I expect an apology from every talking head that belittled Bernie after the debate re North Korea.

[jmowreader]

39. With no expeditionary force to back it up, it isn't a feasible scenario

Here is an illustration of what would happen if North Korea conducted an unprovoked nuclear attack:

You attack another country because you want something they have. KJU is under the impression the US and their South Korean Puppets are going to just rush up there any minute now and take over his country...because, as we all know, EVERYONE is just rarin' to go to war to capture the world's most un-navigable terrain, technology 30 years out of date, and 25 million starving people. Therefore, he has nuclear weapons as a threat - "invade my country and I'll nuke Hawaii flat." They wouldn't want to nuke South Korea because they need the ROK's industrial base.

Their only major natural resource is rare earths, which are used to make electronics. The DPRK has a LOT of them - the best estimate is North Korea has reserves six times that of China. No one would go to war over rare earths, though; you can get them from China through a normal purchase, and if the stupid bastard that runs North Korea would quit unilaterally cancelling contracts he could sell them easily for all the hard currency North Korea would ever need.

OTOH, the United States has a LOT of things North Korea desperately needs and can't afford to buy, like food and petroleum. There is no way they could take that stuff from here as spoils of war, though: They don't have the troops they need to take over the US, nor the transport to get them there...or the transport to move the looted booty back to the US...or, most critically, the will to fight fifty million heavily-armed American civilians on our home soil.

If KJU were to get up one morning and decide to nuke the United States for no good reason, the generals who have had just about enough of his shit - and who also know nuking the United States without cause would invite instantaneous hundredfold retaliation - would put three rounds in KJU's five ring and the threat would end at that point.

Russia is a different story. They HAVE an expeditionary force, and quite a good one. They have plenty of transport and logistics. They ALSO have the brains to draw America into a war far from the US mainland, which would enable them to cut our supply lines. Look back in history: one of the Nazis' most successful tactics during World War II was to use submarines to sink our supply ships.

Because Russia has the means to prosecute a war and North Korea does not, Russia is a bigger threat to the US than North Korea is.