most likely hundreds of thousands of Korean lives?
Don't you think a few deaths on the SK side is worth maintaining the peace and prosperity they are experiencing? Do you think thousands of American lives, in addition to the lives we've already given over to the peninsula is preferable to the terrible price the world would have to pay in order to "liberate" NK?
V/R Dr. Cam
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Wonder if Church members asked this of themselves when the Archduke Ferdinand was gunned down. A response could have been valuable for those serving in the Austro-Hungarian Mission, yet on the other hand millions of people would be killed and it would inevitably leave hooks that would pulled Western Civilization into an even bigger war some years later. What to do, what to do...? For myself, I am content with yearning to start a new diet next year.
Presbyter wrote:It's sad that North Korea can get away will killing South Koreans and they are absolutely no reprecussions. If war breaks out, China is not going to back North Korea against a U.S.-allied South Korea. Let's finish taking down the pathetic dictators of the world and liberate the North Korean citizens. South Korea and the United States has every excuse to do so.
Hello,
After the lessons of Afghanistan and Iraq are you willing to devalue the dollar further to debt-finance a war in which would cost most likely hundreds of thousands of Korean lives?
Don't you think a few deaths on the SK side is worth maintaining the peace and prosperity they are experiencing? Do you think thousands of American lives, in addition to the lives we've already given over to the peninsula is preferable to the terrible price the world would have to pay in order to "liberate" NK?
V/R Dr. Cam
I am just thinking as if I was the family member of the South Korean soldier or innocent citizen who was murdered two days ago by a rogue dictatorship, to whom it seems there will be absolutely no repercussions for their unchecked aggressions. Someone's father, or husband, or brother, or son, just died, and no one is going to do anything about it.
"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." ~~ Martin Luther
moksha wrote:Wonder if Church members asked this of themselves when the Archduke Ferdinand was gunned down. A response could have been valuable for those serving in the Austro-Hungarian Mission, yet on the other hand millions of people would be killed and it would inevitably leave hooks that would pulled Western Civilization into an even bigger war some years later. What to do, what to do...? For myself, I am content with yearning to start a new diet next year.
Hello,
Don't let Mr. Simon "I know more about Joseph Smith than Anyone on This Board Knows" Belmont know this. He'll mock you for it while being over 100 lbs overweight. ;)
V/R Dr. Cam
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Presbyter wrote:If war breaks out, China is not going to back North Korea against a U.S.-allied South Korea.
Sure is good to know that China will not get involved in a shooting war between North Korea and the U.S. Why would we assume otherwise? China has never done it before!
honorentheos wrote:If so, does this qualify as a just cause for war? Should the potential costs require a more diplomatic response? Or is ignoring North Korea's aggression getting too close to the Munich Pact?
Modern warfare removes the decision-makers from the blood on the field of battle. They make decisions based on factors that do not include personal risk. We no longer have leaders who are heros, because our leaders are all cowards who sit behind desks. Thus war is too easy to start. The only factor that seems to matter is how much it costs, and even then no one cares how much it costs the individual or their families in human terms; the only criteria is dollars.
I don't think this is true. The reality is that most leaders (Presidents/Generals) who commit to a modern war are at risk. While the decision makers tend to be further from the front lines modern war has weapons capable of wiping out areas from a much greater distance. If North or South Korea commits to war the leaders from both sides have a good chance of dying.
In many ways, the opposite is true. When Rome's Senate sent legions to fight the Gauls the Senators were at little risk.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
