NORKORCOM NUCLEAR TEST

The question has been posed - "Is there a military option?"

There is always a military option. The question is not "Is there a military option?" Rather, the question is "Can we afford the price?"

Unfortunately, the primo window of opportunity to have launched an attack would have been BEFORE 9/11.

The fact remains we could still launch an attack on North Korea, although our resources are stretched mighty thin. Options include anything from commando raids - which are difficult to plan & coordinate - to air strikes, to full scale conventional military invasion - up to and including missile attacks.

Planning considerations must include the fact that the North Korean military is a fanatic organization that makes the Waffen SS look like Boy Scouts. They will fight to the bloody end. To complicate matters, the entire country is in hardcore defensive posture (beaucoup anti-aircraft artillery, anti-helicopter cables strung between mountains, minefields galore, and beach defenses a la Atlantic Wall).

And what do we get out of it? Heavy casualties, and another country we have to feed and take care of. Not to mention the fact that any American soldier who has spent time in Korea will tell you the true reason we are there is not to keep the North Koreans from coming South - rather it is to keep the SOUTH Koreans from going NORTH.

Of course, the threat of nuclear proliferation must be addressed, as with the Iran dilemma. To complicate matters, North Korea is backstopped by the world's most populated nation: the Peoples Republic of China. It suits Red China that North Korea pokes a stick in our collective eye socket; this is payback for us supporting Taiwan all these years.

I work with a Korean who is US Army retired. Whenever Kim Jong Il pulls one of his outrageous stunts, her comment is "Oh, they just want more rice."

Unfortunately, with North Korea a combination of containment and carrot & stick is probably our most workable policy. Likewise Cuba. The sad thing is, it is the ordinary people of those countries who suffer terribly, at the hands of their Communist overlords.