The Pentagon has produced plans to bomb North Korea's nuclear plant at Yongbyon, if the rogue state goes ahead with reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods that would yield enough plutonium for six nuclear weapons, according to a published report Tuesday. Citing "well-informed sources close to U.S. thinking," the Australian newspaper reported the plan also involves a military strike against North Korean artillery stationed in the hills above the border with South Korea.
Better have China onboard or paralyzed
The artillery threatens Seoul and about 17,000 U.S. troops stationed south of the Demilitarized Zone. The Pentagon hardliners
military planners aren't hardliners, just not diplomats
said to be behind the plan reportedly believe the precision strikes envisaged in it would not lead to North Korea initiating a general war it would be certain to lose. The United States would inform North Korea it was not aiming to destroy the regime of Kim Jong-il, but merely destroy its nuclear weapons capacity, the newspaper reported. However, the Bush administration hasn't made a decision to accept the plan.
So it's just another plan being floated to see how it's responded to or for diploleverage
Instead, President George W. Bush has emphasized that they believe diplomacy can work with North Korea. The United States, North Korea and China are were? I thought we'd backed out? scheduled to hold talks in Beijing on Wednesday.
| NKor couldn't possibly ignore or even live with a strike on its nuclear and artillery positions. To do so would be an admission it was powerless in the face of the U.S. and SKor. So we can just forget that idea of explaining we're not going for regime change. If we were to hit them, it would have to be with the sole objective of regime change. On the plus side, I think we'd also find that NKor is just as hollow as Iraq was, regardless of the goose-stepping parades, regardless of all the 20-foot portraits of Kimmie they lug around, and regardless of how many people throng the streets shouting "Kimmie, we will defend you with our blood!" |
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