Suicide Is Painless

Let’s take a look at what Gen. Peter Pace said last week about what would happen if we engaged in war with North Korea, shall we?

"It would not be as clean as we would like it to be, but it would certainly be sure, and the outcome would not be in doubt."

Now let’s look at a bunch of dumb quotes about the Iraq war from the same government that now thinks that “the outcome would not be in doubt” if we fought North Korea.

(By the way, the quotes on Iraq come from a site that purports to be humorous, though I find absolutely nothing funny about the Iraq war.)

Of course, now we have these geniuses being countermanded by generals in Iraq who actually know what’s going on and say privately that three times as many troops are needed over the number that we presently have to engage al Qaeda in its Iraq stronghold of Ramadi, a province north of the Euphrates River that is estimated to be about three times the size of New Hampshire.

Also, there’s a question I’d like to ask, and I’ll admit that I don’t know the answer; do the insurgents/terrorists/whatever in that area of the world really give a flying you-know-what who wins the elections next week, or is that some make-believe freeper talking point? Actually, if they took a side at all, they’d have to support the Republicans, because they’re the ones responsible for the failed policies that have gotten over 2,800 of our people killed (over 100 in October alone).

Given all of this, I think we should take a look at who would be facing the greatest risk at this moment if we engaged North Korea in a war in which “the outcome would not be in doubt.”

This takes you to the U.S. Forces Global Security site which presents the following information regarding the total number of U.S. forces deployed in that area:

Prior to 2004 the total Army presence in the region was nearly 27,500 soldiers, of which 13,753 were assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division. However, it is important to point out that the Department of Defense indicated during a briefing on July 23, 2003 that the United States Army had some 4,000 additional soldiers in South Korea than what had been previously disclosed by the military. It was not clear is this is a mistake or not. If true, this would have brought the total number of soldiers in South Korea to 31,460. In any event, with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team going to Iraq in August 2004, the total number of troops declined by 5,000, to a total of 22,500 Army soldiers.

The Air Force has two wings located in the USFK region with some 8,300 personnel, operating a total of about 100 aircraft of all types.

US Naval Forces, Korea is particularly small, numbering around 293 sailors and 52 marines. CNFK normally has no seagoing forces assigned, though its personnel are assigned to various joint, combined, and Navy billets throughout the ROK peninsula. These personnel are actively engaged in planning and execution of numerous operations and exercises throughout the Korean theater. There is one ship that has been present in the region for over 30 years, that being the USS Pueblo which was captured on 23 January 1968. She is currently located at Pyongyang.

(I didn’t know that the Pueblo was never returned. Interesting…)

So the above information bears out the fact that we have somewhere in the vicinity of 30,000 military personnel (not counting defense contracting personnel and dependents of both contractors and military personnel) currently stationed on the Korean peninsula.

We should also consider the fact (also noted at the U.S. Forces Global Security link) that we have 47,000 military personnel aside from contractors and military/civilian dependents in Japan to consider should hostilities break out between the U.S. and North Korea.

You would like to think that Gen. Pace considered all of this before he made his ill-advised comments, but again, given that he represents the bunch responsible for the Iraq war, you can’t take anything for granted.

Maybe Gen. Pace thinks that, after hostilities officially ended over there at the conclusion of his hypothetical war, we could send over Hawkeye, Trapper and B.J. along with Margaret Houlihan one more time to operate on everyone and put them back together again.