Mattis describes war with Korea

[Beet]

"I would suggest that we will win," Mattis said. "It will be a war more serious in terms of human suffering than anything we've seen since 1953.

"It will involve the massive shelling of an ally's capital, which is one of the most densely packed cities on earth," Mattis said of Seoul, South Korea, which boasts a metro-area population of 25 million.

"It would be a war that fundamentally we don't want," Mattis said, but "we would win at great cost."

Mattis made clear that the US was nearing the end of its rope in dealing with North Korea, saying: "We're exhausting all possible diplomatic efforts in this regard."

"It would be a serious, a catastrophic war, especially for innocent people in some of our allied countries, to include Japan most likely," Mattis said.

http://www.businessinsider.com/mattis-north-korea-war-we-will-win-2017-6

[dead0man]

That's the conventional wisdom on it....and I'd guess the main reason we haven't cleaned up the mess yet.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

And in a worst case scanrio, it could very easily escalate if China and America aren't sufficiently on the same page.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

When Clinton did consider military operation against North Korea in 1994 he was advised basically the same thing: "sure we'd win, but with possibly two hundred thousans American military personnel dead, in addition to more than a million of South Koreans".

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

It's not worth killing millions in the name of spreading "democracy." We went down that rabbit hole many times before.

[Lord Halifax]

It's not worth killing millions in the name of spreading "democracy." We went down that rabbit hole many times before.

It wouldn't be spreading democracy, but saving the NK population from one of the most oppressive and cruel regimes in history (complete with its own Gulag++). Besides NK would be annexed by a functioning and resourceful state, so not comparable to Iraq etc.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

It's not worth killing millions in the name of spreading "democracy." We went down that rabbit hole many times before.

It wouldn't be spreading democracy, but saving the NK population from one of the most oppressive and cruel regimes in history (complete with its own Gulag++). Besides NK would be annexed by a functioning and resourceful state, so not comparable to Iraq etc.

South Korea is not very wild about the "reunification". It's not like the German reunification. The difference between the two Koreas is so staggering at all levels Seoul seems to (probably quite correctly) believe even their functioning economy and state structures wouldn't be able to handle such rapid absorption.

If Germany had difficulties during its reunification (you can still see a gap between the former DDR and FRG), imagine it on Korean scale.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

It's not worth killing millions in the name of spreading "democracy." We went down that rabbit hole many times before.

It wouldn't be spreading democracy, but saving the NK population from one of the most oppressive and cruel regimes in history (complete with its own Gulag++). Besides NK would be annexed by a functioning and resourceful state, so not comparable to Iraq etc.

South Korea is not very wild about the "reunification". It's not like the German reunification. The difference between the two Koreas is so staggering at all levels Seoul seems to (probably quite correctly) believe even their functioning economy and state structures wouldn't be able to handle such rapid absorption.

If Germany had difficulties during its reunification (you can still see a gap between the former DDR and FRG), imagine it on Korean scale.

Nobody was starving to death in East Germany, and it's GDP per capita was around 1/3 of West Germany. Even now 25+ years later and Germany has spent 100's of billions of dollars and there is still a gap between East v West Germany. It may take another 25 or even 50 years to be fully equal. North Korea is a complete basket case with starvation happening, the only thing staving off famine is UN and Chinese food aid. It's economy is close to useless, with a GDP around 1/100th of South Korea. East Germany while authoritarian had long tossed of Stalinism, while North Korea embraces it with nationalism mixed in. I can't see South Korea accepting unification right away, it would completely bankrupt them. They would have to let North Korea democratize and with massive international aid, become a non clusterf*** in maybe 10-15 years.

[Lord Halifax]

It's not worth killing millions in the name of spreading "democracy." We went down that rabbit hole many times before.

It wouldn't be spreading democracy, but saving the NK population from one of the most oppressive and cruel regimes in history (complete with its own Gulag++). Besides NK would be annexed by a functioning and resourceful state, so not comparable to Iraq etc.

South Korea is not very wild about the "reunification". It's not like the German reunification. The difference between the two Koreas is so staggering at all levels Seoul seems to (probably quite correctly) believe even their functioning economy and state structures wouldn't be able to handle such rapid absorption.

If Germany had difficulties during its reunification (you can still see a gap between the former DDR and FRG), imagine it on Korean scale.

Fully agree (wrt to population its 1:2 rather than 1:4 and economic and social difference is a lot bigger), but the implied comparison with Iraq etc. isn't valid.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

It's not worth killing millions in the name of spreading "democracy." We went down that rabbit hole many times before.

It wouldn't be spreading democracy, but saving the NK population from one of the most oppressive and cruel regimes in history (complete with its own Gulag++). Besides NK would be annexed by a functioning and resourceful state, so not comparable to Iraq etc.

South Korea is not very wild about the "reunification". It's not like the German reunification. The difference between the two Koreas is so staggering at all levels Seoul seems to (probably quite correctly) believe even their functioning economy and state structures wouldn't be able to handle such rapid absorption.

If Germany had difficulties during its reunification (you can still see a gap between the former DDR and FRG), imagine it on Korean scale.

Fully agree (wrt to population its 1:2 rather than 1:4 and economic and social difference is a lot bigger), but the implied comparison with Iraq etc. isn't valid.

Of course there's no comparision.

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

It's not worth killing millions in the name of spreading "democracy." We went down that rabbit hole many times before.

It wouldn't be spreading democracy, but saving the NK population from one of the most oppressive and cruel regimes in history (complete with its own Gulag++). Besides NK would be annexed by a functioning and resourceful state, so not comparable to Iraq etc.

South Korea is not very wild about the "reunification". It's not like the German reunification. The difference between the two Koreas is so staggering at all levels Seoul seems to (probably quite correctly) believe even their functioning economy and state structures wouldn't be able to handle such rapid absorption.

If Germany had difficulties during its reunification (you can still see a gap between the former DDR and FRG), imagine it on Korean scale.

Fully agree (wrt to population its 1:2 rather than 1:4 and economic and social difference is a lot bigger), but the implied comparison with Iraq etc. isn't valid.

Of course there's no comparision.

There will be tensions between North Korean survivors and South Koreans. In Iraq, there were many cases of men whose families were killed joining terror groups like ISiS. Also, the North Koreans might not expend their entire nuclear arsenal, and some nukes might get into the hands of terror groups who are not deterred by MAD.