With the mainstream media contemplating the significance of Kim Jong-un sending his sister to the Olympic Games in South Korea, as well as any messages found within the North’s military parade on Thursday, the larger question still looms:
Will the current thaw in relations between the United States and North Korea last beyond the games in Pyeongchang?
On Thursday, as he prepared to fly to South Korea to attend the games, Vice President Mike Pence told U.S. troops in Japan that “our forces are ready and our nation is resolved.” The day before, he reminded the world of the U.S. view that “North Korea is the most tyrannical and oppressive regime on the planet.”
While this doesn’t exactly bode well for U.S.-North Korea relations in the days to come, it doesn’t necessarily mean the situation will devolve into war. Still, evidence exists that the U.S. is taking the potential for a military conflict with the Hermit Kingdom very seriously.
Writing for The Nation on Tuesday, Michael T. Klare, professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, pointed out that the U.S. may already have a tool in place to decimate North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Last April, headlines were made around the world when the U.S. detonated the “mother of all bombs” in Afghanistan. At the time, it was reported that this MOAB was the strongest non-nuclear weapon in the United States’ military arsenal.
As it turns out, however, the U.S. had a “father of all bombs” waiting in the wings the whole time.
The GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), Professor Klare noted in his article, is a 30,000-pound weapon so massive it can only be carried by a B-2 stealth bomber. By contrast, the MOAB — officially the GBU-43B — is 21,600 pounds.
Originally designed for use against the nuclear program of Iran, the MOP “bunker buster” can penetrate hundreds of feet of rock and concrete before detonating its 5,300 pounds of high explosives. This is notable because, as with Iran, many of North Korea’s nuclear facilities are believed to be buried deep underground.
Equally noteworthy is the fact that earlier this month, the U.S. moved three B-2 stealth bombers — again, the only craft capable of carrying the “father of all bombs” — to a military base in Guam.
While the Air Force has refused to say whether any GBU-57s were moved along with the bombers, the very fact that the jets are there is, as Klare wrote Tuesday, “to say the least, highly provocative.”
In any case, as cooler heads have at least temporarily prevailed ahead of the games, Klare says now is the time to push for meaningful dialogue:
“With the Winter Olympics just about to begin, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in desperately striving to arrange peace talks with the North, this is the moment to speak out for de-escalation of the Korean crisis and the commencement of serious talks involving all key parties, including the United States, leading to a reduction in threatening arsenals and behaviors on all sides.”
The Homepage of Independent Media
It's stupid and Ill advised, exactly like most of US foreign policy for a long time now, if they attack NK it won't end well for all parties.
The US should try leading the world by getting rid of their nuclear weapons not saying "we can have them but you can't!"
Bullies always get their cummupance eventually.
it is as if the usa has a bizarre desire to never learn from its past mistakes, for fear that they may not be able to engage in the same economically beneficial, yet entirely toxic behavior - and therefore is willing to relive 1953 and the destruction of 20-30% of an entire nation. selling bombs has the same effect as heroin, i think, as my country is in a fog of non-acknowledgment that grows deeper with every explosion.
Well...to the extent that the U.S. government is a geopolitical bully, its comeuppance will likely comes from a war with China. That's what the "Thucydides Trap forecasts.
[That name comes from the Greek historian Thucydides, whose History of the Peloponnesian War concluded that war between Athens and Sparta was caused by up-and-coming Athens alarming predominant Sparta. The "Thucydides trap" explains WW1.]
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Oh no. If the FOAB's is more powerful than the MOAB's, we have a problem. Just like Hillary called climate change sexist, the same will apply to the philosophy of bombing campaigns?
The real Enemy is the nuclear power industry. For what are we still investing so much money in a technology that is so destructive and harmful for this planet. Lets leave the atomic warfare and energy sector behind and move on to are more peaceful future!!!