"The U.S. Military Would Do Anything To Avoid A Second" Topic

…Korean War

"Here's What You Need To Remember: Assuming the U.S. air campaign did not end in short order, the North would almost certainly start wrapping potential targets with civilians. The North Korean elite let one to two million of its citizens starve to death in the late 1990s famine. They would have no compunction to once again sacrifice their people.

The idea of retaliating against North Korea has, of course, been around for a long time. North Korea provokes South Korea, Japan, and the United States regularly. Several of those provocations were severe enough that military action would likely have enjoyed some global acceptance. In 1968, the North Koreans captured the USS Pueblo, a naval intelligence vessel, and held the crew for almost a year. In 1969, North Korea shot down a U.S. reconnaissance plane, killing the crew. In 1998, North Korea shot a missile over Japan. In 2010 North Korea sank a South Korean corvette and shelled a South Korean-held island, killing fifty. Yet in each case, the United States, South Korea, and Japan choose to defer. The reasons for that restraint are broadly still in place and will likely inhibit President Donald Trump as they have previous U.S. presidents:…"
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Amicalement
Armand

It has nothing to due with the US and has everything to do with South Korea and Japan. If neither of those countries are willing to risk a shooting war with the North, there is little the US can do. The troops we have there are just a tripwire to bring us into a conflict, South Korea will carry the bulk of the load for fighting and Japan will get drawn in due to proximity. I have no doubt that the North will go all in if a shooting war really starts, and they will drag any nearby nation into the fight just to create more pressure for them to get a favorable outcome.

I don't think it suits the Norks to get into a shooting war either unless their regime is threatened from within.