Top Military General Says Conflict With Korea Would Be “HORRIFIC”
Politico reports:
“Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggested Saturday that Americans must be prepared for the possibility of a military confrontation with North Korea, whose nuclear program he deemed an urgent threat.
Although he stressed the importance of applying continued economic and diplomatic pressure aimed at persuading Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arms program, Dunford dismissed the oft-stated notion that a military option shouldn’t be on the table.
“Many people have talked about military options with words like ‘unimaginable,’” Dunford said. “I would probably shift that slightly and say it would be horrific, and it would be a loss of life unlike any we have experienced in our lifetimes, and I mean anyone who’s been alive since World War II has never seen the loss of life that could occur if there’s a conflict on the Korean Peninsula.
“But as I’ve told my counterparts, both friend and foe,” he added, “it is not unimaginable to have military options to respond to North Korean nuclear capability. What’s unimaginable to me is allowing a capability that would allow a nuclear weapon to land in Denver, Colorado. That’s unimaginable to me. So my job will be to develop military options to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Dunford was speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, a gathering of national security officials, experts and others that wrapped up Saturday. His comments came in the wake of North Korea’s testing of an inter-continental ballistic missile earlier this month. “
