With Donald Trump\u2019s decision to call Kim Jong Un\u2019s bluff by sending the U.S.S. Carl Vinson task force steaming in the direction of the Hermit Kingdom, there have been multiple articles out there repeating the possible dire consequences of actually engaging the belligerent little bully militarily. The obscure North Korean functionary and propagandist who years ago first threatened to turn his country\u2019s southern sister state into a \u201cSea of Fire\u201d in response to some minor provocation, may have seemed a bit of a ham-handed saber-rattler at the time, but he most assuredly created a lasting and wearisome media clich\u00e9 that surfaces in Western publications every time there\u2019s a new dustup with North Korea.<\/p>\n
Moreover, almost every article referencing this \u201cSea of Fire\u201d explains that term to readers by pointing out that Seoul, South Korea\u2019s largest city, lies so close to the border between the two nations that it will likely be destroyed in the opening artillery salvos from the North should the balloon go up. This they point out is almost certainly due to the fact that North Korea has positioned countless thousands of artillery pieces and rocket launchers along their side of the demilitarized zone for just that purpose. They usually quote some military expert that any American attack on North Korea unavoidably will sign Seoul\u2019s doom.<\/p>\n
This old soldier ain\u2019t buyin\u2019 it. For one thing, if Seoul is 30 to 35 miles from the closest Nork artillery placements, a quick examination of the map shows that from that narrow southernmost point the North Korean border swings back north, both east and west from that closest point, so that there could only be but a few hundred artillery pieces and rocket launchers, not the thousands quoted by Western media pundits, that are actually that close. More importantly, there are damned few artillery pieces in the Nork army that have a range of 30-plus miles<\/a>. And for those that do, American and South Korean defensive artillery forces have counter-battery radars in place that are so advanced they not only can direct effective defensive fire to destroy incoming rounds, they can pinpoint the precise firing location of the offending artillery pieces so quickly that our own artillery fire and airstrikes can be directed on them within seconds. As Saddam\u2019s Iraqi forces learned quickly, to fire your artillery at the Americans was to invite your own violent, concussive death mere moments later. And those American radar detection systems and the counter-battery tactics have just kept getting more sophisticated and deadly since we used them in Iraq.<\/p>\n Another fact we hear ballyhooed about the mighty North Korean Army is that it is the fourth largest in the world. That might count for something if they were properly fed, properly clothed, properly trained and properly armed. The Nork annual military budget is a mere seven billion dollars (slightly more than Mexico\u2019s) which doesn\u2019t go very far when you are trying to field the fourth largest force on the planet. It\u2019s telling that sites which rank nations by their military capabilities don\u2019t seem too impressed with the Norks. The globalfirepower.com <\/a>algorithm places them at number 25, right between Saudi Arabia and Algeria. In Business Insider\u2019s survey of the world\u2019s 35 most powerful militaries, guess who\u2019s dead last<\/a>? <\/p>\n Those ratings don\u2019t say much for the fighting capabilities of the world\u2019s fourth largest army, do they? A major factor in this negative ranking is that the Nork army is largely a vestige of the Soviet era, without sufficient funds to modernize. That Soviet aspect is clearly captured in the many pics and videos of the recent Day of the Sun celebration in Pyongyang. Look at those visuals and if you\u2019re old enough, tell me they don\u2019t look exactly like Soviet Union output in the 1950\u2019s and 1960\u2019s. It\u2019s one thing to fill a public square with smartly dressed formations of goose-stepping troops to impress the folks; but it\u2019s quite another to send those troops out to fight the most technologically advanced fighting forces in the world. And some sharp-eyed observers, even among their allies<\/a>, are even saying the Nork missile displays may be a bit off center and wobbly.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve said nothing about the air component of a war with North Korea but I\u2019d bet the farm that if the Norks keep pushing it, they are in for their own coming version of Shock and Awe, a display of our combined modern airpower capabilities that will send a memorable message to Trump-taunting tyrants around the world: \u201cDon\u2019t ever take it as far as that Korean dipshit did.\u201d In the decades we\u2019ve had to plot and monitor North Korea\u2019s air defenses, I would wager almost every single site sits clearly in the crosshairs of one very effective and deadly American or South Korean weapons system or another, with its continued existence, and that of those Norks manning it, depending entirely upon the lack of a command to \u201ccommence firing.\u201d Quickly destroyed or degraded they are thus helpless to protect the remainder of the Nork forces, including their vaunted tank divisions, again mostly aged, Soviet hand-me-downs, from a relentless and deadly air onslaught. Are you beginning to see why I don\u2019t buy into all this frantic, lefty media hype about these fearsome Norks? <\/p>\n I close with what will undoubtedly be recognized and lauded by knowledgeable journalists as the best triple-decker clich\u00e9 of the year: <\/p>\n There\u2019s a new sheriff in town, and at the end of the day, he won\u2019t allow the Norks to rain fire upon Seoul. Crossposted at American Thinker<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\n<\/em><\/p>\n