“It’s crazy to send spouses and children to South Korea, given the provocation of North Korea. South Korea should be an unaccompanied tour,” the South Carolina Republican said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” ″So, I want them to stop sending dependents, and I think it’s now time to start moving American dependents out of South Korea.”
The problem of getting Americans civilians out of the way of a shooting war while bringing in troops and weapons through the same ports and airfields--while potentially under fire--is big enough that it would be good to have the civilians out of the way before shooting starts.
Are we getting closer to the point where shooting starts?
Because this looks an awful lot like something that would be nice to do right before a strike campaign on North Korea:
Millions of residents of Tokyo are to take part in evacuation drills simulating a North Korean nuclear attack on the Japanese capital.
The national and city governments are to carry out a series of exercises between January and March to prepare for a potential attack on Tokyo, the Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported, the first time that a major Japanese city will have carried out responses to a simulated attack.
Towns facing the Korean Peninsula have in recent months conducted similar drills, with residents instructed to seek shelter in response to sirens warning of an imminent missile strike.
Holy shit.
The news that South Koreans have been doing something similar is something I did not know.
At the conclusion of the biggest drill, the Japanese could quietly tell those people to just stay in their evacuation locations a little longer "just in case" rather than return home. While obscuring the fact that people aren't really going home, another "drill" in another area will take place.
I have said I have a hunch we told China to deal with North Korea before North Korea gets nukes that can reach America or we will deal with North Korea sometime early in 2018.
Graham's comment and the extraordinary Japanese "exercise" seem like the sort of thing that comes out when the word is spreading among those in the loop that military action is being readied.
In completely unrelated news:
Hundreds of aircraft including two dozen stealth jets began training Monday as the United States and South Korea launched a massive combined air force exercise. The war games come a week after North Korea test-fired its most powerful missile ever, an ICBM that may be able to target the eastern seaboard of the United States.
Integrating non-stealth aircraft into a strike campaign so they exploit the capabilities of the stealth planes rather than compromise the stealth capabilities by being inconveniently seen before their time is a good thing to do before the shooting starts.
As I've noted, after deterioration of American military readiness and logistics depth under the Obama administration, it will take time to prepare for a campaign against North Korea that included preparations in case the strike campaign escalates into a bigger war or in case the strike campaign leads to a North Korean collapse.
And oddly, completely unrelated news that it is, the above article notes Graham's comment on American dependents for some odd reason.
I know I am connecting dots because I am looking to confirm a picture I already drew. But my pucker factor is getting higher.
Have a super sparkly day.
