By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post 

The Fort Hays State Presidential Speaker series brought three prominent military leaders to campus for a panel discussion titled “The US Military’s Role in Global Security,” and the discussion quickly turned Thursday night to North Korea.

The panel was moderate by Jamelle Bouie, Slate’s chief political correspondent and a contributor to publications such as The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, TIME and the New Yorker. The panelists were Cdr. Kirk Lippold, Gen. Barry McCaffrey and Gen. Peter Pace.

Cdr. Kirk Lippold retired from the U.S. Navy in 2007 after 26 years of service. He was commanding officer of the USS Cole when it came under a suicide terrorist attack by al Qaeda in the port of Aden, Yemen, in 2000. Lippold’s personal awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal (three awards), Combat Action Ribbon, Navy Commendation Medal (two awards), Joint Service Achievement Medal and Navy Achievement Medal (two awards), in addition to various campaign and service ribbons.

Gen. Barry McCaffrey served in the U.S. Army for 32 years and retired as a four-star general. At retirement, he was the most highly decorated serving general, having been awarded three Purple Hearts, two Distinguished Service Crosses and two Silver Stars for valor. For five years after leaving the military, McCaffrey served as the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

Gen. Peter Pace retired from active duty on Oct. 1, 2007, after more than 40 years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps. Pace was sworn in as 16th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2005. In this capacity, he served as the principal military adviser to the president, the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council. Prior to becoming Chairman, Pace served as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He holds the distinction of being the first Marine to have served in either of these positions.

In June 2008, Pace was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor a president can bestow. He is a member of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Senior Advisory Group, and has served on the president’s Intelligence Advisory Board, and the Secretary of Defense’s Defense Policy Board.

Pace began the discussion by saying the president has many tools to contain North Korea.

“The truth of the matter is that North Korea is not going to be dictated to on the outside by Twitter or any other way,” he said.

Pace said China and other countries in the region are going to need to be brought on board to form a regional response to North Korea. Some of these can include China, the United States, South Korea, Japan and other countries that are interested in the South China Sea, including Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippians and Indonesia.

The Chinese are not happy with U.S. support of Taiwan. Pace said the U.S. could use trade, or the manner in which it discusses Taiwan, as leverage to entice China to be more forthcoming with its influence on North Korea. With United States focused on North Korea, China is free to do what it wants in the South China Sea, including building up artificial reefs in attempts to expand its territory and influence, Pace said.

China may be motivated by the possibility of America troops on its border with North Korea.

“If there were a war, we would certainly prevail, and if we did prevail, that would put U.S. troops on the north border of North Korea,” Pace said.

With North Korea firing missiles over Japanese territory, the Japanese at some point could seek to obtain nuclear capabilities. This too would not be in the interest of the Chinese, Pace said.

“Some combination of things that are important to China, things that are important to South Korea and Japan and the United States, some combination of that will get us to a dialogue that will allow diplomacy to take hold that can get us to where we want to be, and the president will have more tools at his disposal to get us to that dialogue,” Pace said.

McCaffrey described North Korea as the most desperately cruel place on earth — a poor country wrapped around an army. Over three generations, the North Koreans have been molded to the mindset they would gain nuclear weapons, unite the peninsula and drive the U.S. out of the region.

“They have learned that if you provoke South Korea or the U.S. and then demand negotiations, you will get rewarded and you can provoke again. Essentially, in that period of time, we never took military retaliations, neither the United Sates or South Korea,” he said.

McCaffrey said if North Korea engaged the U.S. in open war, they would destroy North Korean army and its government in less than six months with terrible humanitarian consequences, and in the end it very well may go nuclear.

“There is this tremendous potential for a literal regional armageddon, which we would win, but none of us want to go down that route. The South Koreans and the Japanese and Australians are never going to agree to a pre-emptive conventional strike to take out the nuclear capability, so we are going to have to go back to diplomacy and economic power.”

McCaffrey said he was very concerned about the president’s use of language, calling Kim Jong Un, “little rocket man,” and threatening the use of military force.

“Two years ago, I would have said there was a 5 percent chance of war. As of this time around and listening to the president talk, I am saying 51 percent by next summer unless the Chinese come to their senses and realize their purposes are ill-served by conventional war in the region,” he said.

Lippold said the real two players in the region are the United States and China. There is a tremendous amount that can be done diplomatically and economically and to inform people in the United States, Japan, South Korea and even China that our intentions are not to drive North Korea out of power.

China can’t afford any conflict with the United States and will be the linchpin, Lippold said.

“The United States cannot afford to let a country gain nuclear weapons for the first time in our history,” he said, “to threaten us with the offensive use of those weapons in the manner that they gain more capability and credibility to use them so that Kim Jong Un is in fact becoming that clear and present danger.

“China will not want to (go to war) because of the economic impact it would have not only on them but the United States as well. Let’s face it, there are billions of dollars in trade and trillions of dollars in debt that they hold of the United States. They would not want to engage in it,” he said.

“I believe if the North Koreans continue to threaten us with those nuclear weapons that China, with North Korea as their only political ally, would go right up to the brink of nuclear war and then they would negotiate back from there to bring the tensions down, but I think it is literally going to take up to that point to get there, and the United States is going to be in that unfortunately position. … We have spent 50 years negotiating and what has it accomplished? At the end of the day, nothing. That is going to have to be resolved, unfortunately by this administration,” Lippold said.

McCaffrey said despite threats of biowarfare, proliferation of nuclear weapons, terrorism and international crime the U.S. has the strongest and most prepared army in the world and the United States is safer than it has been its history.

Pace added, “When you are seeing military leaders go in front of Congress and ask for more of your tax dollars, it is not because they want to use those weapons in war. It is because we believe it is the strength of our military that prevents us from having to fight most places on the planet. The weaker your military, the more likely that someone is going to test you out.”

The U.S. can secure the world climate by being so clearly superior that nobody wants to take us on, Pace said, and therefore they will resort to terrorism or cyberwarfare, which is not good, but it is better than the devastation of conventional warfare or better they are going to realize that combat is not going to get them their aims and they will resort to diplomacy.

“What your military does best is not fight, and the reason they get to not fight is because they are the best fighters on the planet,” Pace said.

Lippold described the military as a weapon of last resort.

“We have to have the credibility, that when pushed, should the United States military need to or must be used to defend our national security or the surrounding world, we have the credibility that we are willing to exercise that option as a last resort and do it decisively, do it overwhelmingly and do it in a manner that ends the issue on a permanent basis,” he said.

The panel also discussed the need for adequate military funding and the need for long-term presence and support in countries in which the U.S. has been militarily involved.