Gettng Tough with North Korea
 

The U.S. is also deploying missile-defense weapons to Hawaii that would theoretically be capable of shooting down a North Korean missile, should such an order be given, he said.

"We do have some concerns if they were to launch a missile...in the direction of Hawaii," Mr. Gates said. "We are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect American territory."

The Obama administration, meanwhile, would have to choose whether to attempt to shoot down the missile, a technically complicated procedure with no guarantee of success. An American failure would embarrass Washington, embolden Pyongyang and potentially encourage Asian allies like Japan to take stronger measures of their own against North Korea.

Oh my... So an order has to be given to shoot down the missle? Should it not be policy for those manning the system to shoot down a missle headed for Hawaii? And 'we have some concerns?' Are you firggin kiddin me? Concerns?? They may not want to shoot it down for fear of failure and embarrassment? :wf :wf :zz:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124535285705228571.html

Yea OB foreign policy is complex, complexly convoluted. IMO

Stars Wars is locked and loaded at the Pacific Missile Range on the West Coast of Kauai. Of course since they've re-opened those vacation bungaloes along their beachfront they're spread a little thin what with the room service and all.:rolleyes:

North Korea is not a direct threat to the US, the nuclear component is a resource to their county not unlike oil is to the Saudis, the danger is where and who they might sell this technology to. They have very little in natural resources and this Nuclear threat makes them players on the world stage, they no doubt want to profit from this just as they will profit from the kidnapping of the 2 American reporters, one that is Lisa Ling's sister. As dispictable as this might be, they are playing their hand quite craftily.

From Jimmy Carter's new book on N Korea? And if those girl's were kidnaped it would be all over by now not just another statement based again on hope!! Those girl's were over the border doing some kind of negative story and got caught. IMO Now they are doing their time and because of their foolish actions, partially due , directly or indirectly to Al Gore have placed us in a no win situation.

Heard Al is planning a hunger strike for an hour each day 3am-4am until they're returned. My question is why the media isn't hounding him for his insight and updated info daily. Imagine if say Dick Chaney or Karl Rove were in Al's shoes for this one?

n korea, gee, i'm scared. better get provisions for the old bomb shelter. honey, cancel my club house seats for saratoga.

12 hiroshima sized nukes dropped on the 12 north american rail hubs ends america. whatever fresh food was in your urban grocery store and the warehouse they got it from is the last fresh food you'll ever see.

n. korea isn't there yet. but this isn't a small issue. the devolution of nuclear and icbm technology is now inevitable and should have everyone crapping their pants. it's not just n. korea. and it's not just iran.

dell just wanted another reason to mock obama. and the idea that we blame reporters for trying to report is so wrong headed it really doesn't require a response.

but he accidently hit a real issue in his semi-random shotgun approach.

n. korea really is the land of no good options.

Don't worry -- word is that Kim Jong Il was very moved by Obama's recent worldwide apology tour. :rolleyes:

we should try that axis of evil stuff again. that seemed to have stopped them in their tracks.

Hasn't Al been sainted by now? I think someone should take him on regarding the issue of global warming, this viewpoint is so one sided that everyone seems to believe it is the gospel.

This is really the key.
They are boxed in.
What the heck happens with a country
so destitute and can create an enormous
amount of trouble?

Hope the old man dies soon and someone sane
takes his place. All these N.Koreans start
starving when sanctions take hold,
do they lash out... what?

Sad thing is it's STILL more than Obama will do.

What exactly is he supposed to do?

Something other than just watching North Korea ship around the material for making nuclear devices.

How about scaring them for a change instead of the other way around.

Call on the ghost of Nevill Chamberlain

He's currently haunting the body of Jimmy Carter.

How do we scare them?
Be specific, what do you do?

They are militarily strong.
They could take out South Korea
in a heartbeat and possibly tear Japan up.
They are a dying dog anyway with nothing to lose,
how do you scare them?

Yes indeed,
I would equate N.Korea with pre WWII Germany...
cmon.

Kim has a heart attack? The suspected ship sinks at the same time and least of all when that missle goes off on the 4rth it gets blown out of the sky before it gets near to Japan. That's a few things. But I'd also send the Pres to the shores where the missle would hit to show we're safe and offer Al Gore for his two employees.

I'm sure there are a few things we can do. One possibility is parking a couple of nuclear subs off of North Korea, assuring them that should they be stupid enough to launch anything hostile, they will not live to see it hit the ground. Not only will they die, they won't even know if their attack worked at all.

Sometimes you just have to bloody the bully's nose to stop the B.S. And in the long term, you arm Japan nuclearly and South Korea with ABM's to bring balance to the region, unlike now with South Korea being covered only by our umbrella, and with China being the only big guy in the neighborhood.

japan can go nuclear anytime they want. they don't need us for that. but it's culturally difficult for them. and no one in the far east wants to see japan declare itself an offensive military power. that's a non-starter.

plus, how does a nuclear armed japan threaten n. korea more that a nuclear armed america? i just don't get that.

and abm's are a joke. we have trouble shooting down single test targets on planned trajectories. what do you think happens when it's multiple live target's mixed with dummy warheads? which one do you choose for the 33% chance that you actually hit it?

you can talk about bloodying the bully's nose because you don't live in seoul. n. korea doesn't need a nuke to turn it to dust. it's 30 miles from one of the largest concentrations of conventional artillery in the world.

there are no good choices.

one more thing.

you don't park boomers. the whole idea is keeping them moving so no one knows where they are. they're there so should an attack succeed in taking out land and air based nukes, there's still a guarantee of mutual annihilation.

here's a piece of good news. should india and pakistan ever unleash their nuclear arsenals against each other they have enough between them to end human civilization. even if nothing lands outside pakistan and india.

and india already has icbm's. they can drop their nukes anywhere they want. pakistan won't be far behind.

A rabid dog does not need a bloody nose,
its already in dire straits. It does not care if you
point a gun at it... heck, it might like it.

So there being no good choices, in your opinion, translates to doing nothing? Letting them continue to unnerve nations in the region and around the world?

When you say "no one in the far east wants Japan to become an offensive military power", I guess that includes North Korea? Would you automatically consider a nuclear Japan to be offensive, when the weapons are only for deterrence and counterattack? The very cultural difficulties you reference would ensure their acting only defensively -- they are not tje Japan of Imperial times up until World War II.

A nuclear Japan is more of a threat than America because the response time is that much faster. It's the same reason that Russian missiles based in Cuba are more of a threat to the U.S. than Russian ICBM's based in Siberia. They are both Russian missiles with the same capabilities and effects, but with shorter flight times the probability of an effective first strike goes up, as does the fear they stir. Plus, with a country like North Korea where they can't launch ICBM's of their own, they are in the position of being targeted by a sniper but having only a .22 to shoot back with. They'll behave.

I only mentioned ABM's because there is a conventional force there already (29000 U.S. GI's -- which I'd like to bring home) and while no one would seriously protest South Korea's right for defensive weapons, putting missiles actually on South Korean soil would be construed as an escalation.

whether we want to or not some type of action needs to take place. Please!!!

North Korea threatened Wednesday to wipe the United States off the map as Washington and its allies watched for signs the regime will launch a series of missiles in the coming days

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090624/...eas_nuclear_91

here is the test uncle joe talked about , if he fails , he is gone , and i just hope we are still here dell , saratoga is only a month away , we want to see paradise at least once more

yea this is far more serious than bailing out GM or ordering up Gov healthcare and I want to see Toga at least a dozen more times. Only complaint I'll have is if no action is taken (words and resolutions don't count). I'm behind Obama on this one provided he does SOMETHING....

They will wipe us off the map with... a scud missile?

They cannot retaliate against us in any serious manner.
South Korea and Japan have to be jittery as always.

We should all be more worried if they started to mass troops along
the border with S. Korea. Or try to deliver a nuclear device
via some cheap missile and it goes dirty. They have shown
no capability of delivering a long range nuclear device, they
have problems setting them off properly under controlled conditions.

more if he fails with n korea , other things could get away from him quickly , who knows what the chinese will do if they smell blood

either way if he botches this (which for all of our sakes i hoep he does not) he gone , he's a lame duck 1 term no matter how the media paints ..... the economy is shot both under bush and o so far , bush kept us safe after an attack on our country on 9/11 , the next guy does not get that luxury , the american people will not re-elect any president that fails to keep us safe in my opinion

he needs keep his pimp hand strong!!

Our government should put out a statement to the North Koreans "One more word out of your slanted pie-whole and we are gonna lob something at you , so shut the f u ck up".

Bush State Dept. Graduate.

Not really dude , but how long are we going to let them just run off at the mouth , say they are going to fire a missle at us and blow us off the face of the earth. I dont think asking them to hug a tree is going to help.

They can barely get a missile to Japan.
They wont get anything close to us.

They are in massive trouble. Half their population
is starving. Their leader is sick, old, and crazy.
Its a mess.

So whats wrong with us running off at the mouth a lil bite then? Are we just going to let them try and see how far they can make a missle go?

They are getting squeezed big time.
We are following through by harassing their cargo
ships as we "speak". Probably arms shipment.
They are an extraordinarily poor nation with
most income from arms sales going to the military.

Economically, socially, in everyway they are a mess...
with a big army and the ability to cause big trouble
close to them. It would be nice if they accidentally
hit China with a Scud.

The best thing to happen at this point would be
for their government to fall and have China handle
the mess. China helped make the mess in the first place.
I doubt their government falls unless it is to some other
group close to their primary leadership. They are a true
Stone Age society. Awful place.

Dude I know its an awefull place but those people are so brainwashed the sky is blue but if the Dear Leader said it was plaid they would say it was plaid.
I know they dont take care of their people , Im mean how else would 25 year old people have cataracs and be blind if they did . I truly think that that if the Dear One told them all to tie bombs to themselves they would do it in a heartbeat and that is the scarey part .......they would try and launch a missle in our direction(closest Hawaii) and wouldnt care what would happen after . So maybe we should shake them up a little bit , talk some smack , except they know we can do it . :)

Let's not forget their fearless leader had 10 hole-in-ones on his first ever round of golf, confirmed by his caddy. :eek: :zz:

China and Russia need to step up here..more China as they have a lot more to lose if this escalates. US will crank pressure on them and we will all pay more for everything next Spring if they don't drag Minny Me into a room and tell him to chill...

well folks Uncle Bill did it

sent to north korea to get the 2 american journalists free , they are now coming home, boy that ole bill is good , don't know why we need a sec of state when we got ole bill on our bench:D :D

let me guess , uncle bill brought 2 front row tickets to the ark/ lsu game this year for Kim Jong and his Son complete with a layover in chicago where they can stay in the private suite at Hawthorne Park ..... watch out Dell they may be coming for you!!!!!