[Peace-discuss] Will there be a US nuclear sneak attack on North Korea?

Sun Jan 28 01:35:08 UTC 2018

absolutely NOT - it would be insane because Japan and the rest of the world
would suffer the effects.

On Sat, Jan 27, 2018 at 4:52 PM, Karen Aram via Peace-discuss <
peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

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> Will there be a US nuclear sneak attack on North Korea? By Bill Van Auken *WSWS.ORG
> <http://wsws.org>*
> 26 January 2018
>
> Under the cover of the pre-Winter Olympics thaw between North and South
> Korea and the momentary lull in the “fire and fury” rhetoric from the Trump
> White House, there are growing signs that the Pentagon and the CIA are
> pressing ahead with preparations for a preemptive war against North Korea,
> including the use of nuclear weapons.
>
> There have been multiple reports in the American corporate media of
> behind-the-scenes discussions between the US military and intelligence
> apparatus and the Trump administration of the feasibility of a so-called
> “bloody nose” attack, involving US air strikes on North Korean nuclear
> facilities, with the expectation—however ill-founded—that they would not
> provoke a full-scale war.
>
> In a rare public speech, CIA Director Mike Pompeo hinted obliquely at
> these plans. Speaking before the right-wing think tank American Enterprise
> Institute Tuesday, Pompeo warned that Pyongyang was a “handful of months”
> away from achieving the capability of staging a nuclear attack against the
> US mainland.
>
> The CIA director said that Washington was “going to foreclose that risk”
> and “denuclearize permanently” North Korea.
>
> While asserting that the Trump administration was committed to a “solution
> through diplomatic means”—a claim belied by Trump’s chiding of his
> Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last October for “wasting his time” by
> seeking negotiations with the government of Kim Jung Un—Pompeo said that
> the CIA was working with the Pentagon to “prepare a series of options to
> make sure that we can deliver a range of things so the president will have
> the full suite of possibilities.”
>
> He added that he would “leave to others to address the capacity or the
> wisdom of a preemptive strike.”
>
> The issue of “capacity,” however, is already being decided through a
> series of ominous actions taken by the US military.
>
> Earlier this month, the Air Force deployed six B-52H Stratofortress
> bombers along with 300 Airmen from Barksdale Air Base in Louisiana to Guam
> to replace six B-1B Lancer bombers. The positioning of the B-52s, which
> unlike the B-1B bombers are capable of delivering nuclear weapons, marks a
> major escalation.
> US B-2 nuclear capable bomber
>
> “The B-52H’s return to the Pacific will provide [US Pacific Command] and
> its regional allies and partners with a credible, strategic power
> projection platform,” the Air Force said in a statement. “The B-52 is
> capable of flying at high subsonic speeds at altitudes up to 50,000 feet
> and can carry nuclear or precision guided conventional ordnance with
> worldwide precision navigation capability. This forward-deployed presence
> demonstrates the continued commitment of the US to allies and partners in
> the Indo-Pacific region.”
>
> A week earlier, the Pentagon deployed three B-2 nuclear-capable stealth
> bombers to the Guam air base.
>
> The deployments mark the first time in nearly two and a half years that
> all three bombers—the B-52s, B-2s and B-1Bs—have been assembled together in
> Guam, only 2,200 miles away from targets in North Korea.
>
> The Bloomberg News agency reported Wednesday that the US Air Force
> “deployed an upgraded version of the U.S’s largest non-nuclear bomb—a
> 30,000-pound “bunker buster” that can only be carried by the B-2 stealth
> bombers now based in Guam.”
>
> The weapon, which is larger than the so-called Mother of all Bombs (MOAB)
> dropped on Afghanistan last April “could be used if the US decided to hit
> underground nuclear missile facilities in North Korea,” Bloomberg reported
>
> Meanwhile, the USS Carl Vinson, a US Navy Nimitz-class supercarrier,
> together with its accompanying strike group of guided-missile destroyers
> and other warships, departed from San Diego earlier this month and is
> scheduled to arrive off the Korean peninsula in advance of the Winter
> Olympic Games set to begin in Pyeongchang, South Korea on February 9. It
> will join the USS Ronald Reagan carrier battle group already deployed in
> Japan.
>
> The USS Wasp, a 40,000-ton miniature aircraft carrier, is now operating
> from Japan, carrying F-35B jets, the Pentagon’s most advanced warplanes,
> which are capable of carrying B61 thermonuclear gravity bombs, a
> ground-penetrating bunker buster weapon that could be used against
> underground nuclear and command and control facilities in North Korea.
>
> Alongside this buildup of nuclear strike forces, US ground and airborne
> troops have been rehearsing for an invasion at bases throughout the United
> States, while 1,000 Army reservists have been called up for active duty to
> man “mobilization centers” used for the rapid movement of troops overseas.
>
> These feverish military preparations are taking place as South Korea has
> persuaded Washington to call off planned joint military exercises on the
> Korean peninsula itself, which Pyongyang had denounced as a provocation and
> preparation for invasion.
>
> The South Korean government of President Moon Jae-in has used the upcoming
> 2018 Olympics Winter Games to resume dialogue with North Korea, which has
> agreed to send a large delegation to the games, with North and South Korean
> women ice hockey players joining for the first time in a unified team.
>
> Kim Jong-un issued a conciliatory statement Thursday calling for all
> Koreans “at home and abroad” to work to “rapidly improve north-south
> relations” and for a “breakthrough for independent reunification.”
>
> In Davos, meanwhile, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said at
> a news briefing, “The nuclear issue has to be solved through negotiations
> and diplomatic endeavors. This idea of a military solution is unacceptable.”
>
> She declined to comment when asked if Washington had given Seoul clear
> assurances that it would not carry out a unilateral military strike. She
> added, “This is our fate that is at stake. Any option that is to be taken
> on the Korean peninsula, cannot be implemented without us going along.”
>
> It is by no means clear, however, that the Trump administration has given
> Seoul any veto power over US military action. There is no doubt that
> Washington views the talks between Seoul and Pyongyang as a threat to its
> policy of “maximum pressure” against North Korea and a potential obstacle
> to its preparations for war. Far from decreasing the US war drive, any move
> toward accommodation between Seoul and Pyongyang is likely to only increase
> the pressure within the US ruling establishment and its military and
> intelligence apparatus to resolve the issue by means of military aggression.
>
> Amid the US military buildup, the US government Wednesday rolled out a new
> round of sanctions aimed at strangling North Korea’s economy. These latest
> sanctions targeted nine entities, 16 individuals and six North Korean
> ships. Among those on the sanction list were two China-based trading firms.
>
> Beijing reacted with hostility to the new sanctions. “China resolutely
> opposes any country using its own laws to carry out long-arm jurisdiction
> on Chinese companies or individuals,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said.
>
> The continuing danger of war on the Korean peninsula, which carries with
> it the threat of a nuclear conflagration that could claim the lives of
> millions, was cited Thursday by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in
> moving its so-called Doomsday Clock, which it has maintained since 1947, 30
> seconds forwards, to two minutes to midnight. This is only the second time
> in more than seven decades that the group has assessed this grave a threat
> of nuclear war.
>
> It also cited the Trump administration’s threat to upend the Iran nuclear
> deal and rising tensions between the US and Russia, the world’s two largest
> nuclear powers. It called attention as well to the Trump administration’s
> Nuclear Posture Review which seeks to “increase the types and roles of
> nuclear weapons in US defense plans and lower the threshold” for their use.
>
> The administration and the Pentagon have also recently issued a National
> Security Strategy and a National Defense Strategy, which spell out a
> fundamental shift in US strategy, replacing the two-decade-old “global war
> on terror” with the preparation for “great power” conflict and world war,
> in which an emphasis is placed on the buildup of Washington’s nuclear
> arsenal.
>
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