Would it be too late then? I mean, if the ICBMs are launched towards Cali, wouldn't it be too late to nuke them?
I think we should use every peaceful means possible to bring an end to NK's nuclear weapons program. If that fails, I think we should use military force using conventional weapons to degrade the program. After that, the ball is in NK's court, and they hold their own fate in their own hands.
Or ease tensions and accept that they're a nuclear power against our wishes. M.A.D. still applies. We just lose the option to attack them and not risk having them use nukes in retaliation, but then I'm sure we have already lost that option at this point. They already are a nuclear power, even if their delivery systems are still considerably lacking.
As for me, I shall not agree to sentence my children and grandchildren to a life under the threat of nuclear destruction by the likes of Kim Jong-un. If that is to be the history we make - our legacy of cowardice, I shall not be a part of it. MAD applies to rational actors like the U.S., Russia and China. Nobody trusts Kim with nukes. The whole world distrusts him and with good reason.
If we can live with Trump having nukes, I think we can live with Kim having them. Ease up on the rhetoric and other threats, and he will settle down also.
We most probably have a devastating arsenal of nuclear assets in the water very near the NK coast, at the moment. If they were stupid enough to launch an ICBM towards Cali, their country could be a glowing flattened wasteland before their first strike even crossed our shoreline. But, the reality is, the miniature NK dictator is not going to launch a nuclear first strike against the US. He is big on loud bluster in the public eye when it gets him a payoff, and little more. Kim has been conditioned to press the buzzer when he wants a treat. The past three presidents dutifully filled his dish; gave him a pacifier, whenever he threw a tantrum. Now, the treats have run out. As he madly presses the buzzer harder and harder and gets... nothing.... pretty soon he's gonna realize that the old tricks aren't working anymore, and he's gonna have to learn a new one.
We can live but the future generations will have to deal with a country with even greater fire power. Our mistake was not finishing the job in the first place and the longer wewait the harder it will be to fix.
I recommend to use a small Hiroshima-size bomb instead of a thermonuclear bomb which will pollute South Korea with nuclear fallout. Tsar Bomba (Russian: Царь-бомба; "Emperor Bomb") is the nickname for the AN602 hydrogen bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated in 1961, which has a yield of about 100 megatons of TNT, 1,000 times more powerful than the Korean hydrogen bomb. This class of nuclear weapons are practically useless and it's enough to flatten Pyongyang without wiping the entire nation off the map.
Well I'll come right and say the diplomatic effort from America have been extremely disappointing, in fact diplomacy on this crisis consisted of threats and tweets. Where is Trumps so called "deal making" skills, where is any effort to engage in talks that could prevent a nuclear war. This Administration will be branded forever as the worst, most destructive and most incompetent government in world history. It will be condemned alongside of North Korea.
"Peace in our time?" I think you are projecting your own - our own - rationality onto Kim, Durandal. What I see is a mass murderer of his own people, a paranoid, self-isolated man with an apocalyptic vision of the future, and a god complex that was ingrained into him since birth. His personality reminds me very much of that of Jim Jones.
We'll just have to live under the threat of a possible nuclear attack at any time from NK. With the Soviets, Mutually Assured Destruction worked well for decades. But NK's regime has no regard for human life, so we can't depend on Mutually Assured Destruction as a deterrent. We'll just have to hope & pray nothing happens.
Dropping a nuclear weapon on ANY country would be a huge mistake, too many variables.. what would Russia and China do? Would dropping a bomb on NK make it ok for Pakistan to drop one on India? or vise versa? IF NK ever developed the technology to drop one on us, we wouldn't need to use nukes to remove their leadership. We would be able to use conventional weapons to also destroy or severely degrade their nuke program. I'm pretty sure China would move in after that and remove the rest of their program and set up a puppet regime.
"Other" Predator Drone Strike Kim Jongun http://politicalforum.com/index.php?threads/predator-drone-strike-kim-jong-un-n-korea-leader.514917/
Maybe we could hire Israel's Mossad consider how badly the CIA botched Castro attempts. How about predator drone? http://politicalforum.com/index.php?threads/predator-drone-strike-kim-jong-un-n-korea-leader.514917/
Nuke North Korea? Absolutely not. Every President since Truman has made a point to avoid using nuclear weapons, for they all realized to do so would open a Pandora's Box that would be near impossible to close again. Evan a small nuclear war could spell doom for the U.S. as a nation state and possibly even as a people. If America initiated a nuclear war, that fact alone would possibly negate every positive act or achievement ever accomplished by the U.S. as a nation, and relegate us to the trash heap of failed societies. After watching the impact of two recent hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, they would pale in comparison to the lasting impact even 10 nuclear bombs would have hitting our major cities. Life as we know it would be over in an instant--possibly never to recover. Trump is literally playing with fire continuing to mouth off as he does as President. He seems to be incapable of becoming aware of the impact he has personally on world history, or the fate of nations--including his own. His ignorance coupled with his simplistic tit-for-tat behaviors and a key to our nuclear arsenal, makes him a global threat of epic proportions. None of us are safe--here in America or around the world--while he is President. Trump is living proof that our Founding Fathers forgot to make it possible to get rid of a complete imbecile once they're elected to the Oval Office--an oversight we need to correct ASAP, before we all pay the ultimate price.
Interesting ideas and suggestions. Problem is, Trump is so volatile and unpredictable, he's likely to transmute even a small war into a nuclear one, for, as he said during the campaign, "Why do we have all these nuclear weapons and never use them?" To him, a nuclear bomb is simply a "bigger" bomb. Otherwise, it's nothing special. With Presidents like Trump, who needs enemies to keep us all a nervous wreck?
Like I said I would not use them unless NK used either a mass chemical weapons attack or use a nuclear weapon on our allies or troops or nation but if they do that would China and Russia side with them if we retaliated it would make NK an undefensible pariah in the UN very likely.
If we nuke them then they will launch everything they got at South Korea and Japan causing massive damage. Also Russia and China will now know that its ok to use nukes on countries they don't like. In addition a bunch of countries will secretly start building their nuclear weapons to have a good threat to keep them from getting nuked too. Oh, and 25 million men, woman, and children will be slaughtered, more than Hitler which is just immensely evil. And the radiation will affect millions more in South Korea, Japan, and China. It may also provoke war and trade problems with China which at the very least will damage our economy. Do I need to continue?