[lbo-talk] Provoking N. Korea To War:Plan 5030

[Dwayne Monroe]

[What do we make of this?  The idea of crafting a plan
to provoke N. korea into conflict sounds so criminally
reckless that you want to dismiss it as misinformation
or alarmism - if, for no other reason, because the
implications are too horrid.  Yet, many people
dismissed the Bush Admin's talk about Iraq as being
hot air and we've seen how that turned out.  If it's
true that the Bushies are trying to start a war with
N. Korea and succeed in that goal all the talk about
electing Dems or anarchists or progressives or whoever
will stop cold because there'll be much bigger fish to
fry.  I would not be surprised if a series of
extraordinarily dire events (which I won't speculate
about) followed such incredible folly.]

Upping the ante for Kim Jong Il

Pentagon Plan 5030, a new blueprint for facing down
North Korea

By Bruce B. Auster and Kevin Whitelaw
Within the past two months, Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld has ordered U.S. military commanders
to devise a new war plan for a possible conflict with
North Korea. Elements of the draft, known as
Operations Plan 5030, are so aggressive that they
could provoke a war, some senior Bush administration
officials tell U.S. News.

 Adm. Thomas Fargo, head of the U.S. Pacific Command,
and senior Pentagon planners are developing the highly
classified plan. The administration insiders, who are
critical of the plan, say it blurs the line between
war and peace. The plan would give commanders in the
region authority to conduct maneuvers--before a war
has started--to drain North Korea's limited resources,
strain its military, and perhaps sow enough confusion
that North Korean generals might turn against the
country's leader, Kim Jong Il. "Some of the things
[Fargo] is being asked to do," says a senior U.S.
official, "are, shall we say, provocative."

There are several war plans for Korea--Plans 5026 and
5027, as well as 5030--that outline the different
phases of war and the specific provisions for
movements of large numbers of troops, aircraft
carriers, and other war-fighting requirements. U.S.
News has learned details of the prewar phase of the
newest version of Plan 5030. Some officials believe
the draft plan amounts to a strategy to topple Kim's
regime by destabilizing its military forces. The
reason: It is being pushed by many of the same
administration hard-liners who advocated regime change
in Iraq. The Pentagon only recently began offering
details of the plan to top officials at the White
House, the State Department, and other agencies. It
has not yet been approved. A Pentagon spokesman
declined comment.

[...]

full at

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/030721/usnews/21korea.htm

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