Nork Nukes Non

By now you've all seen this:

We cannot say what is in Kim's heart, it is beyond even our powers of deduction. But the smiles, the handshake the warmth between the two leaders all seem genuine. 

We're serious. Here's another genuinely warm moment between two adversarial leaders:

Here's Begin and Sadat after their nations fought four wars in 25 years:

By way of contrast here's Yitzak Rabin being made to shake Yassir Arafat's* hand:

Everything about Rabin's demeanor says, 'Let's get this over with.'

So we think something genuine is afoot.

*Gay leader of the Palestinians who died of AIDs.

How Can this Be?...

Via the increasingly indispensable Don Surber we learn that the Chinese Central Bank will no longer do business with Kim.

No outside bank means no capital. It means no foreign currency reserves. It means Kim's ability to buy on the international market is crippled. That's a body blow to Kim.

Trump just got China to stop banking with Kim. That's a yuuge deal folks.

Still think Chuck and Nancy rolled Trump on DACA? Suuuure.

When will the naysayers learn?

Trump has given Kim a nick name: 'Rocket Man'. That's bad news Kim, bad news. When Trump nicknames you you're finished. Just ask 'Low Energy Jeb', 'Lying Ted' and of course 'Crooked Hillary'.

You know, a lot of people like to jokingly call Trump a 'god-emperor'. But we're going to go a step further.

Trump is the Kwisatz Haderach!

The Neocon gets Based

So Kim is threatening to launch four missiles into the waters off of Guam.

Look folks, this is an act of war.

No Great Democracy in history would tolerate what the Nork's are doing. Athens would have sent Themistocles and the navy. Rome would have called up four legions. The Swiss Cannons would have called out the free-pikes. Palmerston would have sent a gunboat.

At this point it comes down to pride, doesn't it.

Something else. The great M Steyn points out that every third world  craphole wants to get its hands on nukes. It's about time we set a precedent that no one can have nukes unless we decide they can.

Tiger's Tail...

...Looks like its about to be overtaken by events.

So we're setting it aside.

At some point we'll put all the posts together and finish it up, but not now.

So you have President Trump promising biblical level destruction and Kim saying bring it on. The closest analogy I can think of is Kuwait in 1990. Frankly, we've never really seen anything like this. We do recall during a similar crisis  with the Norks in mid-90's Bill saying, 'It would be the end of their country.'

We take this seriously.

We have one principle when it comes to situations like this. We ask ourselves, WWRD?

Four Legions.

Tiger's Tail: Suicide Squad

As the war dragged on, the task force of two American and two South Korean divisions pushed north from the DMZ toward Pyongyang.With the 101st and 3rd Marine Divisions just miles west of Pyongyang American commanders had one question: would Kim order nuclear weapons used on North Korean soil? Would he even go so far as to nuke his own capital?

American planners had spent several days debating this question. Some even favored nuking Pyongyang preemptively and denying Kim that option altogether. Even the most optimistic planners looked on in dread at the prospect of fighting for Pyongyang.

In true communist fashion Kim mobilized the people of Pyongyang for the defense of the city. Every street was blocked, every building fortified. Every public structure turned into a citadel of mass communist resistance. With also Arab rhetorical flourish Kim promised a million deaths and a million more.

But outside Pyongyang, the landing force consolidated its position. One brigade of the 3rd Marine Division occupied the landing zone while one brigade of the 101st protected the route inland. This left a total of four brigades on the high ground west, southwest of the city.

Both Secretary Mattis in Washington and the task force commander on the ground agreed that inaction was undesirable but sending the full force into Pyongyang was too risky. Therefore a marine task force centered on one mechanized battalion and reinforced with an armored company was formed. Their mission was to breach North Korean Defenses in Pyongyang and advance to the Pathone River. Once the river was reached commanders on teh ground would decide if the task force would withdraw from Pyongyang or establish a foothold for further exploitation into the city.

Fourteen hundred marines donned their NBC gear Though their official designation was Task Force 1-6, almost immediately the men dubbed themselves Suicide Squad and their trek into Pyongyang 'Suicide Run'.

At sunup the Suicide Squad advanced down the Youth Hero Highway, northeast into Pyongyang. Over a nearly three and half mile run, past football stadiums and war memorials the marines encountered no resistance whatsoever and barely any sign of life. Within an hour lead elements of Suicide Squad reached the Pathone River Bridge finding it intact.

It was at this point that commanders determined there could be only one reason why they would be allowed to enter the city. Task for 1-6 turned around and sped back down the Youth Hero Highway, hoping they weren't to late.

Tiger's Tail will return tomorrow...

Tiger's Tail Part Two: The Nihilist

The North Korean's nuclear strike paralyzed the Trump Administration, dividing it into two factions those that wanted to immediately flood the country with reinforcements and those that wanted to halt those reinforcements and simply retaliate in kind.

For twenty four crucial hours the president simply did not know what to do.

As Kim's armies advanced on Seoul, North Korean troops showed a barbarity and nihilism not faced by the Americans since the Second World War.

Against orders most young soldiers carried their smart phones into battle. Retreating American forces were not able in most cases to recover the bodies of their dead. Cunning North Korean political officers recovered as many phones as they could find. What happened next caused an uproar at home. The North Koreans took over social media accounts of many American dead. Here they posted photos of the dead owners of those accounts. In hundreds of cases they contacted via phone or text the bereaved families and mocked or taunted them.

By the third day of the war the North Koreans had several hundred American prisoners. They subjected several dozen female prisoners to brutal gang rape, often broadcast on FB Live. North Korean political officers singled out several black soldiers and forced them to read statements condemning 'White America'. The same was done with a few Hispanic prisoners. The North Koreans executed several captured white officers and posted the videos on prominent black social media sites.

Kim could not have been happier with the overall results. American media covered thees atrocities exclusivity, ignoring entirely the course of the war, the heroics stands by surviving individual units of the 2nd Infantry Division and the fanatical defense of the Han River Plain by the South Korean Army.

As the North Korean Army reached the outskirts of Seoul the Trump Administration came to a decision...

Tiger's Tail Part One, Unknown Unknowns

Before the war began certain parameters were understood by American and South Korean planners. Geography necessitated that the North Korean offensive concentrate in the western part of South Korea on both banks of the Han River, on the Han River plain.

Both sides also understood that the contest at its most basic would be North Korean mass against American time. That is, could North Korean mass win the battle before American reinforcements arrived?

So no one was surprised when two of North Korea's four first echelon armies rolled across the border and onto the Han River plain.

This put a dozen North Korean divisions against the American 2nd Infantry Division and South Korean forces. These were of course hammered by American and South or Korean air assets which attained air superiority the moment the war began.

These were the last known-knowns of the war.

Kim was expected to concentrate his massive arsenal of artillery on Seoul, Instead. these fell upon the 1st Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, which was unprepared for the onslaught and pinned. The brigade, under siege within the first six hours of the war, hunkered down and waited for the 2nd and 3rd Brigades (deployed from Ft. Lewis in the lead up to the crisis), to move up.

No one expected what happened next. Advancing north both brigades were subjected to bombardment by nuclear armed artillery units. It is now known that at least have of the nuclear shells failed to detonate. No matter. Both brigade's were shattered and the 1st, isolated and cut off, fearing nuclear bombardment itself, disintegrated.

A path to Seoul was now open...