Fire and Fury? Donald Trump or Wyatt Earp?

The Liar-in-Chief saber-rattling at North Korea's dictator, Kim Jong-un.  Is this wise?  No.  Is it effective?  Definitely not.  Was it planned?  Probably not.

One talking head discussing this situation on one of the all-news cable networks used bluffing in poker to make an excellent point about this situation.  A bluff is a great strategy when your opponent in the hand is a rational player.  When that opponent is not playing rationally, he or she will often call the bluff out of spite.

General Jack Keane is a retired U.S. Army general, former Vice-Chief of Staff for the U.S. Army and currently a national security analyst for Fox News.  He appeared on the Fox News Channel show The Five last night and discussed the situation with North Korea; offering some excellent insights.

One was that there is no way on Earth that the North Koreans could have developed nuclear warheads small enough to load into an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), or to develop ICBMs themselves.  China was involved in the progress by North Korea in this area.

General Keane also pointed out that Kim Jong-un has made it clear that his response to any preemptive strike by the U.S. or our allies will be to immediately launch an all-out invasion of South Korea with all of the military forces at his disposal.

The Korean People's Army has over 1 million personnel serving on active duty, making it the world's 4th largest standing army.  They have nearly 6 million more paramilitary personnel available.  Compare that to the South Korean Army with 625,000 active personnel and 3 million men and women in their reserve forces.  The U.S. military presence normally found in South Korea is fewer than 30,000 personnel, of which only 20,000 or so are Army personnel. 

Could North Korea invade and conquer South Korea?  Not in the wildest dreams of Kim Jong-un.  That in no way alters the devastation that would be caused by the initial attack into the South by his military forces.  Never mind his potential use of nukes, his conventional forces could severely damage Seoul.

It is only 35 miles from Seoul to the Demilitarized Zone.  Think about that for a moment.  The capital city of South Korea, with a population of nearly 10 million within the city limits and over 25 million in the local metropolitan area is less than an hour's drive from North Korean military forces.

The threat of such an invasion would seem to preclude any preemptive strike against North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons facilities.

Apparently the Cheeto-in-Chief takes such severe umbrage at threats from Kim Jong-un that he just has to bluster back.  It is a bad idea.

As long as North Korea is threatening and not acting, saber-rattling will accomplish nothing except to increase tensions.  The UN sanctions recently enacted are a good thing. 

We cannot afford to have nuclear weapons used again.  The consequences are too horrific to contemplate.