Gun to your head

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Will the current crisis result in a nuclear exchange between the U.S. and North Korea?


No.

[BudgieForce]

Hell no.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

No. The North Koreans aren't going to come even close to nuking Guam, although they might shoot off some missiles and detonate a buried nuke or two. And the US will remove Trump from office before we let him start a majorly destructive war preemptively.

His babysitters might have to pacify him by letting him covertly attack Agrabah, Managuador or Dirkastan, though. Lots of briefings with glossy pictures, customer video footage of strikes shown only to properly vetted staff, that sort of thing.

[Anna Komnene]

Why does everyone keep putting a gun to my head? Rude.

Anyway, I don't think so, but if anyone can make it happen, it's Trump.

[vanguard96]

I would watch out with threats like that - you see some of those martial arts YouTube videos showing how to escape a 'gun to your head' situation - I'm getting there...

[TheSaint250]

No. Trump wouldn't do it and Kim wouldn't put his rule at risk

[Kamala]

Just pull the trigger

[kyc0705]

Is "gun to your head" really the right phrase to use when asking questions about armed conflict?

[GGover]

No. No one wants a nuclear war, they just use the threat of nuclear war to get what they want.

[AN63093]

Is it possible that NK detonates a nuclear weapon of some sort (probably not delivered by missile, but dirty bomb, radiological weapon, or dropping a nuclear bomb by aircraft)? Yes.

Will there be a nuclear exchange between the NK/US?  No.  I can't envision the scenario in which we would actually use nuclear weapons.

[Rookie Yinzer]

It doesn't benefit either side to use them. No.

[adrac]

Just pull the trigger

[Mr. Smith]

Well we do have a "Zero" Election on the way, and not a one since 1820 has ended well...ever.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

lol no

[BlueSwan]

Unlikely. But far more likely with Trump in the white house than it should be. There's no way that NK initiates a nuclear war, but you cannot rule out Trump doing so. And I believe that everybody knows this deep down. Trump could do it. He probably won't, but even the fact that he have a guy in the white house who could make such a reckless call, is terrifying.

[Mr. Reactionary]

No, although a tiny part of me is interested in how close in time this dispute is to the 9 23 astrological signs that the youtube nutters claim is related to the end times.

[pbrower2a]

Well we do have a "Zero" Election on the way, and not a one since 1820 has ended well...ever.

Reagan did survive an assassination attempt...

1840... America voted for someone in bad health.
1860... blame Presidents from Jackson to Buchanan for first, the expansion of slavery, and second, slavery becoming a dominant power in American life.
1880... the Presidency didn't matter that much in those days.
1900... the Gilded Age was dying.
1920... America elected the definitive Empty Suit in Warren G. Harding.
1940... at least America ended up on the Right Side of History
1960... Kennedy might have been re-elected, but he might not have survived his term with so many health problems.
1980... medicine was far better suited for the assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan than for the assassination of James Garfield.
2000... Seventeen years later, Dubya seems to be in good health.
2020... Trump re-election? We could envy America in the 'Sixties. Eighteen-sixties, that is!

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Is "gun to your head" really the right phrase to use when asking questions about armed conflict?

It's the Atlas way.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Is "gun to your head" really the right phrase to use when asking questions about armed conflict?

It's the Atlas human way.

[President Johnson]

No. I still think Trump would only attack if Kim shots first. Kim is a maniac, but he doesn't want to die.

[HisGrace]

I doubt it, but unfortunately I'm more confident in the North Koreans not attacking then in us. If there's a first strike it'll be from us. But it's not like this would be the first time Trump didn't back up his talk, so he probably won't.

[J. J.]

Nuclear? No. Conventional? Likely.

This.  We are much closer to a resumption of the Korean War than to a nuclear exchange.