REDZMAN:
Uhm...
Osama is dead folks.
End of story.
He died in the bombing of Tora Bora.
Let's see...
1 video a week for months, then we bomb the hell out of the only place in Afganistan with the types of rocks he's standing in front of in the videos, now no more videos and spotty forged audio.
Hmm... Either we scared the crap out of him and broke his camera or the focker is dead.
Dead.

Well, being that I'm stationed about 10 miles from N. Korea, many people have the wrong outlook on them. The problem with the north is that for 50 years they've been trying this stuff. There have been incidents that most of you probably don't remember. The axe murders in the 70's. The Russian that ran over the DMZ to defect and the shootout that ensued in the 80's. The numerous sub and patrol boat incidents that happen every year. This country has been at war for 50 years with the North. This is a cease fire, the war has never ended, and every year there are still deaths in this conflict.

Why don't we just run up there and get them? Well, remember peeps, the US is here as a member of the UN, not just to be here. We are here because we have volunteered the largest force to be garrisoned here as a tripwire in event of war.

Why hasn't the North run down here? They almost did. Several times. Besides the incidents I wrote about up above, in 1995 they shot down a OH-58 Kiowa scout chopper flying along the DMZ and it crashed on the North side. The Copilot was killed and the pilot was beaten and abused. He was returned about a month later. In the early 80's we discovered 3 tunnels, large enough to move a DIVISION of soldiers, equipment (All the way up to TANKS), and support, an HOUR thru, running under the DMZ. One was within 20 miles of Seoul. The North's chance to do so is gone. Their military is crumbling, Russia and China don't want to lose favored trade nation status and such with the US or be seen as supporting a crazy government. North Korea would have to go it on their own. When that "Tripwire" goes off, half the US military and a large section of the UN's military would be sent here immedately. The North would lose this time. Everything. Keep in mind that their equipment is getting very old (T-72's, a few T-80's, small Air Force, small Navy, ineffective Anti Tank weapons, ect.), and this will eventually go the way of the Iron Curtain. The north will fall and the countries will reunite, peacefully. I say within the next 10 to 15 years.

South Korea Army... DO NOT discount these guys. I've worked with them 2 times now and they are some of the toughest and most dedicated soldiers I've ever seen. They are beaten and shown classified videos of what happened in the last Korean war. They have VERY good equipment, and if the "Tripwire" goes off, every male in the South would be a reservist.

All this stuff in the news. We call it saber rattling. While it may be a bit disturbing that they are starting a Nuke Reactor back up, they are not moblizing their Army past where they usually are this time of the year. If the North wants to give it a try, we'd have about 2 days notice before hand. As for WMD, they will not use lots of persistant agents (Chemical or Bio agents that stick around) because they want this land for farming and such. Would YOU want to eat a poisoned potato? Non Persistant (Short duration Chem or Bio weapons) would be use very sparingly. Remember, they want a lightning war, get it over quick because they don't have the infrastructure to back a long war anymore. They won't use much of them because they'd also have to run and fight thru the same areas using the same protective equipment (Actually, their chem protective equipment is obsolete) and suffering from the same drawbacks. Nukes? Well, it's sorta hard to farm radioactive soil, so most likely if they DO have nukes, they wouldn't use them on South Korea. However, they may try on Japan or elsewhere, but with the missles they have to get them there, the Japaneese Navy's Ageis Destroyers and our Patriot Missile batteries around South Korea would most likely take them out (Also remember that the Patriot is MUCH improved over the Desert Storm model).

In short, North Korea is troublesome, that's for sure. Dangerous? Yes. Could they start the war back up? Definately. Will they? No. They want everyone to see that they are dangerous and to make the US look bad because we cut off the support we were giving them. Why else would they talk about the US invading the North? 37,000 troops versus 2,000,000? Not. They are playing the same game as Yam does with SR. Angelic answers and "I'm never wrong, YOU are."

The biggest problem the North poses to us is exporting of WMD or their components.

On to Iraq...

Seriousness? VERY. Remember that this country has USED WMD in the past on it's OWN people and on Iran during the war those countries fought. Saddam is VERY unstable and has rebuilt a majority of his military. Saddam and Osama went to High School together and used to bang sorority sisters (I can prove none of that however... ). Yamanenko... I mean Saddam, has also provided training grounds, equipment, and seclusion for terrorists in his past and in the present.

On a personal sidenote, I've got this sneaking feeling that this focker helped with the 9-11 attacks.

Iraq needs new government. Period. The people won't vote him out of office because if they tried they'd me punished BADLY. They refuse to work with the rest of the world, even though, I must admit, I'm impressed by how much they HAVE been trying to do.

Oil? For everyone that thinks this is about oil, remember the fact that the FIRST Gulf War was a HUGE mulitnational effort, and as soon as we pushed them out of Kuwait, we stopped. If it was about Oil, we would have kept going and gotten all the oil that Iraq has also. Remember that we've lived without their oil for a LONG time now. Do we need it? Nah.