The “tit for tat” strategy currently employed by the military should be used in diplomacy.
As you read this column, a message pops-up on your screen from Fox News, announcing that a nuclear missile from North Korea is headed toward an American base in the Asian-Pacific region. Your mind is racing. Could the regime hit American forces? How many would be killed or wounded? Can we hit them back and destroy their nuclear capability?
Of course, it hasn’t happened by the time you to to the end of the paragraph. But you’re still wondering if this nightmare scenario is inevitable and if the Trump administration can do anything about it. Could China be an ally this time—instead of an enemy as it was during the Korean War—and offer a peaceful solution to end the crisis?
The good news is that North Korea is not “an existential threat” to the United States of America according to U. S. diplomat Mark Fitzpatrick, a nuclear proliferation expert who spoke at at a briefing on nuclear threats.
But, should this nightmare scenario emerge, North Korea could inflict terrible harm upon American forces in Asia or the Pacific. Its missiles could hit the 28,000 of American armed forces in South Korea, or perhaps the nearly 50,000 in Japan. There’s also the 4,800 U. S. Marines in Guam, or the 10,000 of America’s armed forces in Okinawa.
When asked about the biggest nuclear challenges to America, however, Fitzpatrick noted that North Korea and South Asia were ahead of Russia and China, due to the greater intent to use nuclear weapons in the case of the former, or against each other in the case of the latter.
Could we destroy all of North Korea’s nukes in an attack? The respected Stratfor team reveals that while America had plenty of tools, it would have no guarantee it could destroy every North Korean nuclear weapon, unless the intelligence was perfect. “Realistically, absent the use of nuclear weapons or the invasion and occupation of North Korea, the United States and its allies are already at a point where they cannot guarantee the complete removal of the threat of a North Korean nuclear attack.”
And North Korea has more than just nukes that can do a lot of damage.
