well if you want to go that way, we don’t know that Trump fired ~50 cruise missiles ( could be 0, could be 5000 ) into a mostly empty airfield ( could have fired them into the water, could have fired them into a children’s hospital in Damascus … or Jerusalem ).

we’re all dependent on hearsay at some level.

as to your hearsay story about US troops on the US mainland training for and being outfitted for a normal camo ( instead of desert camo ) loadout ….

well, we aren’t sending the Carrier Battle Groups to the eastern Med either.

so, what IS the hearsay about where the CBGs are headed? Japan?

oh?

and it’s getting to be springtime on the Korean peninsula?

oh?

and Trump bombed the hell out of an empty Syrian airstrip the same day … he was meeting with a big Red Chinese high mucky-muck?

hrm.

i dunno, mang. it might take a genius to figure this one out.

if you place any credence in the hearsay.

i have been pointing out since Shrub was president that if any solution to Korea was going to be found, it was going to require the participation of China at a minimum. in the 1950s, we were directly engaged with Chinese ground forces and the Russian air force. both China and Russia share a land border with NK.

IF anyone invades NK, and has success
THEN the expectation must be planned for the Chinese ( and possibly Russians ) are going to involve themselves in the conflict.

after all, that’s what ( we are told ) happened last time. and i’m pretty sure we don’t want to get into a shooting war with either China or Russia today.

therefore, from the US point of view, the way to handle Kim Jong (x) is to make public pronouncements that China is a first tier power, that China thus has first power responsibilities, and that it’s a point of honor that *China* get NK into line ( whatever you think “into line” means ).

is this what’s going on? i dunno. Trump did make public pronouncements that the Syrian airfield strike ‘proved’ that he was a ‘man of his word’ and could be depended on. that’s not hearsay, i saw Trump say it.

who is that message for? and what is the back channel message that he has been sending to that party that it would need to be reinforced in this way?

Or maybe its just easier to relate to people that share similar blood and worldview.

I’ll put it another way. I have strong doubts that some former NK soldier and I could sit down and have a beer now that we’re in our fifties. A few years back I had a former army colonel that I did quite a bit of handyman work for. We would have a beer together at the end of my working day but he was no friend either. The beer was him playing lord of the manor taking care of some peasant. His wife paid well for my services so I played his stupid game.

I’ll admit, you’ve got me stumped with that one.

looking back, who did you have more in common with, the “enemy” or your own generals?

Back on the main topic… my father fought in the Korean war, his brother and his brother in law also. My father was infantry, the two uncles were engineers. I spent a good deal of time in Korea myself, nearly two years as an infantryman. I’ve spent many a day and night in the DMZ. Patrols, ambushes, the whole works. My own brother was deployed to Korea no less than three times, That doesn’t stack up to your guys story exactly but between the family connections and having my own ass on the line there I became quite interested in the ongoing conflict.

You see the war never ended, it just went into first gear. Be that as it may my interest drove me to read endless books and personal accounts of the events between ’50 and ’53. Perhaps it’s just a touchy subject with me. I not only put in time there, albeit thirty years later, but I also made a real effort to understand what had gone on there. And probably a bit more than that. It’s all well and good to read an account of some battle saying XXX Batallion attacked Hill 520, well I’ve climbed those hills, in full battle rattle, and when I read I know how goddam lung searing it is to try to advance by rushes up the side of a Korean mountain it is. Or to haul 81mm mortar ammo or water cans.

From my view it would be as if someone were to tell you a thing or two about commercial internet service ( a subject I thankfully know nothing about). None of this negates your overall points in either post excepting that the anecdote certainly didn’t help. I hope this puts a bit of context to what I said before.

I’m very concerned by the dumbing down in the digital age.

After a chance comment about boiling eggs and determining if they were cooked I spent two hours trawling google and you tube last night, I found nothing but endess dupes about spinning them or using a timer that changed colour, even from so called speciality cookery channels, not a single mention anywhere of what my mother taught me, take it out, if it dries very quickly it is done… if it takes longer than the count of five put it back in for another minute.

and Syria is inextricably tied up with the ISIL issue. even if that’s mostly because the CIA is funding them.

*shrugs*

Trump has every bit as much authorization to do what he did as Obama had to make bombing runs for 4 years. with the exception that Trump didn’t actually put ( extra ) US personnel over combat territory.

“American jets began bombing ISIL in Syria on 23 September 2014, raising U.S. involvement in the country.”

i’m not pleased by the decision but i can see the implications for North Korea.

and ouch and gws…