North Korean executed for eating his children.

[Caliga]

Yep....

[mongers]

Yep....

And get the gamble wrong and you flush another 500+ billion dollars down a hole. Which you might indirectly have to 'borrow' from the Chinese.

[Valmy]

Yep....

And get the gamble wrong and you flush another 500+ billion dollars down a hole. Which you might indirectly have to 'borrow' from the Chinese.

I figured since you just compared Caliga to Hitler you were going somewhere douchey with this.

[derspiess]

Though I sometimes wonder if North Korea isn't simply such a defective state that in the event their military stuff wouldn't work.

I wouldn't count on that.  From all appearances they treat their weaponry with more care than they do their soldiers.  Which follows the old East Bloc philosophy.  The East Germans, for example, kept their weapons stored in climate-controlled buildings while their soldiers suffered in shitty living quarters.

Having said that, their weaponry is a generation or two behind the South Koreans and possibly three generations behind ours.  So while it'll probably *work*, it still won't be as effective as that of any Western foe.

But like you said, Seoul residents might not be too keen on any serious shooting.

[Caliga]

I was hoping that new kid might liberalize stuff, since he did live abroad for a while and all, but it seems like he's turning out to be as much of a douche (a Juche douche?  ) as his old man.

[mongers]

Yep....

And get the gamble wrong and you flush another 500+ billion dollars down a hole. Which you might indirectly have to 'borrow' from the Chinese.

I figured since you just compared Caliga to Hitler you were going somewhere douchey with this.

Valmy flying off the handle, again. 

I think you'll find the expression has been used in all sorts of context since and no doubt wasn't wholly original at the time.

And the comparison wasn't between Cal. and Hitler, but about the toppling of what appear to be two unpopular totalitarian regimes.
Something he got as he didn't take offence, unlike you on his behalf.

[derspiess]

I was hoping that new kid might liberalize stuff, since he did live abroad for a while and all, but it seems like he's turning out to be as much of a douche (a Juche douche?  ) as his old man.

He has made economic reforms that have shown some success.  Looks paltry by our standards but a small step in the right direction.  I don't know how much reform he really wants to do, but I'm sure he knows that the safest bet for him is to take it slow.  I'd like to think the China model would work in North Korea, but it's such a whacked-out place who knows.

[Valmy]

Valmy flying off the handle, again.

Again?  Heh, I am way too sleep deprived these days to get too worked up by anything.

I think you'll find the expression has been used in all sorts of context since and no doubt wasn't wholly original at the time.

And the comparison wasn't between Cal. and Hitler, but about the toppling of what appear to be two unpopular totalitarian regimes.
Something he got as he didn't take offence, unlike you on his behalf.

LOL ok martyr boy.  I was more amused than anything else.  I figured you were ready to do some anti-US trashtalking there.  No the comparison was that Hitler was completely wrong which was where you were going with that, it was pretty obvious.

[jimmy olsen]

Yep....

And get the gamble wrong and you flush another 500+ billion dollars down a hole. Which you might indirectly have to 'borrow' from the Chinese.

We won't be paying for it.

We break it, South Korea fixes it.

[Razgovory]

While scary in it's own way, it's less impressive then a successful nuclear test.

[Camerus]

I can't see China agreeing to let their vassal state get raped either.

[dps]

A part of me wonders if they could be neutralized with massive air strikes (certainly we'd want to destroy whatever partly-functional nuclear and conventional ballistic capability they have) and the the threat of invasion would cause their military to just collapse or turn on the regime.

I doubt that their military would turn on the regime.

North Korea isn't a large country.  I think we could probably neutralize the conventional artillery that they have trained on Seoul, and their ballistic missle and nuclear armaments as well--provided that we know where all that stuff is.  We probably do know;  I can't see how we wouldn't know where the conventional artillery that's targeting Seoul is located, and I would hope that we have someone tracking their nuclear and missle capacity.  I'm guessing that the biggest drawback is that gathering the resources to take out their offensive capabilities, and building a political coalition that would make doing it realistic, would tip our hand and might cause them to launch a pre-emptive strike.  While I have no doubt that we could easily defeat them in an all-out war, that could do a lot of damage to South Korea.

[Valmy]

I can't see China agreeing to let their vassal state get raped either.

Well that is the real trick.  I wish they would control their vassal state better.