When other countries -- or the UN, for example -- agree that we "have to blast them back to the stone age", then I'd be on-board with that. Until then, I don't want to be the country (or the individual) espousing such a view. America has enough bad press as-is. I love my country; please don't make me feel ashamed of her.
And the situation is significantly different from Japan's. Their populace was educated and aware of the outside world; they just wanted nothing to do with it.
North Korea, on the other hand, has a populace that on the whole has no idea what goes on outside their borders, save for what the propaganda machine distills -- and that is, let us say, heavily slanted. They are not currently capable as a group of believing anything but the worst about any Western influences, and what they already believe is so badly skewed as to be more fantasy than reality.
In short: the Japanese were (at the time) fanatical, but they were capable of being rational, and when faced with the choice of backing down or fighting to the last man, they made the rational decision. The North Koreans are not at this time capable of making the rational decision, even if they were "blast[ed] back to the stone age".
Information is power, and they don't have any. So their only reaction basis is fear. And fear precludes rationality every time.
In shorter: they need education and experience with the rest of the world, not bombs.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
And the situation is significantly different from Japan's. Their populace was educated and aware of the outside world; they just wanted nothing to do with it.
North Korea, on the other hand, has a populace that on the whole has no idea what goes on outside their borders, save for what the propaganda machine distills -- and that is, let us say, heavily slanted. They are not currently capable as a group of believing anything but the worst about any Western influences, and what they already believe is so badly skewed as to be more fantasy than reality.
In short: the Japanese were (at the time) fanatical, but they were capable of being rational, and when faced with the choice of backing down or fighting to the last man, they made the rational decision. The North Koreans are not at this time capable of making the rational decision, even if they were "blast[ed] back to the stone age".
Information is power, and they don't have any. So their only reaction basis is fear. And fear precludes rationality every time.
In shorter: they need education and experience with the rest of the world, not bombs.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs