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Originally Posted by UCI CamaroFan
I just to address this... the US was never technically at war with Korea, which is why it was called the Korean Conflict, not the Korean War. It was UN declaration of war, not a US. CONGRESS NEVER DECLARED WAR AGAINST KOREA!!! If you remember/care to look up, Douglas MacArthur was the leader of the UN forces until Truman called him back to the US and didn't allow for the use of nuclear weapons. We therefore do not have the necessary authority to just attack.
Another thing to realize is that the US has tactical nukes stationed in South Korea as anti-personnel weaponry... The losses against the Chinese army were realized, and the small tactical nukes were placed there to deal with another similar case. North Korea knows this, and we know they know this.
The one thing that makes North Korea scary is the fact that their leader as effectively brainwashed the entire population. Many of the North Koreans will blindly follow their leader to the death.
It is also worth noting that Kim's health is failing, and he does not truly have a successor. His children are practically all pathetic. One of his sons is gay (nothing against gays, but it is a big deal in Asian culture), and another one is fat and lazy and lives in France most of the time. With this in mind, he needs to shake things up and put his country on the map while he still can. Which is why I am positive that things will blow over. He knows he is cornered, and he is not as stupid as many make him out to be.
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Congress never had to declare war. Congress ratified the UN war. In what basically amounts to constitutional technicalities, the US Congress ratified a UN declaration of war and funded the "police action" of US forces. In effect, the US, as a member of the UN, went to war as representatives of the UN. The US is the major player in this police action, which would traditionally be described as a war. For that reason, we refer to the Korean police action as the Korean War. Not only does it sound better, but it more appropriately describes what happened than police action, which implies that the US was engaged in arresting and trying or fighting non-government forces. Police actions, at least in the eyes of many Americans, tend to correlate with US troops fighting rebels or terrorists rather than seeking to combat a regime.
The US is still constitutionally in a position to go to war with North Korea because the UN resolutions to enter into combat with North Korea were never repealed. Since the US is a member of the UN Security Council, the US has an obligation to continue fulfilling its role as a source of troops. Moreover, Congress never repealed support for American military interventions in Korea, so the US can still participate in military conflict there without violating domestic or international law.
Yes—it is complicated. I tried to keep it simple the first time. Obviously, I needed to better explain my facts.
Moreover, I want to agree that the US has a powerful force in South Korea, including the capacity to launch tactical nukes. The US is not eager to go to war with North Korea. There is not a whole lot of good that can come from such combat in the US perspective, and the US will be compelled to defend the entire peninsula from Chinese intervention. We have to remember that China pulls a lot of strings in North Korea, and that might become as big an issue in a unified, US-backed Korea as it has been in Iraq. As we know, the US has accused neighboring Iran of supporting insurgents with weapons and resources necessary to operate. Basically, if the US and South Korea win a war against North Korea, then the US gains very little and has to defend more land from neighbors who could be a lot more friendly.
I also agree very much that the most terrifying feature of the North Korean political system is its unwavering support for its insane leader. The people love their leader, and that scares me. It will lead to as ferocious an enemy as Japan during WWII. Let's not forget how many noble Americans died fighting in the Pacific.
Don't underestimate North Korea. That nation is very dangerous and has nothing to lose. The people of that country are starved and poor, and they love their leadership for it. They have managed to develop some serious weapons. Just because their nukes aren't as big as ours doesn't mean that their chemical weapons are equally impotent. The fact is that North Korea will make a horrible enemy for American forces, and we need to be aware of this before we talk about bombing them into submission.