[spoiler=Mounting Spoilers]
I lol every single time I see "North Korea can't handle American Firepower" in this thread and in other places.
Yeah, the US is going to kick Korea's ass and get home by Christmas, just like they did with Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq!
Given that:
A. A war with NK would include more than the US.
B. Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq actually had functioning governments.
C. The previous nations had a known loyalist population (Granted, NK might as well, but we don't know for certain how much of the population follows Kim-Jong Il's personality cult just to stay alive and how many buy into it).
I'd say that the idea that North Korea will quicky crumble isn't as presumptous as it would be otherwise.
When the US was forming, we had ample support from the French for almost a hundred years before we were really standing on our own two feet. And it wasn't until WW1 where we could stand quite independently as a nation, this was then solidified in WW2.
Umm, no. By 1798 the US and France had already fought a war. (Granted, it was an undeclared naval war, but still.)
That was because Napolean was an ass and the whole revolution thing. But it only lasted like a year didn't? Maybe two?
Our strong trading ties with the French, was one of the main issues that caused the 1812 wars.
Actually no. "Our" first war was the French and Indian war, an extension of the War of Austrian Succession, in which as British subjects we were pulled into a series of frontier battles against the French and their Indian allies in the Ohio territory. This is one of the principle reasons for the revolution and is noted in the Declaration of Independance. It also was the reason we stayed out of European alliances for decades to come. Furthermore, the War of 1812 was actually simply the United States chosing a side in the very business-hostile maritime conditions of that period. British ships were interdicting American ships to France and impressing British-born Americans into service on their warships, while French ships were interdicting shipping to Britian to impress French-born American citizens to serve on their warships. They insisted that since we weren't picking a side in the conflict between the two our vessels were fair game. We very nearly chose a war with France (as our northeastern states were heavily invested in the British rum trade) but instead chose the old saw of fighting the English. After demonstrating we could not only hold our own against the British navy (we actually won a majority of the ship-to-ship duels) and forcing a stalemate in a full-scale British invasion, the concept of American independance was properly realized as not just a fluke rebellion of a few provinces able to overthrow their garrison during a time of British overreach.