It's a provocation against the North Korean Stalinist regime. That's exactly how the unstable and paranoid North Korean regime will view it .... as a dare. Do we really think poking a stick in the eyeball of the North Korean regime is a rational and effective policy? Just try poking a person in the chest a few times with your finger as you yell at them and see what happens.
The Stalinist regime isn't bluffing and I believe they will respond with a massive attack on South Korea if the war drills proceed. They promise that. They certainly proved that they are willing to respond with military force with their attack on Yeonpyeong Island. And yet, the conservative political leaders in South Korea seem determined to "call their bluff"! At what price? To Koreans, north and south? And to Americans?
If the right-wing South Korean regime isn't worried about a resumption of a far deadlier Korean War and its likely nuclear escalation they will proceed with their war games, especially if the Obama administration encourages them to proceed with a game of "nuclear chicken".
President Obama can follow the advice of other world leaders and stop this descent into insanity or he can ignore them at his own peril and the peril of our nation.
Of course, a North Korean military response to a South Korean military shelling of disputed territory will all but guarantee the resumption of a full scale Korean war.
And that would necessitate a massive military mobilization with a resumption of the draft in the United States to fight not only world-wide terrorism but now the "communist menace" from North Korea and perhaps even China!
Being on a "war footing" would pretty much give the U.S. government and other western governments all the more excuse to crack down on progressive individuals and organizations around the world. And a Korean war would result in new calls for even greater economic sacrifices from working people and the elderly (higher taxes and massive cuts in benefits) in order to finance hundreds of billions, if not trillions of dollars in new U.S. war funding that would be required in a new Korean war.
And we'd see a giant bi-partisan lurch to the right to "defend the homeland" by both major political parties.
The Democrats and President Obama certainly wouldn't want to be pictured by Republicans as being "soft on communist aggression" or "subversives" at home who oppose U.S. military interventions around the world.
So before any progressives get too anxious, excited or even pleased about the prospect of a renewal of the Korean war because they don't like the North Korean dictatorship and who seem to get almost giddy with South Korean tweaks of the "great leader" in the north, they need to look at the big picture and what such a war will mean at home .... and for all Koreans and much of the world.
This is serious shit, not a war "game".
BBI
-------------------------------------------
Korean peninsula conflict threatens to erupt in coming days
By Ryan Witt
December 18, 2010A standoff between North and South Korea threatens to erupt into a heated conflict if both sides follow through with their threats. At issue is planned live-fire drills planned on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong. The last time South Korea conducted artillery drills on the island the North responded by bombarding the island with their own artillery and rockets. The attack resulted in the death of two South Korean marines and two civilians. Sometime in the coming days South Korea has said it plans to conduct more drills from the island, firing artillery shells into the Yellow Sea. North Korea has responded by saying they will once again attack the island if South Korea follows through with the drill.
The last time the North shelled Yeonpyeong the South Koreans fired back and readied their air force to respond. Many believe the conflict was then on the edge of erupting into a full-scale war until both sides backed down. Following the attack the South vowed to respond to any future attacks with enormous retaliation. The United States pledged to support the South Koreans and later sent the USS George Washington aircraft carrier to conduct military joint military exercises with the South. The North also made threats over these exercises, saying that the United States was bringing the region to the “brink of war.” The USS George Washington is now conducting military exercises off the coast of Japan.
American officials within North Korea have also warned about the tense situation. Former Governor Bill Richardson is meeting with North Korean officials in an attempt to defuse the situation which he called a “tinderbox.” China and Russia have also issues warnings about how the conflict may escalate in coming days. Many countries are putting pressure on the South Koreans to cancel the drills, but the South maintains it has a right to conduct its own military drills and they have the backing of the United States. The Obama administration has reportedly set up a hotline with South Korea to be able to communicate with the government in Seoul if the situation grows more heated.
http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/korean-peninsula-conflict-threatens-to-erupt-coming-days-------------------------------------------
Costs of war on the Korean Peninsula would be extremely high
By Ryan Witt
November 23, 2010Iraq, as we now all know, had no weapons of mass destruction. North Korea, on the other hand, is believed to have massive quantities (at least 2,500 metric tons) of chemical weapons such as phosgene, hydrogen cyanide, mustard, and sarin gas. They also have the means to deliver these chemicals via artillery shells and rockets along the border with South Korea. Unless the South Korean air force was able to destroy all of these well-defended delivery systems simultaneously the major population of centers of South Korea would almost surely be hit with an artillery and rocket bombardment that would inflict massive casualties. Some of the rockets possessed by the North Koreans are also capable of reaching Japan or the U.S. military base in Guam. Finally, the North Koreans also likely have a nuclear weapons, though it is unclear if they have developed the means to use it. Needless to say the use nuclear weapons could take the conflict to whole other level.
North Korea also posseses a million-man army which can be stationed along defenses throughout their country. The North Koreans have significant numbers of surface-to-air missiles and have deposited about one million land mines along the border as an obstacle to invasion.
As a result of all these defenses and offensive capabilities of the North Koreans, a full-scale war would likely mean the kind of destruction not seen in over fifty years. The South Koreans and United States could of course respond with their own capabilities, include tactical nuclear weapons, but that would only increase the damage to the peninsula and potentially widen the conflict. The war games played out by the Pentagon estimate over 100,000 casualties in South Korea alone in the first few days. The first 90 days of a full-scale war would produce 300,000 to 500,000 South Korean and United States military casualties. Hundreds of thousands more civilians would die. At the end of the war games the United States of course emerges victorious. After the first wave of North Korean attacks the United States and South Korea would prevail with superior technology, but not before leaving much of the Korean peninsula in ruins.
In the meantime, the world economy may very well collapse as a result of the conflict. South Korea is a major U.S. trading partner, buying over $2 billion American exports each year. The South Korean economy is the 15th largest in the world. In comparison Greece, whose economic collapse caused serious troubles across the world, has a GDP which is half as large as South Korea's.
Read the full article at:
http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/why-a-war-on-the-korean-peninsula-simply-doesn-t-make-sense-video?cid=parsely#parsely-------------------------------------------
Russia warns S. Korea, U.S. over live-firing drill
December 17, 2010
(Reuters) Russia's foreign ministry summoned the South Korean and U.S. ambassadors to express "extreme concern" on Friday over a planned live-firing drill near a disputed maritime border with North Korea.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin met with the envoys and "insistently urged the Republic of Korea and the United States to refrain from conducting the planned firing," the ministry said in a statement.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6BG1IP20101217-------------------------------------------
Russian forces on alert over Korea tension-report
December 14, 2010
ReutersRussia has put its forces on alert in the country's far east because of increased tension on the Korean Peninsula, the Interfax news agency quoted the top military commander as saying Tuesday.
"Without a doubt, we have taken measures to increase the combat-readiness of our forces," military General Staff chief Nikolai Makarov said, Interfax reported. He said the military was "continuing to monitor" the situation.
Makarov spoke a day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his visiting North Korean counterpart that Moscow was "seriously concerned about the growth of military and political tension on the peninsula," according to the ministry.
Monday, Lavrov told North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun that Pyongyang's deadly shelling of a South Korean island last month deserved condemnation but also suggested joint South Korean-U.S. military exercises had added to tension.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BD1PZ20101214?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r2:c0.176471:b40347584:z0-------------------------------------------
Blitzer Dispatch: Richardson says it's a 'tinderbox'
By: CNN’s “The Situation Room” Anchor Wolf BlitzerPyongyang, North Korea (CNN) - It's Saturday morning in Pyongyang and we're getting ready for another intense day. The situation here is very fluid right now and a lot of nerves are being frayed because of the tensions between North and South Korea. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson is getting ready for important talks in the next few hours with Kim Gye Gwan, North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, the man who invited him to Pyongyang.
Richardson is urging restraint everywhere he goes. He's really worried that this situation is, in his words, a "tinderbox" where one miscalculation could lead to all-out war. He says he's never seen the situation so tense in all his visits to North Korea over the years; he agrees it's the most serious crisis since the 1953 Armistice which ended the Korean War.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/17/blitzer-dispatch-richardson-says-its-a-tinderbox/-------------------------------------------
Russia seeks Security Council meet on Korea—diplomats
Agence France-Presse
December 19, 2010UNITED NATIONS—Russia on Saturday called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, diplomatic sources said.
American sources said a decision had yet to be made on the meeting, but if it does take place it would likely be at 3:00 pm (2000 GMT) Saturday.
North Korea had hours earlier predicted "disaster" if South Korea goes ahead with a planned live-fire artillery exercise on the Yeonpyeong border island bombarded by the isolated communist state last month.
The upcoming exercise "would make it impossible to prevent the situation on the Korean peninsula from exploding and escape its ensuing disaster," Pyongyang said in a statement.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20101219-309795/Russia-seeks-Security-Council-meet-on-Koreadiplomats 
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