Oh... This isn't going to end well...

[soop]

NORTH KOREA'S 26-year-old dictator-in-waiting has burnished his leadership credentials with a deadly artillery attack on South Korean territory, causing its neighbour to return fire and scramble F-16 fighters.

Two South Korean marines died, and at least 12 were wounded. There were reports of civilian injuries and houses were set ablaze as scores of shells fell on Yeonpyeong island.

A North Korea expert at Beijing's Central Party School, Zhang Liangui, told the Herald that Kim Jong-un was deliberately destabilising the environment in order to mobilise the military and consolidate his power.
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The South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, held an emergency meeting and told officials to ''respond sternly'' but to avoid aggravating the situation. The military were placed on high alert.

Um, run??????
http://www.smh.com.au/world/north-ko...123-185p1.html

[Grennan]

The exchange follows the revelation last week of a hitherto unknown North Korean uranium enrichment plant to a visiting US scientist. Siegfried Hecker, who previously directed the Los Alamos National Laboratory, told The New York Times he had been ''stunned'' by the plant's sophistication. North Korea said it was operating 2000 centrifuges.

If verified, this would take Pyongyang towards creating a far more powerful arsenal than the estimated eight to 12 plutonium-based warheads that have been built over the past five years.

Yeah sounds promising.

[acarmody]

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, was briefed on the situation last night. She condemned the attack and said Australia was consulting closely with South Korea, Japan and the US.

Oh crap, Julia opened her gob. Looks like if the shit hits the fan, we are going to war.

[walesy]

RUN? dont think so mate im waiting for the call up, hopefully my ship gets sent up, this is what i joined the forces for!

[acarmody]

Mate being in the Navy is all well and good, hell I'm even thinking of doing it myself, but if your excited about potentially going to war than you need your head checked.

[walesy]

well how you you prefer it? people join the defence force whether it be army, navy or air force, only to say nah we dont wanna go... #### me somones gotta do it and if they join up then bitch out then they shouldnt have joined in the first place!

[acarmody]

Don't get me wrong mate, I respect people who have the balls to put theirs on the line. And in no way should you say no you don't want to go.

You should absolutely be prepared to fight, but I don't believe you should want too. To want to kill someone is just plain wrong in my book.

The only truth about war is that people die. Will it be you, one of the guys in your cabin, and what about your families? And who do you kill, what about that persons family?

War is wrong, but only a fool would think that it will never happen.

[Joe Peeps]

well how you you prefer it? people join the defence force whether it be army, navy or air force, only to say nah we dont wanna go... #### me somones gotta do it and if they join up then bitch out then they shouldnt have joined in the first place!

i think the point is not that one who joins should be prepared to go to war, but why would anyone want to go?

personally, i see a slap on the wrist to NK

[acarmody]

i think the point is not that one who joins should be prepared to go to war, but why would anyone want to go?

personally, i see a slap on the wrist to NK

Exactly.

I also can't see much of anything happening yet. Periodic exchange of fire over the DMZ between North and South is normal. All that's happening now is the other countries are huffing and puffing and sticking their chests out. So unless North Korea suddenly discovers large amounts of oil, I see this just being swept under.

[walesy]

well thats how alot of people will see it, but north korea wont stuff around, if theyre lobbing shells over the border then its not for the fun of it, theses countries arnt to be taken lightly, slap on the wrist? cmon man this isnt some p plater getting his first speeding fine,

its not the fact that i WANT TO, im not some "wanna kill everyone" kinda guy, its my job and thats what were expected to do,
theres an old latin saying... "si vis pacem parra bellum" in english "if you desire peace, prepare for war"

in other words stuff like this will not work itself out there will never be peace without sacrifice. (if there will ever be peace at all)

there is so much that goes on that everyday people dont know about, you see every now and then about boat people coming into the country when the media decides to make a deal out of it....
do you even realise how many sailors spend about 9 months of every year at sea picking up and turning these boat people around? or the people who spend 6-7 months straight in the persian gulf protecting the oil fields??

so why does it come as such a surprise that people will be sent to the korean region to keep an eye on whats going on, waiting for shit to go down?

as you said who will die? me ? the guys and girls on my ship? the "enemy"? who knows but thats the risk we take and what we knew "could" happen when we enlisted

[Joe Peeps]

consider the alternative to a "slap on the wrist" its either that or a full scale war (they are already under sanctions) - given the political implications this act isnt enough to trigger anything significant. (not that im an expert or anything just an opinion). there are already plenty of eyes on NK - sending additional ships does nothing except keep up appearances - how is this any more then a slap on wrist?

off topic i recall you being an officer, right? i ask out of curiosity more then anything...

edit: to clarify, the whole "want" to go to war thing is purely a semantics debate - i dont think anyone is reading too much into it just pointing out how the statement can be interpreted

[walesy]

no im not an officer, i work for a living

[acarmody]

no im not an officer, i work for a living

HAHA love that statement, I'm sure officers do some work.....theoretically.

For a complete change of topic. What do you do? I was having a look at Combat Systems Operator, but I've also heard that it has a fairly high turnover rate, any ideas? Can the Navy help you study if I would like to train to be an engineer (in the navy of course)?

[walesy]

i dont want to post on here what i do, but if you want to be an engineer then a CSO is not for you, either an MT (marine tech) or ET (electronic tech) would be what your after

[acarmody]

Fair enough mate, your life is your life. The ET looks pretty sweet. I'm pretty good with electronics and stuff. Are these the guys who work under the Engineer officers?

[minux]

RUN? dont think so mate im waiting for the call up, hopefully my ship gets sent up, this is what i joined the forces for!

You joined the navy for wartime butt sex0r? Damn navy, not really going to war when your hundreds of km's from any action

Mate being in the Navy is all well and good, hell I'm even thinking of doing it myself, but if your excited about potentially going to war than you need your head checked.

Thats why I joined..I got to tour twice, was the best thing I ever did. I certainly did not or do not need my head checked. If I was able bodied I'd be back in a heartbeat. (ExRAR)

This whole NK/SK ongoing conflict will trigger a pretty big war IMHO, hopefully it involves China so they can lose a couple of billion of their population. Regardless, the west is in trouble if it starts, we have been overpowered by leftist nutjobs who want to see the west die, AU, UK, USA etc. We are in dire trouble if the shit does hit the fan.

[immortality]

ahhh, it's about time this was finished properly. may as well make a pre-emptive first strike, cripple there atomic capabilities and deal with the fall out later (pun intended).

[soop]

I don't know how much of a war it would be, in the conventional sense. I doubt NK would have any issue with using nuclear war heads. In which case, neither would a few other countries.

I'd love to be able to join the armed forces, last time I tried they told me no due to my rather broken knee and ankle.

[Grennan]

I dont think NK is going to bother use its big aresenal untill people like China and the west get involved. They arent going to throw a nuke over the border...

[minux]

I dont think NK is going to bother use its big aresenal untill people like China and the west get involved. They arent going to throw a nuke over the border...

China won't get involved, NK is like a little sister to China. This conflict alone has enough to start World War 3. With China and Russia supporting NK, then Iran using the situation to go after Israel, it could get very damned messy. In fact, it is almost like the worst horror story you could come up with...

Soop, there will ALWAYS be convential war. Nothing can be finished without ground troops, otherwise, if this were the case, there would be no use for such a mass of foot soldiers.

[walesy]

cmon minux dont start the whole navy/army jokes, its just as scary in a tin can in the middle of the ocean than what it is on the front line, if air strikes are coming in we cant just jump behind something to try get away from being fired on.

i agree with you about this easily turning into WW3, it definately has the potential, i spose we will just have to wait and see how far it goes

[Calaber]

China won't get involved, NK is like a little sister to China. This conflict alone has enough to start World War 3. With China and Russia supporting NK, then Iran using the situation to go after Israel, it could get very damned messy. In fact, it is almost like the worst horror story you could come up with...

Soop, there will ALWAYS be convential war. Nothing can be finished without ground troops, otherwise, if this were the case, there would be no use for such a mass of foot soldiers.

Minux

I'm not so sure that Russia would side with NK these days. The old hard-line regime in Moscow has gone and Russia needs western money to keep afloat. The antipathy that exists between Russia and China is another factor to consider - they aren't the best of friends these days.

China is another matter though. They would be the only friends NK has, apart from a couple of ratbag middle eastern countries like Iran. It would be a major concern if China supported NK in any offensive, but again, China needs the raw materials from the west to survive.

Unfortunately, NK is the most dangerous rogue state on the planet. They have shown a total disregard for other countries, they appear to want to taunt the US into a conflict and proudly boast that they have nuclear capacity which they are quite willing to expand and expend if necessary. Their leader is a ratbag. Trouble ahead methinks.

[soop]

Russia has shown support for the US and south Korea.
China has shown a big whopping "DO NOT WANT!?", so we might get lucky yet.

Minux - If the conflict did worsen, to the point of another world war. Do you think there would be a chance the military acceptance standards would be dropped?
I'd already be in the RAI if I could be :P

[immortality]

this is all about posturing because the son is going to take over and he wants the west to know that he won't be a push over. if the west were to strike it would be best to do so before they develop uranium based weapons, although they do have plutonium based weapons at the moment there yield is limited as well as there delivery methods. you Aussies are right in the firing line though, being best mates with the US and all.

i agree with Calaber, i don't think that Russia is going to be a major issue, they have other problems

[soop]

Australia is safe, we've really nothing that's worth dropping a nuke on.
It would be America that cops it.