Quote from Gabfly1:
I don't claim to have the facts. But, as a matter of course, I am not a fan of quick-draw, shoot-from-the-hip solutions to complex diplomatic matters. All-or-nothing has manic-depressive written all over it, with all the attendant consequences.
Quote from AAAintheBeltway:
I'm not a big fan of appeasement, but why do we have to do the heavy lifting here? It was a South Korean boat that was hit, not one of ours. As I recall, when they attacked one of our boats decades ago, we did nothing. South Korea is a rich, industrialized country which runs a huge trade surplus with us, thanks to trade barriers. If they want to get into a war, let them but leave us out.
This kind of incident is just why it is madness for us to have troops in SK. The idea is they are a tripwire to bring us immediately into any conflict, but it is pretty clear that appeasement is far more popular than confrontation in SK. They will swallow this incident, like they have many others over the years. I can't say that is a bad approach, given the devastation that a war would bring to them.
Oh, I don't think that was on a whim. W had made noises to his people about Iraq as soon as he came into office. (Daddy issues?) The invasion was bullshit and cost countless lives, but a whim it was not. It was calculated stupidity salted with pseudo-intel.Quote from KINGOFSHORTS:
See what I mean, so it was not shooting from the hip when we invaded Iraq on a whim, when the country had nothing to do with 9/11...
It may happen at some point, as NK's leadership clearly has its head resolutely up its ass, but would you rather not see how else frictions might be resolved? Will nothing other than mass death, mostly of innocents, satisfy you?Quote from KINGOFSHORTS:
...Yet Military action against NK would be shooting from the hip??