EMBRACE THE SUCK ALERT: Second Edition pre-order page at Amazon. Everybody who’s been voluntold will understand.

INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENT: According to The Diplomat North Korea’s sixth nuclear test detonated a 140 kiloton nuclear device.

Trump said all options are on the table.

U.S. MARINE ROCKET ARTILLERY EXERCISE AT 29 PALMS: A Marine unit fires an M142 High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System — HIMARS in the lingo. The HIMARS is a cheaper and lighter version of the original MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System).

And speaking of lingo: you can pre-order the second edition of Embrace The Suck at Amazon. The new cover is perfect.

FOUR MYTHS ABOUT IMPEACHMENT:

Discussing the viability of launching a formal impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump is like driving a racecar around a decaying track. The exercise is equal parts furious and tedious, sure to jolt over the same potholes again and again.

Good read.

AN ISIS-AL QAEDA MERGER? The terrorist groups may be discussing a merger. But the author notes they hate each other — to the point of fighting a blood feud.

NORTH KOREA “BEGGING FOR WAR”:

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is “begging for war,” and warned that the United States does not have unlimited patience.

“His abusive use of missiles and his nuclear threats show that he is begging for war,” Haley said. “War is never something the United States wants; we don’t want it now, but our country’s patience is not unlimited; we will defend our allies and our territory.”

North Korea may get what it wants. All options are on the table.

SEVEN YEAR OLD BRITISH SCHOOL GIRL FINDS SWORD IN LAKE: Her name is Mathilda, not Arthur. But she found the sword in the same lake legend claims Lady of the Lake gave King Arthur his sword, Excalibur.

The article is fun.

EMBRACE THE SUCK ALERT: Second Edition pre-order page at Amazon. Dig the new cover.

I like the publisher’s sales pitch:

With more than 500 definitions Embrace the Suck is the perfect gift for the soldier, sailor, marine, or airman in your life—or for the Beltway Clerk** who yearns to speak like one.

Then the publisher gives you the definition:

**Derisive term for a Washington political operative or civilian political hatchet man. May refer to so-called “Washington defense experts” who’ve never served in the armed forces.

Yes, a swamp critter.

It’ll be out in December as a paperback.

NORTH KOREA PREPARES FOR ANOTHER LONG RANGE MISSILE TEST: That’s the breaking news.

What would a massive allied military response look like? As this recent essay noted, since President Trump said all options are on the table, then “decapitation” operations (Option 5) are on the table.

An essay published in early July included a sketch of “the war to denuclearize.”

6.) Delayed reprisal and the war to denuclearize. Is a pre-emptive strike reckless? This asks another question: Just how responsible is a post-emptive strike?

The Korean War isn’t over.

Donald Trump is already a Korean War president—but so was Barack Obama and every other American president since Harry Truman.

Over the years, North Korea has committed atrocities throughout Asia. The regime has murdered and kidnapped South Koreans, Japanese and U.S. personnel. North Korea’s embedded belligerency defies the laws of war. The War to Denuclearize would be less of a pre-emptive strike than a delayed reprisal.

The U.S. and South Korea have exercised what they call a 4D strategy to “detect, defend, disrupt and destroy” North Korea’s missiles.

Weapons systems involved include various U.S. aircraft and a South Korean submarine with cruise missiles.

This is a bare sketch of some of the systems that would be employed in a “simultaneous strategic bombing strike” to knock out North Korean missiles, missile launchers, storage sites, nuclear and chemical weapons sites, command and control centers, communications systems and air-space defenses.

The U.S. and its allies in east Asia have the aircraft and missiles (cruise and ballistic) to deliver at least 2,000 (likely more) precision blockbuster-sized conventional weapons within a two to 10 minute time frame on North Korea’s critical targets. The April U.S. Tomahawk cruise missile attack on a Syrian Shayrat airbase provides an example.

The missiles were fired at a distance, but since they can “loiter,” the 59 missiles arrived near simultaneously. U.S. Air Force heavy bombers can drop smart bombs so that munitions dropped from different aircraft arrive near simultaneously.

A simultaneous strategic bombing strike seeks to surprise the enemy, destroy his strategic weapons systems and suppress his key defenses throughout the battle area.

That is asking a lot—perhaps too much.

Success depends on many things, but the first D—detect—is vital. Conducting a successful simultaneous strategic bombing strike requires very accurate, real-time intelligence. Allied ABMs must be ready to intercept any North Korean missiles that survive the attack.

That’s a sketch of the first 10 minutes. Over the next month subsequent strikes would occur, to make certain North Korea’s long-range missiles, chemical munitions, nuclear weapons stockpiles, missile manufacturing capabilities and nuclear weapons manufacturing capabilities are eliminated.

The U.S. and it allies must protect Seoul. North Korean artillery can bombard the northern reaches of South Korea’s capital. Military analysts debate the severity of the threat posed to Seoul by North Korean artillery deployed along the Demilitarized Zone. Some call it overrated. Perhaps, but best to suppress and destroy the artillery. North Korea’s tube and rocket artillery systems—even the ones in caves and bunkers—are vulnerable to weapons like the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb.

Smart bombs can close tunnel entrances.

This is a major war, and the risks are great. But so is exposing Los Angeles to the violent whims of a nuclear-armed Kim Jong Un.

Stay tuned.

PRACTICING A MILITARY RESPONSE TO NORTH KOREA: A USAF B-1B makes a bomb run over a South Korean bombing range.

Glenn has a post up about the U.S. promise to counter North Korean aggression with a massive military response. We’ll all be revisiting this topic.

TWO ON NORTH KOREA: North Korea is claiming it tested a hydrogen bomb today. My latest NY Observer essay, written after last week’s missile test, examines several military and diplomatic options with Pyongyang. This second essay, written in mid-August, also surveys options and provides some useful background. The Fat Kid did blink, but like the essay says, blinking isn’t retreat. If we can’t squeeze out the nukes, we’ll have to blast them out.

RELATED:North Korea’s nuclear weapons time line.

NORTH KOREA CLAIMS IT SUCCESSFULLY TESTED ANOTHER NUCLEAR WEAPON:

The secretive communist state said its sixth nuclear test was a “perfect success”, hours after seismologists had detected an earth tremor.

Pyongyang said it had tested a hydrogen bomb – a device many times more powerful than an atomic bomb.

Analysts say the claims should be treated with caution, but its nuclear capability is clearly advancing.

Here are some options for dealing with Pyongyang. So stay tuned.

IN CASE YOU MISSED THEM: My latest NY Observer essay: After North Korea’s latest missile test, Trump puts “all options on the table.”

VERY MUCH RELATED: South Korea seeks extended range missiles.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN AFGHANISTAN: The place is a mess. But what the Trump team proposes to do makes a lot more sense than the feckless policies of the feckless Obama. (Another recent Observer essay.)

VERY MUCH RELATED: What Glenn said about Bill Roggio’s Anatomy of a Taliban Ambush: “This is no way to win a war.” Understand that Bill is analyzing a Taliban propaganda film’s portrayal of an ambush. That said, it does illustrate how the enemy could exploit Obama-era Rules of Engagement (ROE) restrictions.

BIG LIFT IN JAPAN: USMC CH-53 Super Stallion “hooking” a container. Very slick logistics.

This Raptors of the Rockies photo deserves another link. Rocky Mountain high.

RARE EARTH NEWS: And it is.

NORTH KOREAN OPTIONS UPDATE: My latest Observer essay. Trump says all options are on the table.

PENTAGON SENDS MORE TROOPS TO AFGHANISTAN: We’re paying for Obama’s feckless Afghanistan policy.

MASSIVE NET FAILURE IN WASHINGTON STATE: But not in cyberspace. A huge net at a net-pen salmon farm near Seattle malfunctioned and thousands (precise number unknown) of farmed Atlantic salmon escaped into the wild.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: My latest Observer essay. Trump tells North Korea’s Kim Jong Un all options are on the table.

MY LATEST NEW YORK OBSERVER ESSAY: On the Korean peninsula all options are on the table.

ANOTHER SHOW OF FORCE IN KOREA:

U.S., Japanese and South Korean warplanes carried out a show of force against North Korea, as Russia warned the United States that new sanctions against the reclusive nation would be “dangerous.”

Two U.S. B-1B supersonic bombers from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam and four U.S. F-35 stealth fighter jets from the Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni, Japan, joined four South Korean jets and two Japanese warplanes for the exercises Wednesday.

Well, all options are on the table.

RELATED: USAF B-1B exercising with South Korean F-15 Eagles.

ARE THINK TANKS DOOMED?: Thoughtful essay by Daniel Drezner.

TRUMP SAYS ALL NORTH KOREA OPTIONS ARE ON THE TABLE: A brief review of Return of Serve, Decapitation and War.

VERY MUCH RELATED: Trump and Abe agree to increase the pressure on North Korea. It’s Trump’s pressure strategy.

FBI RESISTS PUBLIC RELEASE OF TRUMP DOSSIER INFO: Why? Why, pray tell? Isn’t this in the public interest?

F-22 RAPTORS OVER THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS: The fighters were participating in a Red Flag exercise at Nellis AFB, Nevada. (You know USAF photographers just love taking photos like this. This is one you could frame and put on the wall.)