Was it the January introduction of Lightnings that perhaps bugged the blustery North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, to rein in his threats of nuclear annihilation for possible targets ranging from Seoul to San Francisco?  I refer to the deployment of a squadron of Marine F-35B aircraft from Yuma Marine Corps Air Station in Arizona to MCAS Iwakuni, Japan back in January of this year.  North Korea has long been under the watchful eye of two squadrons of Air Force F-16 Wild Weasels out of Misawa Air base in Northern Japan, planes designed to swoop in at the outset of a conflict and destroy the enemy's ground-to-air radars and missile defenses and thus deny the enemy any further ability to defend against succeeding attacking air forces.

Those Weasels were a serious strategic threat prior to the arrival of the F-35s.  Now, because of the F-35's incredibly advanced sensor packages that bring their highly enhanced defense and attack capabilities to the fight, as well as their ability to communicate all that targeting data to the Weasels, those F-16s at Misawa represent nothing short of the certain death of North Korea's air defenses, including her Soviet-era air force.  From undetectable standoff positions, the Marine F-35s would be able to provide all manner of aerial defense as well as enhanced target selection for those Air Force Weasels as they chew their way through North Korea's air defense assets like a bunch of...well, mad weasels.  

It's not as though the Weasels would be the only American air forces streaking in if Kim should go ballistically stupid.  Far from it: F-15s, F-16s, F-18s, and other aircraft from bases in South Korea and Japan, as well as from America's carrier strike groups, would all be vectored in on what is actually a fairly small target, equal in size to a slice of coastal California from Marin County to San Diego going inland a little over ninety miles to include Sacramento.*  That's not much area when you're able to muster an air armada of that size.  And we haven't even mentioned our strategic bomber forces that would be targeting Kim's massed infantry, artillery, and armor, which would quickly become defenseless, with their air defenses seriously degraded and their air cover utterly destroyed on the ground and in the air.

The F-35s, communicating with many of those squadrons of other U.S. aircraft, would enhance the performances of many of those older weapons platforms.  And the F-35s are able to strike important targets themselves.  With their futuristic target acquisition capabilities, these F-35s can locate and strike any objective in North Korea without Kim and his high-hatted marshals ever knowing that death and destruction are on the way until they're vaporized.  North Korea's air force, while large, is essentially an outdated, outmoded force that will require some luck to outlast Saddam Hussein's if we go in after it.  The addition of the F-35 Lightning to that battle plan just makes the reality of such swift destruction all the more certain.

I think, perhaps, that young Kim has noticed the flickering Lightnings on his narrowing horizons.  If not, he will at some time in his future likely experience the Lightning's strike, blasting, burning, and roiling his country into senseless rubble.  Unfortunately, that decision is his.  Kim has shown some past ingenuity in killing those who anger him, by anti-aircraft gun or feeding them to starving dogs.  Rather than yield his absolute power, he just may decide on a novel method of suicide: by Lightning.

So be it...

*No, it's not possible to get the commander-in-chief to consider that option, no matter how desirable it may be.