North Korea - WTF?!?!?! (Page 5)

Nice.

I'm only joking Blanda.  When responding to Appa, you never want to be serious.    As a former Navy man, I love Guam.

OK, I like jokes, and now I like you.

well, it all started with this war back in 1950.  The war ended in a permanent cease-fire state and some whacko was the leader of the North, and he had babies. And his babies had babies.  The End.

If you haven't checked it out already, I'd suggest starting at Wikipedia.  It's usually quite good for gaining a quick background on such subjects.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_korea

The guy is completely nuts, so the thing I'm having trouble understanding is why we're making a bit of a show of our military presence in the area?  If we were dealing with someone more rational, like with the USSR during the cold war, it makes sense, but this seems like a completely different situation.  Am I the only one who thinks it just increases the chances of this lunatic doing something really stupid?

I learned more about the Korean war from M*A*S*H than I ever did in high school. Sorry but it just kind of got lost between WWI, WWII, and Vietnam. College was not much better.

btw As far as I can tell NK does this every time they want food, mostly because it works.

Have you actually looked at a news outlet for an article explaining exactly what the problem is?  There's plenty out there I can "google" or read on the internet all about their military capabilities, the range of their missiles, what China thinks about all this and how crazy the rest of the world thinks their leader is.  But when it comes down to the pure fundamentals of why they're acting this way, what their problem is and what they hope to accomplish there's not a lot out there.

Very well put.  Quite simply, the Korean War just did not get as much attention in school as many of the other conflicts throughout the world.  I can tell you all about the reasons, how it started and how it ended for WWI, WWII and Vietnam, but with the Korean war my best guess is that a certain people were oppressed and the US stepped in to help out.

To simplify a complex geopolitical subject, The US involvement in Korea was basically part of the US strategy of communist containment (the Truman Doctrine). The idea being that if neighboring countries fell to communism then it was likely that the countries in that region would also fall to communism. So the push was to surround the USSR with NATO like organizations to prevent expansion of communism.

The Korean peninsula is a relic of the Cold War.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_military_and_paramilitary_personnel

Look at Iran versus North Korea.   North Korean army is 2x larger than Iran.  They have the largest in the world if you count the reserves.  They are doing missile tests and have nuclear weapons.  Until the week ago or so people were way more worried about Iran.  I heard so many people begging to go to war because they might work to getting a nuclear weapon even though Iran claims otherwise.   North Korea we tend to look at as a joke and yet are ready to go.

More attention would be focused on NK if NK was located on the Arabian Peninsula. Actually, I would bet the place would have already been turned into a spec of dust if NK was located just about anywhere else in the world than where it is. But since they are geographically and politically fairly contained they don't require the daily attention of an Iran to protect American security and interests.

Rotten youth.  :p

Back at ya!!! 

Good point here.  When we discuss whether or not their leader is insane, well, there's actually a good amount of logic to his threats.  If the USA escalates military displays, it actually HELPS him.  Because the entire country has a fully locked down 100% government news / propaganda machine.

With the tension ratcheting up, in the USA we think - big deal, we won't start a war.  But you can bet their people are very afraid of exactly that.  That's how their government portrays us.  They get little other information from outside.  So when we do a show of force, it only reinforces their support for the regime.

Not to mention, joining the army is one of the ways to get food on your table in NK...

my work out buddy at work.  When we were watching Fox news and we learned that Iran 4 years closer to a nuclear program than they were 4 years ago. He was trying to convince everyone we need to go to war immediately. 

I also read's people FB posts too.  Now with those not sure how many people at a quick glance I share it without really paying attention to what its pushing.

People just hear so many doom and gloom they get scared out of there minds.  They can not wait to go to war thinking its our only way to protect ourselves from the scary outsiders.  We have our own propaganda machine that drive people to thinking this.  Why would it any be less in NK?

He had babies and his babies had babies...that's it?  Kind of downplaying the events a bit don't you think.  You left out the part where his son's birth changed winter in to spring, caused a new star to appear in the sky, a freaking iceberg talked! The man learned to walk at 3 weeks, talk at 8 weeks, and never once in his life defecated.

On second thought, you might be on to something with the whole wacko angle.