mm123

The U.S. didn't get oil out of Iraq, and either way, nation building costs much more than oil can pay for.
http://www.time.com/...1948787,00.html

I feel like there are a number of misconceptions floating around that need to be cleared up.

1. North Korea,China and the U.S.
The "friendship" between these two nations is less about actually liking each other and more about China not wanting another U.S. ally in the region. Meanwhile the U.S. and China are major trade partners. All debts aside this means more than anything, China and the U.S. both benefit massively from the relationship they have now and there is no way in hell that China would risk economic growth just to protect North Korea. If the U.S. were to go to war with N.K. China would more than likely stay out of direct combat and instead opt to participate more in the post war nation building where they could secure themselves a new ally.

2. The North Korean Military.
While North Korea does technically have a very large military, it wouldn't be able to stand up to South Korean forces, let alone the full backing of the United States. The North Korean military is laughably behind in terms of technology, and would be fighting a purely ground war within a day. Not only that but the nation has very low oil reserves and would run out within a week. This means that there tanks, artillery and troop transports would be completely useless. Desertions in the North Korean military have recently hit an all time high, while the general public in N.K. has been starving for quite some time it is only recently that their army has felt the effects of the shortages. Long story short, if the North Koreans soldiers didn't lay down their arms at the sight of a well fed enemy, they would be quickly crushed by the better trained, better equipt and better informed enemy.

3.The North Korean people are -not- brainwashed.
To an extent this is true, but not as much as people seem to believe. Like I said in point 2, military desertions are at an all time high, civilians are constantly trying to flee into China. All we see is their propaganda which makes it seem like the people are truly buying into it. Free enterprise is strictly banned in North Korea, yet almost all citizens practice it to an extent, they know what they have doesn't work but the won't do anything about it because they're scared. Anyone who says anything slightly negative about the government gets themselves and their families thrown in what essentially amounts to concentration camps.

4. Nuclear War.
The only thing the U.S. has to fear from the North Korean nuclear program is that they might sell it to someone like the Taliban, who in turn, could use a suitcase nuke in a major population or economic center, such as New York City. North Korea's bombs are smaller than what the U.S. dropped back in 1945 and they don't have the missile program to hit anything in the United States. Not only that but the use of nuclear weapons on anyone they actually could hit (Japan or South Korea) would more than likely result in the North Korean leadership being declared war criminals and put to death as a result, which brings me to my next point.

5. North Korea's leadership is crazy.
No, they aren't, they want to hold on to their power. North Korea is starving and for the last decade or so has received a great deal of food and medical aid in exchange for not advancing their nuclear or weapons programs. Since they let down their end of the deal by continuing nuclear testing the aid has slowed down and they have been hit with more trade sanctions. This means that North Korea is starving even more than usual, and as successfully as they have oppressed their people, if this keeps up they won't be able to maintain control for a whole lot longer. They know this too, so what they are doing is threatening to go to war with everyone around them in the hopes that they can make a deal to get the sanctions lifted and the aid flowing back in if they agree to back off again.

6. The United States economy.
The American economy can absolutely handle another war, because war doesn't break the economy nation-building does. The Iraq War didn't hurt us, the 10 year occupation did. And since, as I've already pointed out, China would want to take the lead on the rebuilding of North Korea this shouldn't be an issue.

Wrapping this up: The only real fear that I have about a war with North Korea would be if they where to plant bombs in their own country as a sort of nuclear IED to kill tens of thousands of American, South Korean or U.N. forces, as well as their potential to sell nuclear secrets to terrorist organizations. I'm very anti-war but if there is any nation that needs to have its government deposed by force it's North Korea, not just for the good of the world but for the good of all those trapped inside that hellhole. BUT having said all of this I can safely say that war with North Korea has a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of happening because Kimmy and his bros in Pyongyang know that it is a fight they can't win and they aren't willing to risk their power or their lives over all this.

This back story plothole thing reminded me of this. http://www.cracked.c...ou-wont-notice/

False analogy there broski. Inari directly complimented Sakura, it makes sense for here to blush even if she holds no romantic feelings for him. However the kids in the hug scene have not been complimented in any way, their blushes are a reaction to seeing Naruto and Sakura hug. I don't know about you but I've never scene other people blush when two friends hug each other in a purely platonic way.