It didn’t take long for TV coverage of North Korea to enter the “Retired General Sketches Out War Games on a Big Map” phase. The April 3 edition of the Situation Room saw CNN‘s Tom Foreman and retired Gen. James “Spider” Marks game out a potential North Korean attack.
Here’s Marks:
Tom, the very first thing we’re going to see is large concentrations of artillery and missile fire from the North against targets in the South, for example, Seoul, which is just a little south of the DMZ.
And the conversation continued:
FOREMAN: So while that firing is occurring from these mountains down here, what else is going on from the North?
MARKS: The North is going to activate the insertion of special operations forces, both along the coasts.
FOREMAN: Taking them in by ship or submarines?
MARKS: By submarines most likely, as well as the activation of sleeper agents that have been in the South, in some cases as many as a couple of decades, identifying targets for these missiles and for these artillery pieces.
FOREMAN: OK. The U.S. and South Korea is not just going to sit this while all of this happens, so what is the immediate response if such an attack took place?
MARKS: Number one is the U.S. Navy will increase its presence. For example…
FOREMAN: More aircraft carriers?
MARKS: More aircraft carriers. More aircraft is what we’re looking for.
Marks went on to talk about how to “completely own this airspace above North Korea,” and Foreman wonders:
So if all of that happens, obviously you have a shift in the battle. The North takes the initiative to start the attack, but then the South and the U.S. responds. How quickly does it turn so the initiative is not in the hands of the North, but is in the hands of the U.S. and coalition forces?
Well, this is all starting to sound pretty alarming. Until they get to the end of the discussion:
FOREMAN: But you don’t think this will happen?
MARKS: Not at all.
Oh. Sorry to waste everybody’s time, then.
But alarmism seems to be the order of the day. On NBC Nightly News (4/3/13), Richard Engel warned:
North Korea’s military declared today it had, quote, “final approval” to launch merciless strikes on the United States, including the use of nuclear weapons possibly within days.
As we pointed out, some experts urge caution–not only about North Korea’s real-world military capabilities, which don’t seem to include striking the U.S. (mercilessly or otherwise), but also about the fact that much of this rhetoric is about what North Korea is threatening to do in response to an attack on its country. That’s not to excuse the militarism, but some context–and caution–might be helpful.
Well, if you can’t cover a real war
The next best thing is to have “experts” theorize about the strategies and tactics for a nonexistent one.
Should we label it “pointer rattling”?
What they are doing is setting us up psychologically to expect a dirty deal from NK then all out attack would be popularly approved of.
It’s all a game of Thrones, and it’s full of Thorns (bunch of little pricks). The US has to “Play” the game as though it were real, in order to satisfy the egos of all involved. No one wants to actually move the first pawn, they just want to talk a good game. The sad part is, it’s not the Thrones who have to worry if some fool on the ground takes it all seriously and does something stupid and some gets a thorn in the foot.
I do fear for my country when I find out as I did in 2003 that we have an idiot in charge. Now there is another idiot on the loose–but in another country!
Article is a weak attempt at military gaming.Glad someone is saying the unthinkable.
Well I am happy at least that the usual arguments on FAIR are not taking place.You know- it is usually along the lines of “they never threatened anyone.It is all a right wing neo con ploy”(remember when all the libs said NK was not really developing a nuke?).No now we have moved to phase two in the liberal playbook….”they said it, but of course they don’t mean it”We even have people like Frank saying yeah he is a nut -but then again so was Bush(hey frank Bush was elected by the American voters.This loons father is believed to of been magically spoken of in an ice berg….a talking iceberg, as the savior of his people.Well they say those who can’t listen to history are bound to repeat it.And history has shown us what mad men who have taken power are capable of inflicting on an unsuspecting world.So while the grownups prepare to defend against this dyed in the wool insaniac…you libs keep poo pooing the wolf at the door while others are forced to defend your stupid lazy asses.
Name me one “lib” who said, ever, that NK was not developing a nuke. Bush Jr. was in fact not elected–he lost the election and was selected by the Supreme Court. The rest is, of course, jibberish. It’s good to have you back in the mix, dood–I was starting to worry. There’s no mistaking that hectoring, fantastic, right-wing reactionary tone though.
I like how we instantly and magically have “coalition forces” like those coalition forces getting killed and wounded inn Afghanistan, for instance. However, despite my liberal doubts (I’m a lib, and I doubt!) The whole world is gonna chip in this time to kill a gnat with a bulldozer, you’ll see, you pusillanimus libs!
I live in South Korea and do not appreciate all of the alarmism in the American media over the North’s response to US-ROK exercises simulating an attack on the North. My relatives all contact me with great fear about my safety and then I have to spend a lot of time explaining the history and context and the fact that the US Embassy is not concerned about the situation. Shouldn’t it be the job of the news media to report the context for these alarming things being said instead of going out of their way to further hype them up?
Tim just look at the articles today on Fair.The idea STILL is “don’t worry,its all Americas fault.North Korea is not to be taken seriously.Exactly what sights like fair were saying about NKs nuclear ambitions back a few years ago.Same thing they are saying about Iran today.
Why would the media want to hype a non-existent war?
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