Syria and N. Korea What to do??

[Rerun]

I hope we could all agree that the pictures of the gassed people were horrible.

I hope we could all agree that the guy in N. Korea is a crazy nut ball.

Do we just sit back and let Syria kill its own people?

Do we wait until nut case launches a missile to hit somewhere in the United States?

Do we move to Canada?   

[cassandra]

Uhm Do I remember correctly that it was a British company who sold chemicals to Syria? Maybe us saints in The West could stop selling weapons and chemicals to dodgy people?

[PrimeTimer]

I agree with Lt Col Allen West: the air strike we just "delivered" to one of Assad's air bases sends a clear message. If he does it again, we should take out another air base. Same should go for that pudgy little guy in N. Korea with the bad haircut.   

[Simon Dog]

Why all these strikes where the human casualties are going to be Syrian conscripts who would be killed if they didn't join up.   Just direct the cruise missiles at Assads residence, any place he is known to be, the legislative assembly when it is in session, and the homes of Syrian lawmakers.  Now that would send a message.  Humiliate them by saying "this is punishment, we are doing it again tomorrow, and there is nothing you can do about it."

[Charlie B53]

Does the World Court in Geneva still exists"   I believe so.

Our Government should contact that Court, give them copies of all the evidence of Assad's 'crimes'.  Any other Country holding evidence should also forward such evidence.  Once the World Court issues an Arrest Warrant for Assad then our Pres Trummp should arrange a conference call with the Presidents of the Soviet Union and China, get an agreement to proceed with Assads arrest and safe transport to Geneva.   Then make the same conference call and include Pres Assad.  Tell Assad he has 24 hours to get on a plane along with his entire Chain of Command responsible for issuing and carrying out the order to use the banned weapons.  This will include Assad, his Chief Prime Minister, Top General, and every Military Officer down the Chain to include the Air Base Commander and the Pilots that flew the missions.  EVERYONE, on the plane and arrive in Geneva within 24 hours.

Failure to turn themselves into Geneva will result in a multi-national force comoing in to arrest every one on the list.  Dead or Alive.  It is your choice.

And hang up the phone.

[kristina]

Uhm Do I remember correctly that it was a British company who sold chemicals to Syria? Maybe us saints in The West could stop selling weapons and chemicals to dodgy people?

A true word, Cassandra and well thought out !!!
Thanks for mentioning it !!!
Kristina.

[Rerun]

Charlie, why don't you call Assad and  pretend to be Trump and just get this started down the right road. 

 

[MooseMom]

1.  We can't do anything unilaterally about North Korea.  We would need the assistance of China, and coincidentally, Xi Jinping is at Trump's estate right now, so maybe they're having a good chin wag about it.  China doesn't not care what happens to the North Korean people.  All they want is a "stable" N. Korea because they do NOT want millions of Korean refugees streaming into China.  But China, believe it or not, wants a stable world order because that is what is most profitable.  Once they determine that N. Korea is a real and present danger to that stable world order, they will step in.  Exactly what they will do, I don't know, but the only country that has any influence over N. Korea is China. 

2.  The problem with removing Assad is multi-layered.  If no multi-national military force has tried to remove him so far, why would they now?  Assad and his generals are not going to step down because of a threatening phone call from anyone.    The President of China is already here.  Trump is buddies with Putin.  I think Trump ordered this strike after having notified the Russian military, who have a presence in Syria and are propping up Assad.  It was a symbolic gesture, one which I don't necessarily oppose, but the question is, "What's next?"  Trump is attempting to be the "anti-Obama", and since Obama didn't use military force after declaring that a red line had been crossed, Trump did.  Did you all notice that he said that Assad had now crossed not only a red line but many other lines?  Those words were a clarion call to what was about to happen next.  I don't think anyone was surprised.

3.  If we remove Assad, isn't that "regime change"?  Is that what the American people want to get ourselves into?  Do we really want to step into Syria's civil war?  Maybe we do.  If you want to stop the flow of Syrian refugees (who seem to be the most hated group in the world, apart from the Royhingyas in Myanmar), you have to solve the question of why they are fleeing in the first place.  We tried nation building in Iraq to make that nation stable, and that didn't work so well.  If you remove Assad, what or who replaces him?  Would the US attempt to build a coalition government in that country to make it stable so that the refugees would return?

4.  Assad is an ally of Putin.  Does Putin want Assad removed?  Would they cooperate with that?  Maybe they would.  I don't know.

[Rerun]

Lots of good questions.  We can't afford to get too involved.  But, I think of WWII and the 6 million Jews Murdered.  Not sure what to do.  Pray for Wisdom for our leaders is all I can do.  I can't watch the gassed twins they keep showing.  Could that be a propaganda film? 

[Michael Murphy]

Actually the US and Japan both could do something about the North Korean misslee tests.  We have a classes of ships both cruisers and destroyers equipped with Aegis radar systems and SM-2 and SM-3 missle.  They could shoot every test misle out of the sky. Japan has the Sam capability.  With out missles his bombs are useless.

[Simon Dog]

I don't have the security clearance to know if the US is already doing something about NK.    A lot of their missiles seem to be blowing up after launch - for all I know that could be a US spaced based laser doing its job.

As to Assad - The US should be targeting his residence and that of high ranking leaders with the cruise missiles.   Trump should publicly make the death of Assad a national goal.

[Michael Murphy]

The US has developed 2 systems for dealing with ballistic missles  1 THAD (Terminal High Altitude Defence, often Terminal is stated as Theater.) 2.kthe navies Aegis Standard Missle (SM-2 and SM-3). The Avis system is the one the Navy. Sent out from Pearl to shoot down a satellite with nuclear power that was coming down randomly.  During a launch Mkisles are larger(multi stages which drop off). And slower since until the missle gets higher air resistance at the thrusting end restricts speed.  The best time took take a missle out is in the initial launch phase when the missle is still a large slow target.  These systems are designed to hit warheads which are much smaller and faster.

[Charlie B53]

Charlie, why don't you call Assad and  pretend to be Trump and just get this started down the right road. 

 

I  put long distance limits on all our phones to prevent accidental intercontinental calls and those high charges.

I could NEVER come close to copying Trumps strange speech patterns.  Does he practice this? Or is he drugged??

I haven't tried it, but Google might just surprise me and give up the phone numbers of all the Countries Presidents.  But I'm not sure how to,,  I've never made a 'conference call'.


I can write great memos!   Back when paper was still used within the office.

[Simon Dog]

The US has developed 2 systems for dealing with ballistic missles

Two systems that we know about.

Anyone who has the clearance to be certain it is 2 would commit a felony by telling us.

[Michael Murphy]

There are dark developemente but the two I know aabout are not,they are funded straight out of the budget and there is a lovely description on multiple web sites.  More about Aegis is known since a land based system was sent to Europe. To speed up that deployment the Lakehurst testing system was sent over to speed deployment.   A tremendous amount of info about weapon systems is published every day,

[Simon Dog]

An excellent example of "secret weapon" was the stealth chopper that was kept completely out of the media until the US lost one in the Bin Laden raid.

I would not be surprised if the US had some secret weapons that would vastly shorten the time to take out a Syrian, Korean or Iranian installation that are not being used because the cost of letting the enemy know what we have is to high a price to pay for a short term tactical advantage.  Of course, we will never know ... which is why they are called secret weapons.

[PrimeTimer]

  THANK YOU, USS Porter and USS Ross!! And soon, the USS Carl Vinson will be there to help! GO NAVY!! 

[Michael Murphy]

The weapon to go after buried facilities I'd a 30,000 pound earth penetrator GBU-57a/b.  This I think is a dark project brought out in the light to influence the Iranians to negotiate.  The way this currently works is the first one lands and blows a 200 foot crater with each follow on bomb landing in the crater until the desired depth is reached.  Each B2 is capable of carrying 2 of these beasts.  There is a follow on development project to build a smaller bomb to penetrate deeper and sense when it hits a void then explode.   There have been all sorts of rumors about this project but no real info is available.  The developer of GBU-57a  Northrop Grumman and the GBU-57b was developed by Lockheed Martin.  I was a Military history major in college until I was tossed out.

[Charlie B53]

Simon and Michael, you both are far more correct than you may imagine.  I may be Blessed to proof-read the memoirs (Book) by a Neighbor much older, Retired, that reveals much that has been done throughout his years. I've managed to learn a lot from asking the right questions of old men.  They miss the job, have few people to take a real interest in what they have to say so once given a chance to talk it is difficult to get them to shut up.   
 
Funny, they are much like ME!

Suffice to say, our Military today has some things that would have changed the course of History had we had a few of these things in the early 70's.

[Xplantdad]

My dad (rest his soul) was part of many of the black programs...Hence us living all over the US near military installations throughout my growing up years (Fla -various areas-for NASA, Huntsville, Ala-Redstone Aresenal,  SoCal, Edwards AFB, Las Vegas-Area you know where and-Area fifty two in Utah) among other places.

I can't say a whole lot about any of it...but rest assured...the actual dates of 'first flights' on a lot of the stealth aircraft are YEARS earlier than they actually were reported on the websites...and they are WAY beyond that now.

[Michael Murphy]

The biggest threat North Korea poses is to Soul they have a tremendous number of Artillery sites with in range on the southern capital.  The solution for them is 40 to 50 B1s and B52s  dropping GPS bombs from south of the DMZ hitting every possible dug in Artillery site.  I assume the B2s would be going north, with some C130js dropping MOAB ( Massive  Ordinance Air Blast, also known as Mother of All Bombs) on NK troop concentrations.

[Charlie B53]

I am pretty sure North Korean Kim knows just how quickly and how badly the U.S. would destroy his emplacements if and when he does make the major mistake of an offensive strike.  The continued 'testing' is all just for show. He is simply attempting to 'Bully' to get his way.

[Michael Murphy]

Charlie I agree with you last post, it's a school yard bully with us limited power.  The American military is not stupid they have been preparing for this for decades.  The South Korean military is also fully prepared their armored forces are equipped with tanks and  APCs equal to every other major power and as American M1s are updated SK updates its K1 tanks. 

[Rerun]

N. Korea is planning some parade to celebrate his Grandfather's 119 birthday or some such a thing.  Perfect time to bomb them. 

    

[Warborg]

Had we not not armed and created ISIS a few years ago, I'd say with ease to just stay out of it. But it's sort of our fault it's gotten this bad and that it's still going on. Personally I don't like Assad but we need to stop trying to overthrow him. Help him get rid of ISIS then withdraw. The 'civil' war will end shortly after.