Not up to U.S. to Respond to North Korea Attack says Gates

It is not up to the U.S. to respond to an attack by North Korea on a South Korean navy ship. It is up to South Korea to deal with the matter, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Friday.

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Gates was responding to a question posed by reporters at a Pentagon news conference whether South Korea's determination that North Korea had sunk the South Korean frigate Cheonan, killing 46 sailors on March 26th, was an act of war.

“This was an attack on South Korea, and South Korea needs to be in the lead on the way forward,” the defense secretary said.

Gates said the U.S. Defense Department supported the conclusions of a multilateral investigation into the attack that found a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo that sank the ship. “They’ve laid out some paths forward, and we will be consulting closely with them as they move forward,” he said referring to the South Korean military.

Say what? You mean we're not going to meddle in this affair? I must say I was not expecting the U.S. to take this approach. SK is an ally no? It's almost as if we're saying "Sorry, this is your fight, good luck & all but you're on your own". On the surface that's what it appears to be suggesting anyway

[edit on 5/22/2010 by UberL33t]

He is absolutely right, but first South Korea needs to be given full command of its own forces. Even though, I hope they would not attack the North

It's about time the US put out the word that we are not the police of the
world, no matter what some people say. I believe we have around
25,000 troops stationed in SK. I say let NK and SK duke it out on their own.
If American troops are attacked in the process, then I would say we
should do something, obviously. We can't stand by and let our soldiers
get slaughtered, but I say we should step back and let the Koreans decide
this outcome on their own. Actually, I don't know for sure how we are
going to not do something though. Just a guess.

this is too much for the USA to handle so they come with a silly excuse. they have iran to deal with at this moment and they cant afford starting a war with NK. NK threatened that any retaliation (including sanctions) would lead to an all out war.

There are 2 options~

1. Attack the North, start the fire, we all know its innevitable at this point and NKorea is just waiting for it. Of course a decent strategy and course of action will need to be formulated and we have 29,000 US troops over there to worry about.

2. Divide our support. Half to outflank the NKorean military arranged in the demilitarized border zone and wait it out, while the other half sent to Israel to aid with the IDF drill beginning in less that 24 hours that are believed to be intercepted by Lebanon and Hezbollah forces along the border. Once that war breaks out, NKorea will be forced to make the first move in this one..and we can all hope its not what we expect...

No OIL and no return on investment.

Plain and Simple.

'Nuff Said.

Gates is lying. The public sees him as a war-mongerer, so he doesn't want to look like one.
I can almost guarantee that if a full-scale war starts (although, technically speaking, they already ARE at war) between the two, we will be at war shortly.

aren't we at a cease fire with them, for like 40-50 years now..? so wouldn't that end the cease fire and thus make it our business.....?

North Korea is in China's backyard. We dont want to step on China's toes, because they are still our bankers and suppliers. Im quite sure that China has no desire to see a war between North and South Korea, and they probably have good intelligence assets inside North Korea, unlike the US. If they think that Jong-Ill is going to start a war, they will take him out, through assassination, or by supporting some of his Generals in a coup. If they fail, Jong-Ill could launch a pre-emptive nuclear attack on South Korea, because he is just that criminally insane.

reply to post by endtimer


Er...

So, you're quite happy to let SK go it alone then?

So that begs the question, what is the point of the thousands of US troops in SK? I thought the US was treaty bound to defend SK if attacked, no? Hence the troops.....