The North Koreans plan to test launch another Taepodong 2 Missile that is capable of reaching Hawaii, Alaska, or Japan carrying a nuclear warhead.
Why are we even considering letting this go unanswered?
When Donkey Jong decides he wants to shoot a missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon over our allies’ heads why would we allow it?
The North Koreans claim this missile test is meant to carry a satellite even though the country has no space program. Are we supposed to believe that only a few years after a failed attempt at detonating a nuclear warhead under ground that all of a sudden one of the world’s most aggressive dictatorships (which coincidentally spends 80% of GDP on its military) is suddenly curious about the cosmos?
Why then are we not planning to blow Kim Jong Il’s little science project out of the sky? Between Patriot Missile batteries, Aegis Destroyers, and 747 mounted lasers I have a hard time believing that we can’t.
Maybe the real answer is we won’t.
Why should we? Oh that’s right, one of the most interested parties in this test launch is the Iatolas in Iran. Korea plans to sell the missile to Iran provided they can produce a successful demonstration. Iran could easily reach Israel and Western Europe with these missiles armed with the nuclear weapons they claim they aren’t making.
Do we really plan to wait until these bastards have nukes to do anything about them? Does anyone honestly think that these countries are interested in establishing some type of yuppie put-your-feelings-on-the-table dialogue?
Of course they aren’t. Regimes that maintain power through brute force are not interested in being friendly. They are driven by the ability to do harm to those they subjugate and anyone who would interfere with that subjugation.
I think we should run a little test of our own and use North Korea’s missile for target practice immediately after take off.
~Man Overboard
Images Used in this Post
Taepodong 2 Missile image courtesy of Flickr user Cosmovideo published under the CC license.
10 Comments
I’d like to see us shoot it down. They are trying to make a statement to us about their power so why don’t we answer back by showing them that they are still 50 years behind us in military technology? Not to mention the sweet satellite pictures that will probably be distributed all over the internets.
That would make for a most wonderful Youtube video.
Why shoot it down? Are you kidding me? Re-program its guidance system in mid-air to return to its source
Ever see Spies Like Us (1985)?
The missile’s trajectory is supposed to go right over northern Japan, so Japan is more likely to shoot down this missile than the US.
Either way somebody needs to shoot it down. Jack, your point about Iran buying their own Taepodong II missile is spot on, and reason enough to stop playing word games with N. Korea.
If we hadn’t been so involved in Iraq when N.Korea attempted this same launch in 2006, I think we would have had more flexibility to give a military response. But now, in 2009, the Iraq war is dwindling in intensity and I think it’d be prudent to direct our forces into N. Korea, especially in light of Obama’s pledge to reduce the opportunity for nuclear proliferation.
If we could use a complete lack of evidence to wage a war in Iraq, then why the hell can’t we use real, tangible evidence (a Taepodong II missile capable of nuclear armament) to wage war against N. Korea and end this regime that is starving more than half their citizens as we babel.
We engaged in a “Police Action” or some ludicrous term for our military actions against North Korea in the late 40’s early 50’s. We weren’t effective then, so what makes you think we will be effective now? And besides, Iraq couldn’t nuke our nearby friends, but North Korea can. Shoot the missile down.
Japan virtually has no military and can’t really have one due to the outcomes of WWII. We basically take care of Japan’s military needs, so it IS our job to shoot it down and protect our allies.
We had all but wiped out North Korea is the 50’s when China entered the war. That was the deciding factor that made Korea a draw instead of an all out rout.
China has hinted that it will not support the North this time around and is angry that the political capital they spent in the six party talks has not paid off. Right now China has too much to gain by doing business to intervene in Korea as it did in the 50’s. If we were to go to war with the North again, it would be a one sided battle.
Are you guys kidding or what! Do you really think the administration in Washington wants anything but the staus quo on the Korean peninsula? The Koreans will make their launch with impunity… unless you count lodging diplomatic protests and enacting trade barriers as a meaningful response to an obvious show of aggression.
I don’t know, a strongly worded letter can be very intimidating to a ruthless dictator.
Especially if we send it to the New York Times.