How do you figure?
Hussein provides clear monetary support to Palestinian terror groups, partially enabling them to strike at Israeli targets and kill American citizens. One example is the recent attack on a commuter bus in Haifa that left an American citizen dead.
Bullshit. No proof, constantly denied by every intelligence agency, and pretty bloody unlikely considering that UBL regards Saddam as a socialist heathen who he'd like to see dead.
Iraq’s
direct links to al-Qaeda are consistently denied by every intelligence agency. This does not cover the indirect association of Hussein – or transfer of his money, training, and arms – to al-Qaeda via the Palestinian terrorist circle.
Sorry, but you actually have to provide proof of this 'terror infrastructure'. As for Resolution 1441, does that shambles include destroying the Al Samound missiles everyone was so uppity about (cheap kitbases of SA-2 missiles, actually), or providing Blix and the 'doves' more and more ammunition with each report that inspections can work if we let them?
We know that Saddam is in clear possession of the manpower (scientists, technicians, and machinists) necessary to kick-start programs such as those that led to the al-Samoud missile, or worse, a nuclear effort. We know that Hussein, despite prohibitions, now possesses the capability to produce missiles with four times the thrust and far longer range than the above-mentioned weapons. We know that Hussein already uses his vast wealth from oil sales to support the Palestinian Infitada. We know that Hussein possess drones capable of delivering chemical or biological payloads against American or allied targets – as confirmed by Hans Blix. We know that Hussein possesses unexplained equipment – I personally don’t buy his fourteen-year effort to produce 133mm artillery rockets; there’s too much circumstantial evidence against it – critical to the foundation of a new nuclear program. As President Bush argued, where there’s a will and a means – Iraq’s got both at this point -, there’s a way.
Inspections work only because Hussein is now terrified of American invasion. Hans Blix is pulling certain teeth – nothing more. Iraq has prepared for this eventuality for eight years.
What? North Korea's air defense system is the most antiquated of any one with an AD system worthy of being called a 'system'. Iraq's system is actually better. Unless you think 1950s large-calibre AA guns that had their hey-day in the original Korean war have a chance against modern aircraft.
As for North Korea's army- it's an obsolescent joke. Iraq's is better equipped, and there's no evidence to suggest that the NK army is any better than Iraq.Bunkers are also little more than targets to US PGMs.
North Korea’s air-defense system includes sufficient artillery that close ground support will be almost impossible. There’s a point at which sufficient numbers of cannon – no matter how “dumb” the projectiles – can discourage even the coordinated, precision flight of American aircraft. It’s one thing to be able to hit initial targets from above and another to concern yourself with delivering direct assistance to troops fighting in a mountainous theater wherein most of the enemy positions are likely to be found twenty meters or more below the earth’s surface. There are questions whether even a thermobaric nuclear warhead – not that we’d ever deliver one to this region – might have difficulty destroying for certain particular North Korean silos or mountain redoubts.
North Korea’s army is hardly a “joke” compared to Iraq’s. We’re talking about a navy that tangled with the supremely competent South Koreans last summer and came out on top. Iraq’s military is far from better-equipped than the North Korea’s. Kim Jong-Il was fielding over 3,500 main combat tanks as of 2001 as well as 2,500 armored fighting vehicles according to FAS.org. We’re talking about a military prepped for combat around-the-clock and given the entire focus of a single nation – far more than Iraq can boast despite their own somewhat equal intentions.
Fighting on the peninsula will be man-to-man. This is hardly the maneuver warfare of the Iraqi desert. We’re talking about facing prepared positions and the possibility of trench warfare. Not to mention the fact that Kim would take this time to pepper the South Koreans with missiles, could potentially lob a nuclear warhead at the United States or a carrier group lying offshore (and I don’t know how we’d respond considering the close proximity of our allies to fallout), and that Donald Rumsfeld himself estimates an army of 700,000 American troops (we don’t even have that many in our army in total) – not to mention millions of our South Korean allies – would be necessary to pursue these goals.
Also most important is that South Korea refuses to consider even the least aggressive of posturing and yet you expect them to join a war in which their capital would be utterly devastated?
By the way, backing down from Iraq at all would send the wrong kind of message. We’re locking into the struggle with Saddam at this point. Now is the time for containment of Kim Jong-Il, not total war.
The Republican Guard is none of these things, and if you knew about the Gulf War you'd know that many of the units 'sacrificed' were the absolute dregs of the Iraqi Army. And to assert that the Iraqi army is underfed where North Korea is the country is starving is absolutely beyond comical.
The Republican Guard is 5,000 men without the possibility of even minor victory in Iraq. And notice that I said “largely” before discussing the capabilities of the
average Iraqi soldier.
North Korea’s troops are the focus of their nation’s efforts. They eat better for sure than do their Iraqi counterparts.
I agree that North Korea is a tougher opponent. But that's hardly because of any inherent superiority of the NK military. It's geographical.
Incorrect. They are a far “tougher opponent” on multiple levels and therefore cannot be handled militarily.
