Two bits of news from Asia, widely covered elsewhere. However, are we beginning to see a peace dividend as a result of the thawing in relationships between North and South Korea?
"Three American prisoners held in North Korea have been released and are en route to the U.S. after a surprise diplomatic mission by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, President Trump announced Wednesday. " foxnews.com/politics/2018/05/09/american-prisoners-held-in-north-korea-on-their-way-home-after-pompeo-visit-trump-says.html
[Ed Note: They should be back in the US by now although I have not seen any direct reporting of this at the time of editing this story. Anyway, welcome back guys!]
Update: North Korea summit: Trump greets freed US detainees
"China, South Korea and Japan have begun their first trilateral summit in more than two years.
[...] They are expected to take up the recent flurry of developments on the Korean peninsula. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Moon on April 27 and Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this week.
Abe said he hopes North Korea will give up its nuclear weapons in a complete and irreversible way.
Li said China is willing to work with Japan and South Korea to maintain regional stability.
The three-way summit is supposed to happen annually, but hasn't been held since November 2015 because of tense relations between Japan and China." foxnews.com/world/2018/05/08/latest-china-japan-south-korea-open-three-way-summit.html
(Score: 4, Insightful) by isostatic on Thursday May 10 2018, @08:07PM (3 children)
We're pretty damn good at war too. There are only 2 potential adversaries, Russia and China, that would give our war machine a case of mild indigestion. Everybody else is trivial to mow down.
India, Pakistan, North Korea, UK, France, Israel all have nukes. That's somewhat more than a 'case of mild indigestion'.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday May 11 2018, @12:10AM (2 children)
Some people are under the delusion that they are likely to survive an all-out nuclear war. They are very wrong about that.
Even with, say, India and Pakistan going at it, they have enough firepower to cause nuclear winter, which interrupts everybody's food supplies, which means we're all likely to be dead. And no, you are not likely to have access to a shelter sufficiently supplied to keep you alive, and if you do have access to such a shelter you can be pretty well guaranteed to be attacked by at least a few thousand of the desperate people that don't have anywhere to go and nothing to lose by trying.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday May 11 2018, @12:58PM (1 child)
And even if you had such a shelter, and it was well defended or remote that nobody would get there, what kind of life would that be?
Forget the nuclear winter, just a dozen nukes on the eastern seaboard would cause a massive change in lifestyle for the U.S.
You don't win a nuclear war, at most you lose less than the other site.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday May 11 2018, @06:44PM
Part of my point is that the US doesn't even need to get close to being hit in order for nuclear war to be a big problem for USAians. As another example, if Israel nuked Iran into the ground and nobody retaliated, that would also do enough to trigger serious problems for everybody else.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.