HAMMER: As UN forces marched north, there was evidence of the Chinese joining the conflict. Despite the evidence, General MacArthur and his staff believed “the Chinese would not dare intervene” They assessed that they lacked the Military capability to bring significant forces into the conflict and even if that was possible the US air superiority would make quick work of them. What do you think we are “wishing away”? What are capability or piece of equipment are we putting too much reliance on?

Today, I believe much of the Army is wishing away the will and capabilities of the NKPA, especially after the recent defector was shot at 40 times and only hit 5 times.  I have had many conversations about it and the general consensus is that if an actual ground war were to break out (assuming nuclear weapons aren’t used), then the US forces would be able to roll into NK and utterly destroy the NKPA. My main point is that whether or not that is true, down to the individual soldier, we should really avoid that train of thought or else we may find ourselves trapped in a yet again lengthy war created by an underestimation of the enemy. There is a big difference between confidence, and ignorance.

As for what we rely to heavily on, I believe it is electronics in general.  If you take a deployed brigade combat team engaged in combat operations currently, the capabilities of that BCT across all levels will impress almost anyone. However, would degraded would the capabilities become if an EMP were used against them? The what-if questions naturally become endless, but would that BCT be able to successfully fight in combat against an enemy that can now potentially achieve over-match? Obviously hard to say since it has never occurred.