If/when a nuke goes off radioactive particles go up in the mushroom cloud and get carried by, and subsequently fall from, the upper winds, generally speaking those winds normally blow from west to east, that's why flight times are less USA to Europe and longer Europe to USA, tailwinds and headwinds etc.
I was relocating to this part of the world as Japan had it's nuclear power plant problem following the tsunami, people in these parts were panicking of radiation. I did explain the west to east thing, that we are so far pretty much due south of Japan we're probably in the safest location but around here they can't even figure out what side of the road they're supposed to be driving on so trying to get the nuclear thing across to them ... well!
Don't forget that we in Europe had our own nuke go off, in a BIG way, at Chernobyl, the price of British lamb dropped so much in price I filled my freezer with it, what was I supposed to do, go live in a concrete bunker for the next few weeks, months or years, no ... life just carried on as normal.
Gaddafi was a madman, Hussein was more stable but still dangerous, had Gaddafi relinquished power he would probably still be alive but he went out fighting, or should that be hiding.
This guy in N. Korea, if he were to fire off the first targeted missile at another nation then that would probably be the end of his time in power and, indeed, breathing oxygen, I have to admit that it does seem to be becoming serious but all through the cold war the yanks and the Russians were pointing their missiles at each other, they might still be and they would regularly be testing each other's air and sea defenses.
Look at what happened on 9/11 when much of the US air force were airborne, the yanks made a courtesy call to Moscow "Just to let you know that we're airborne" for Moscow to reply "Yes we are watching you and we have cancelled all exercises for today", i.e. the Russians weren't going to be testing US's air/sea defenses that day as they would normally be doing.
It's one thing firing off blanks from a potato gun, it's another thing firing off a lethal weapon targeted at another nation and it's people, I pray that it won't get to that stage although I do admit to being somewhat concerned as to what may happen in the near future.
I'm not here for long distance dating, that's just an added bonus, I'm here for business purposes so I'll stay where I am, should the idiot be foolish enough to fire off any loaded missiles I can't see that he would want to waste them on a country of coconut trees when there are much bigger fish to irritate!
But I've read that N. Korea have more missiles than USA have available to shoot them down so, if USA were to start that particular battle, it is a battle they would lose
NK has a lot of artillery pointed at SK,,, much of it could never be destroyed before they devastated Seoul. Japan recently received several of our defensive Patriot missile batteries made for shooting down med to long range missiles. I haven’t seen any numbers comparisons.
That's presuming that NK fire their missiles in the direction of Japan.
US can only have so many naval ships in the area at any one time and these ships cannot carry sufficient missiles to shoot down the artillery that NK has with supply ships few and fare between.
Mind you I'd bet the USA has a few hundred Tomahawk's in the area, look at what they did to Gaddafi on that first night, something like 110 cruise missiles, Obama,. bless him, might have been taking a back seat whilst proclaimning "It wasn't us folks" but which other nation has a 110 cruise missiles just sitting around of an evening? :)
Folks, as you all already know, I am married and expecting a bundle of joy soon; however, I am concerned about this North Korea. Even though I haven't heard much lately about them probably because Harvey mess in Texas and Louisiana and Trump have dominated the news.
Martin, I agree as recalled 9/11 and the US and Russian rhetoric relations took a timeout. Sometimes I wonder if our relations with Russia is like one of those " freimies " friends/enemies soap opera. By the way, looks like PI is a save place to be during WW3 ))
LR, I have been to Seoul and to the DMZ and was impressed. N.K is not going down without bringing down S.K with them.
Bottom line, whose the one to pull the trigger, is the million dollar question.
31 August was the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana's death and reading the reports memories came back.
The nation was in mourning but because, by then, Diana was no longer royalty HM the Queen displayed an attitude problem, flags around the country were flying at half mast but over Buckingham Palace there was no flag because Queen was enjoying some R&R at her holiday retreat of Balmoral in Scotland whilst declining to return to London.
The nation revolted, to the effect, "Get your ass back here and get that flag flying at half mast" and for the first time in history Queen found herself having to do as she was told, it tarnished her reputation and that period shook the royals up to the effect that they are not above public opinion and they need to behave appropriately.
Likewise with any nation leader, Trump included, they can play the 'Big I Am' as much as they like but it is the public that elected them there so they need to appreciate that they are not above public backlash.
I recall when Reagan went after Gaddafi, I didn't get a lot of sleep that night as the F1-11's and KC10's were launching out of Lakenheath and Mildenhall, yes Reagan went in with an iron fist but it was Gaddafi that had killed innocent people, Americans, first so I can't imagine that, in 2017, USA would make the first strike, NK would need to make the first move of attacking another nation and/or killing innocent people.
But NK are dependent upon China and, I would think, China are enjoying the boom in trade that they are doing with all these Asian neighbours and the rest of the world, hell they're even manufacturing Airbus Industries airliners and I doubt that they are keen to piss the rest of Asia and the world off!
News alert......"Seoul, South Korea (CNN)Hours before North Korea announced it had tested a hydrogen bomb, its state-run news agency had a stark message for the world: We've developed a more powerful nuclear weapon and we can make as many of them as we want." CNN
K-dag,,, I had a cousin that was stationed at the DMZ in the 70‘s I believe. He said that attacks were a daily thing,,,,, many times they nearly ran out of ammo when the North was a stones throw away. Also made a comment about changing underwear each time.
It would be interesting to know how the militaries match up,,, ships, missiles, fighter jets, bombs, ect.
The autocorrect actually red lined it,,,, but I let it slide.
I’m so tired and behind here,,, we were hit with a catastrophe about a month ago. Over 200 trees down, most of them in our roads,,, haven’t seen half of our woods yet. In my current state,, I can’t do much about it, work is going very slowly.
I’ll have rods in my back some time next year to relieve the spinal compression. 2017 has been the worst year of my life.
According to the YouTube video, North Korea have provoked or made acts of wars against its neighbors. His opinion on " Why the US military hasn't attacked N.Korea" is that they are waiting for N.K. to cross the point of return. At that point the US will drop a nuke or two.
LR, confrontation between the two countries have been going on since 1953; but what scares me is, the current status quote and people's complacency. I am sure that the average knuckle head in South Koreans aren't worried about war, but the next video game or galaxy phone coming out.
120 days till the end of 2017...and if WAR breaks out, is going to be a the worst year for all humanity.
I heard talk about 20 years ago that they were working on a little nuke that would just take out a city block,,, haven’t heard anything about it since. We do still have a few of those MOAB,,, might be some money well spent?!
The people of NK are innocent civilians, look at that first night of Libya, 100+ tomahawk's to specifically take ourt military installations whilst killing as few innocent civilians as was reasonably possible.
Have the rules of engagement changes, have NATO approved nuking an entire city or province?
Trump said, we are the business of killing terrorists not building nations... So whatever piece of equipment that will finish the job, that is what will be send. As it was already layout, conventional wisdom/war is not gonna cut it.
Martin, NATO doesn't apply to the Pacific theater, unless Russia gets involved. 30K military personnel in S.K. and whatever is in Japan should be enough to "repeal and replace " Obamacare... just joking, I meant the Chineses.