I hate this dunk because it’s clearly shown in the original video that the DPRK officer saluted Trump first. The president salutes like fifty Marines every single day, it’s not strange for him to reflexively salute someone else without thinking about it.
My point is that if you see people salute you and you salute them back, do it enough times and it will become a reflex. The response to Obama bowing to someone in a culture where bowing is totally normal was equally stupid, but it was conservatives doing it instead of liberals.
Biden broke all ties with North Korea after Trump. Reverting to the old demand to denuclearize before for any negotiations and imposing more sanctions.
As we have learned from Ukraine. no sane country should ever give up their nukes because they become a prime target for invasion. If Ukraine still had nukes Russia would never have invaded.
Now I’m not a an NK fan but I’m not sure why people think pushing NK away would make them more friendly. Unlike the past where American sanctions spelled doom and America could bend any country to their will, China and Russia are now picking up the countries America pushes away.
Well yes because America had been pushing North Korea away.
Trump tried to lay contact with NK. He might not have had pure motives for it. He usually doesn’t. But the action itself is not the problem.
Biden hitting NK with the “new number who dis” right after becoming president certainly doesn’t make them trust us more. And thus they have been pushed further into the arms of Russia.
The classic American imperialists refuse to accept that by sanctioning a country into oblivion they will now just join China and Russia’s side. They have alternative options.
Most Americans don’t even know why North Korea is so hostile. We bombed them into oblivion during the Korean war.
Well yes because America had been pushing North Korea away.
The classic American imperialists refuse to accept that by sanctioning a country into oblivion they will now just join China and Russia’s side.
Most Americans don’t even know why North Korea is so hostile. We bombed them into oblivion during the Korean war.
What the fuck is this revisionist history?
North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, after the South refused Northern rule. The UN stepped in (90% American forces) pushing the North Koreans nearly to China’s borders, at which point China entered the war, and resulting in the 38th parallel armistice border we have today.
North Korea wasn’t pushed into China’s welcoming arms due to American anti-nuclear proliferation sanctions of the last twenty years, and “being bombed into oblivion” is often the result of picking on countries with bigger allies than you, just ask Germany and Japan.
China has propped up the Kim dictatorship dynasty for the last 70 years, feeding their starving masses while the Kims focus the country’s resources on military spending, including nuclear development to substantiate their annual saber rattling. Allowing China to maintain a buffer state, that’s kept the West at bay since 1951.
NK & SK were making historical progress towards reunification until Kim and Trump met. Look at the pics from the summit and the timeline of inter Korean relations and it’s clear as day. He’s the reason relations went downhill.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the US announced it would lift the ban on American contractors going to Ukraine at the same time as this. Russia reaps what it sows. Ukraine gets highly payed and skilled contractors, in return, Russia gets malnourished and untrained Korean conscripts.
Yes, it’s actually huge. Especially for maintaining a weapon as complicated as an Abrams tank. If it can be repaired close to the front lines then that has the potential to cut days off the turnaround time compared to towing it over to Poland.
I will never understand why the American military think it’s a good idea to send them tanks that are so complicated. Especially when they’re going up against cold war era relics.
The best tactic Ukraine could have at this point would just be to encourage the North Koreans to defect. Can’t imagine it’ll be particularly difficult, “hey switch sides and we won’t kill you, and here’s a free house with electricity, water and indoor plumbing”.
It would be like trying to convince people to leave the 15th century.
… “and don’t worry about your family back home in North Korea who will be compressed into tinned meal”.
The defection rate will be low I suspect. It’s an automatic TFK (total family kill) to defect and I doubt they’ll send anyone who don’t have family at home in Glorious Motherland!
I wonder if many will even fight? If I were from North Korea, I’d consider surrender to be a godsend. They would do terrible things to the family members, though… I guess that’s the true cruelty of regimes like this. They punish the people you love.
According to Russian propaganda Ukraine has been doing just that the entire time, but if it actually happened that would be yet another red line to cross.
Ukrain is a country of 40 million people, with millions already internally displaced from the war. A few thousand extra refugees wouldnt even be noticed.
It’s almost like Ukraine is better than NK, from a moral and logical perspective. Ukraine isn’t starving their own people, nor are they “disappearing” the local Muslim population á-la China. They’re simply defending themselves.
Edit: Israel didn’t even need soldiers, Palestinians didn’t even have weapons to defend themselves and are starving to death, so money and weapons will do the work to continue with the genocide.
Huh? In what way was what I said a “slippery slope”? This article is literally talking about NK sending troops to Ukraine. I wasn’t even the one to bring up NATO or the US in the first place.
I wholeheartedly believe Palestine should be freed and that we shouldn’t be supplying weapons at all. The genocide is disgusting. But at least the US isn’t using US troops, nor are they doing trade deals to send more poor people into Gaza (like NK and Russia are doing in this article, except in Ukraine instead of Gaza).
What does that have to do with anything? Are you attempting to say Ukraine has those and therefore all of Ukraine deserves to be killed? Good job attempting to change the subject, I guess. Better invade every country on earth since Nazis are literally everywhere, civilian casualties be damned. Better invade your own country too.
PS. Russia does not actually care about Nazis, they have their own after all. They only want Ukraine’s land, ports, and people.
I don’t think anyone is saying they shouldn’t be allowed to do it; just that they think it’s going to go poorly
Also I would add that it’s a moderately dire sign as far as the state of Russia’s manpower levels. Every country at war desperately wants more soldiers at all times but some desperates are more desperate than other desperates.
If China directly supports Russia NATO will throw sanctions on them and that will hurt China. China is supporting Russia, but they are walking a find line as China cannot afford to make NATO mad. (NATO also will hurt, which is why NATO is looking the other way, but how long will NATO put up with China is an open question)
Financial support and sending foreign soldiers directly to the frontline are two very different kinds of involvement. Imagine the Russian freakout if NATO actually sent soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Maybe the North Koreans will actually speed that process up.
Of course you don’t see the problem. You can’t seem to see the problem with a lot of issues. Your average post score is -20. Maybe you should do some self reflection, or maybe you’re just a naive 20-something and will grow out of it
We’re getting a lot closer to a bigger global conflict as NK troops and American Military contractors begin to enter the fray. Anyone else feel like were inching closer to World War than we’ve been since the last one ended?
This isn’t going to do anything. First of all, North Korea is probably not going to send battle ready soldiers to a foreign country. There’s really no reason for it. They might send ditch diggers for trenches.
Second of all, this isn’t going to move the needle on the battlefield. Russia already has more troops than Ukraine. They need more and better arms and ammunition, plus better support, training, airplanes, missiles, drones, commanders, etc. Basically Russia needs a completely different military.
I don’t think what the soldiers end up doing makes it less international of a conflict. The point was there’s going to be sizesble amounts of foreign boots on the groun on both sides. That necessarily increases the international scope of the conflict beyond funding a proxy war.
To me, it does not seem wise to just let these two continue along this path, but I am certain there are numerous internet experts out there who can explain to me why we should not intervene.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging rocket fire, and Israel is talking about a ground invasion.
Hezbollah has a defense treaty with Iran, Iraq, Russia, and another ME country I’m blanking on.
If Israel invaded Lebanon in an attack on Hezbollah, that draws in Russia, and likely NK.
Israel and Russia are the two countries invading others that I believe are the primary drivers towards WW3. NK is just a long for the ride until/unless they launch an attack on SK.
But I think before that happens, we’ll solidly be in WW3. I think NK is onboard now, with the promise to be backed against SK later. No one is attack NK unless NK starts some shit, they don’t need a defense treaty.
Nobody’s average soldier age is 45. Has nothing to do NK being rock bottom in country rankings. And the younger you are in NK, the more you are probably screwed.
Plus, North Korea may be poor by western standards, but they have a lot of comforts that many third world countries lack, so even if you discount my example they’re still not the worst by a wide margin.
So like Poland was the worst country in Europe to live in at the start of WW2. Not because Poland was bad but because Germany and Russia were bad and would both soon be just as bad to live in as Poland.
What can “the west” really do to prevent or stop troops from NK being sent to the Ukraine front?
Stop sabotaging peace talks, pressure Ukraine to accept the terms as they exist now before they get worse, lift the sanctions on North Korea in order to incentivize them to integrate with the rest of the world, withdraw US military equipment from South Korea. Kim Jong Un is often presented in American news like a crazy person, but truthfully he (and the rest of the actors in the North Korean state) is a rational actor and the “hermit kingdom” is not an aspirational goal of the DPRK but a state of affairs that has been forced upon them by decades of sanctions and isolation - give them a reason to be neutral, and assurances that they won’t be stabbed in the back (as they have been in previous deals with Western countries), and there’s a good chance they’ll take it.
Hmmm. While that would technically stop Russia from needing the troops in Ukraine, I don’t think that just giving a dictator sections of land because he claimed them is a good path.
“Just give up when I take your shit” is a shit take.
Ukraine had an opportunity to keep the Donbas by implementing the Minsk Agreements. Zelensky literally ran on the promise of ending the war and implementing the agreements. This path was not chosen by Russia, it was chosen by the Ukrainians, who refused to reconcile with their Russian-speaking minority groups. With every passing day, the deal will only get worse for the Ukrainians, and the sooner they accept the better the deal they will get.
But instead America and Europe are ready to do whatever it takes to throw every single Ukrainian body directly into Russian (and North Korean) artillery.
We just waiting for the other shoe to drop... Is US Marines landing in Crimea or other wild scenario where everyone goes: " well damn and that's how it turned into ww3"
Russia is actively in Syria from the end of 2015 as an official belligerent, it’s not something new for Russia to fight directly while others use only proxies.
But I can see your point; still - officially - this is only a three days military operation. When that stance will finally change in the official channels, it will mean they can’t hold the mask anymore.
The Korean War had over a million NATO troops and also tens of thousands of Soviet troops and, somehow, remained a proxy war. A particularly bloody one, but there was still no actual open full-scale warfare between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Even China and America remained officially at peace, despite making up the majority of the forces on each side
Apologies, I was using "NATO troops" as a shorthand for the large number of countries involved rather than the specific command structure. You are right to bring that up
They didn’t start calling WWII what it is until 1944, but I think we can all agree it didn’t start in 1944.
Just like later historians placed the start of WWII on multiple different events depending on which country you’re in, the start of World War III will be long before we start calling it that.
I’m in the camp that the start of WW3 will be the Russian invasion of Ukraine if things continue to escalate the way they’re going, because that’s when you really started seeing lines being drawn between the axis and allies.
Russia, China, Iran, and NK are the most recognizable names that have aligned themselves with the axis so far.
The lines are already drawn and future events will dictate whether or not we’re currently living in WW3 today.
And some would argue that WW1 was WW2 and WW2 WAS WW3. The 7 years war/French and Indian (not French vs Indian) war are commonly referred to as the real first world war. And then the Nepoleonic wars are similarly thought of by some to have been a world war of sorts
WWI was called the great war, and the war to end all wars until WWII broke out. I sometimes call WWII just the great war part 2 - the treaties that "ended" WWI were clearly setup (on hindsight!) to make the war break out again in the future when Germany got sick of those treaties.
The point is names are added after the fact and often don't make a lot of sense if you know details.
He was right for the wrong reasons. He believed the treaty was too lenient, when in retrospect it seems pretty clear that the punitive nature of the treaty was a significant factor in Hitler rising to power and then WW2 starting.
Pretty sure Iran adopted “Axis of Resistance” already. Least they already know what side they are on.
Really getting sick of people deciding to just like…starting shit instead of focusing on constructive competitions like science or space races to other planets. Why do people feel the need to kill the shit out of each other and subjugate their population whilst climate change is bearing down on us? :p
I am also sick to the core about this aspect of humanity. I feel that we as a species are just about developed enough to understand how a better world would look like, and how people should act, what’s “the right thing to do” - and very much not developed enough to overcome our egoism and narcissism to make it happen, so we do the wrong thing despite knowing better far too often.
For most of history you would be better off if you could kill the next village over. You want to be friends with the people in your village, but if you kill the next one you can expand your farm/hunting/gathering grounds and then leave it to your kids - while otherwise you won't have enough food for all the kids and your DNA is in danger of not getting passed on.
In our modern world we mostly have plenty of food (and when we don't lack of land is not the issue), but that isn't what our DNA is evolved to "think"
For most of history you would be better off if you could kill the next village over.
That is an incredibly stupid take. For most of history, the planet was so vast that people had plenty of room to hunt / farm / whatever. And no, killing other humans is not in our DNA, the only people who feel like that are those with brain damage / development defects.
Most of the planet was not accessable. It was there but your local population grew until the land couldn't support more. There wasn't much opportunity to move as the surronding villages had the same problem.
of course when a famon came you got a few generations of peace here and there
I honestly think he might legitimately believe that a couple platoons of NK soldiers will clear this whole mess right up and then the world will have to take them seriously.
The North Korean leadership is not exactly well known for their excellent grasp of reality.
It never leads anywhere though. North Korea has always been fobbed off with decades-old technology,it’s not like they will know.
So everyone continues to ignore them because they continue not to be a threat. It’s not in Russia’s interest to give them anything really advanced, assuming they have anything left to give them. The best thing Russia could give them would be infrastructure engineers but they’re probably not interested in their own populace enough to consider that a worthy exchange.
Pretty asymmetric that isn’t it. On one side you have a nation that is rapidly running out of, well basically everything, and on the other side you’ve got an alliance of nation states which contain among many other things the largest most powerful military on the planet.
Finally the nation that is running out of resources is now getting military support from quite possibly the worst place they could get it from.
It’s going to be one of those ridiculous situations that only happens in Civilization, where you’re bombing cavemen with nukes because your adversary has failed to advance through the tech tree fast enough.
Unfortunately China is not running out of everything and they are looking like they might back Russia here. Iran is also backing Russia and not to be underestimated.
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