Fear comes in many guises. There is groundless fear, and then there is the grinding fear that something terrible is hiding in he trees.  The unfounded fear that Nork artillery could destroy Seoul and kill hundreds of thousands of civilians in the first few hours of war is absurd. An account of the Battle of Berlin, mid-April 1945 to capitulation in May, tells of the siege of Berlin by three Soviet army groups that continuously bombarded Berlin with 8,000 artillery tubes, augmented by fire from several thousand tanks. Above the city, thousands of bombers from three Soviet Air armies flew lazy eight bombing runs. When it was over, and the casualties counted up, after a solid month of incessant shelling and bombing of a city swollen with refugees, the final post-war tally was about 10,000 civilians killed. The North Korean artillery threat is a Potemkin village. When the first shells fall on Seoul the population will head for shelters and survive, as did the vast majority of Berliners in 1945. The North Koreans must know this, and they also must know that carrier battle groups beyond the horizon, bombers on Guam and tactical air based in South Korea constitute more than just something in the trees.

Full hidden in the vasty deep
Deck full of folded wings
So still she seems to be asleep
But cruel iron death she brings
On Guam the B2s stealthy climb
Into the glistened air
As silent as a painted mime
For all to know they’re there
The trees are full of hidden death
Of horror, sudden pain
At night the trees, as in Macbeth
Will come to Dunsinane