OPINION | Defending South Korea, which possesses around 40 times the GDP and twice the population of the North, is a matter of choice.
War fever appears to be hitting a fever pitch in Washington. President Donald Trump Donald Trump Trump budget chief defines good shutdown as ‘one that fixes this town’ Despite Trump’s clamor, big-bank breakups not in the cards Worried about war with North Korea? Withdraw from South Korea — seriously MORE warned that there is a chance of a “ major, major conflict ” with North Korea. He brought the entire U. S. Senate membership over to the White House for a briefing on the potential confrontation.
A number of members are doing the usual congressional war dance which breaks out when wannabe commanders-in-chief push the president to take action! Sen. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Graham Worried about war with North Korea? Withdraw from South Korea — seriously Dem: Trump crying shutdown because he lost McCain ‘looking at other options’ to pass Russia sanctions MORE was making the case for war last week. He told NBC he favored preventative war “ If that’s what it would take.”
Given the high likelihood that North Korea would retaliate, Lindsey admitted that the ensuing conflict “would be bad for the Korean Peninsula. It would be bad for China. It would be bad for Japan, be bad for South Korea. It would be the end of North Korea.”
And even so, U. S. casualties likely would be very high, as American forces rushed in to stop a North Korean invasion backed by biological, chemical, and perhaps nuclear weapons. Overall casualty estimates start in the tens of thousands and race skyward. To trigger the war which the U. S. has spent 64 years attempting to prevent would be extraordinarily foolish.
Especially since there is a very easy way to remove the North Korean target from American cities. Withdraw U. S. troops from the Republic of Korea.
Washington policymakers horrified by the thought that Pyongyang might be able to target America ignore the fact that the U. S. was vulnerable to Soviet attack for most of the Cold War. Eventually China added a rudimentary capability to do so as well.
Yet leaders as foul as Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong did not strike America. They didn’ t want to die or destroy their societies.
