[NEWS] North Korea successfully tests hydrogen bomb

[Nonnel]

I mean, not really. They've just put themselves in a corner what with all the soviet-style labor camps and starvation that they have to keep themselves in power or end up in international prison. Having advanced nuclear weapons keeps anyone from invading so they stay in power since their citizens can't really do jack stuff

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[McZealot]

I just can't believe Ike actually wants us to invade north korea lol. like wtf he's the late person I'd expect

[IkeTheGeneric]

The problem is that we have gone so long without taking North Korea seriously that the window to act has gotten narrower and narrower. Soon any sort of retaliation may not be possible once North Korea has stockpiled enough WMDs. There's an untold amount of travesties being conducted on innocent life in North Korea that have gone uncontested for awhile now. I'm not keen on a bloody invasion, but with the regime controlling NK, an entire nation of people are needlessly suffering anyways.

[PhantOS]

you don't have to understand their game, they're literally insane

what makes you think they are insane- the fact that they've been testing nuclear weapons? the fact that they've threatened other countries? the us has conducted around 200 nuclear tests and threatened tens of countries in the last 20 years. really puts stuff into perspective.

they aren't insane, there's no single entity in north korea that decides everything. there's a whole team of loving advisors and officials who are most likely against any form of nuclear war or conflict, which is why they haven't attacked anyone yet.

[Kearn]

asia was a mistake

[Deus Ex]

they aren't insane, there's no single entity in north korea that decides everything. there's a whole team of loving advisors and officials who are most likely against any form of nuclear war or conflict, which is why they haven't attacked anyone yet.

You do not know how a dictatorship works

[Tactical Nuke]

I don't think that we launched a missile over another country for fun and then set up preparations to launch another missile actually aimed at a different country (unprovoked mind you) so I think that disqualifies us from being insane

[Juncoph]

you guys wanna invade forested mountains? be my guest

we're gonna reach a point where nuking north korea and intercepting the ICBMs they launch with next gen AA is our only option if we don't wanna lose 800,000 soldiers. at the end of the day, guys, the only time the US was faced with something like this was in operation downfall- and we nuked japan in order to avoid it.

a 100 year old bolt action can still fire on your squad from a treeline just fine

[Mr. Bones]

We could just bomb them, not nuke them, but bombing runs. We can engage them without having to invade on foot.

[Deus Ex]

We could just bomb them, not nuke them, but bombing runs. We can engage them without having to invade on foot.

Of course, idk why there's any talk of nukes

[IkeTheGeneric]

Fact of the matter is we need to do something.

[Rabbot32]

We're afraid to forget up North Korea because, while North Korea is stuff, it's still a buffer zone between China and South Korea. You get China and South Korea right next to each other, there's gonna be problems.

[Nonnel]

there's way more of a problem having a rogue nuclear state next to an economic hub than a stable psuedo-commie state. NK is a better buffer for China than it is for SK.
the problem is the massive loss of human lives

[Trogtor]

i have a solution...

[Juncoph]

We could just bomb them, not nuke them, but bombing runs. We can engage them without having to invade on foot.

Of course, idk why there's any talk of nukes

you think conventionals will be able to bomb out a heavily forested country with a fanatical government?

didn't work in ww2, didn't work in nam, didn't work in afghan, won't work in korea. we'd initially score good hits- established, visible forts and whatnot- but the moment they mobilize into the trees, you'd have to napalm entire swaths of land to have any meaningful impact- and i really do mean swaths. remember- bombing didn't work in nam, and considering CIA, al-qaeda and the taliban are all still around... it's not working on them, either. germany didn't surrender when entire cities had been wiped by firebombs- the allies invaded them with boots on the ground. ...but japan did surrender when they were nuked.

conventional bombing is a tool to aid other means of warfare, not a dedicated fighting strategy in its own right. bombs can demoralize the civilian world and wreak havoc on enemy industrial capacity, but even cavedwelling terrorists can get mosins and AKs like we americans get popcorn. we bombed the hell out of omaha beach, yet it was still the bloodiest beachhead the allies ever took. bombs have never have been a standalone option and they never will be.

the nuclear option, a CIA-backed coup (which would be incredibly hard to pull off and even bloodier than an invasion when it inevitably causes a civil war), and a full scale invasion are our only absolutist options.

otherwise, we stick to peaceful methods. i defer to what seventh has said on that side of things. if you insist on war, go back and read my prior post. we cannot half-ass a war against a nuclear state.