North Korea, Military Action.?

yes, the problem is we don't have a leader in office at this time that understands the danger we will be in when N. Korea finally gets the missle and the nuclear war head that is capable of hitting the US.

That would be a preempted strike and legally we can not do that.

If we were to strike because we think some one might it would be against the geneva conventions and International law so it would be considered a war crime.

They have to strike first.

With all of the technology we have I am sure that we could stop that first strike in mid air and strike back ourselves.

Yes the South wants unification and has for some time. I am sure they would be willing to help in every way they can.

This is a far cry different from the war in Iraq. We would have great support from the south.

As for just the south going in with no help, I am not so sure.

I might be mistaken but I remember some where hearing about how large their military is in North Korea.

I hear it is very large for such a small country, so I wouldn't under estimate them.

One thing is for sure, we need to deal with North Korea now before they get more weapons.

North Korea should have been dealt with long before Iraq, but North Korea didn't have any oil.

For the record, the US already does strategically bomb locations beforehand. Iraq being a recent example.

South Korea is more than capable of fighting the North. South Korea has a modern military with excellent equipment and training. South Korea's "ROK Marines" are the stuff of legend.

Considering the US already has a military presence in South Korea, I'm sure we'll have troops fighting as well if we were ever to go to war with the North.

Not going to happen. The US is not going to attack North Korea unless they attack first -- totally unlikely. The last thing South Korea wants is to have to take over North Korea and be responsible for it. The place is a basket case. It would drain the South Korean economy just to bring North Korea up to some minimum standard of modernity, feed the people, re-build the infrastructure, clean up pollution, address massive heath problems.

We aren't afraid of North Korea's nuclear weapons. It will be another decade or more before they're able to miniaturize their warhead design to the point where it could be equipped to an ICBM. Even making a small-enough device as to be air-deliverable given their lack of a true heavy bomber will take easily 3-5 years.

What we *are* afraid of are the tens of thousands of normal artillery pieces and shorter-ranged missiles pointed at South Korea and Japan, and our knowledge that North Korea has a very robust chemical and biological weapons program, and extensively drills their armed forces on how to conduct offensive operations in a "hot" (chemically or biologically-active) environment.

The wild card here is the instability of North Korea's leadership. Is their desire for unification stronger than their desire to spoil victory for their enemies? I hate to answer a question with another question, but North Korea's silence makes it a necessary evil.

Your idea of bombing installations could lead to many civilian casualties and create refugees (which would become a problem in the long term and you are ignoring) as a result of the war.

America shouldn't do anything unless attacked first by the North Koreans.

Uniting both South and North through war, and everyone suddenly becomes happy and prosperous? Do you honestly think its that simple? Even though the NK dictatorship would be destroyed, that doesn't mean that those elements would simply dissappear.

To begin with, what was the purpose of the Korean Wars? What was the purpose of the people who were involved, who suffered and who died from those wars? If that's their purpose, then they cannot fight it.

It is a good plan... N korea has about 26 walled cities that people are forced to work in everyday...in these citys they produce everything need to support their economy. Take out these cities and some military complexes and you have not much left to fight with. The problem is the leadership has no conscience for loss of human loss he will kill thousands to keep his leadership, with chemical biological and possible nuclear. South korea would need help to defeat the north...they just arent strong enough on their own.

Nothing is that simple. In order to drop bombs on all government complexes, nuclear sites, and military sites, you need to be willing to accept collateral damage and the outcries of being a bully. After you prioritize your targets and drop bombs on the target you need to be able to assess the damage. Satellite photos can only tell you so much and sooner or later you will need boots on the ground.

The air power in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iraq again all show that after you soften the target, you always need a ground force. Continuous bombing and increasing rates of civilian casualties due to collateral damage will not be acceptable.

When you eventually commit your ground forces is when you start to increase your casualty numbers.

The U.S. would most likely not strike without U.N. support and North Korea would need to provoke U.N. action beyond their missile testing and current nuclear advancements.

I would like to see us disarm their crazy leader, slap him, and take away his toys, but I doubt the public support within our country and around the world is there for another military action.

Well they said when their ships get stoped the bombing starts. They could care less what the UN says. Obama will be making some tough choices soon, and our men are everywhere, how could we defeat them????Plus they have way more people in the service than we do. 50,000 of our troops right now are sitting ducks. My guess is, they will launch another to piss us off, then they will attack south korea, and there is war war 3 and everyone looses.

You cannot invade North Korea anymore. Your US predator instincts are of no use now that N. Korea has nuclear weapons it can use against any invading army. North Korea now has immunity to war, if you think you can make war with it like in the 20th century, well sorry grandma, but that's all over now. Conventional war is obsolete.