North Korea is taking a shot at us. They are preparing to launch their Taepodong 2 missile. It is a weapons system with a 2600 mile range and nuclear warhead capability. It is a serious threat to global security. Having sat in the Fifth Fleet FCC (Fleet Command Center) while Iran tested a number of their equally dangerous Shahab missiles, the risk to the world is VERY real.
Fortuneately, the US has continued to purse missile defense as a part of our national security strategy. The Missile Defense Agency was headed at one time by RADM Katherine Page, a member of my Navy community. The ability of our forces to respond to missile threats has increased dramatically from the early days of the program under the Reagan administration.
Why is this important?
It is important in that systems and tactics which we are developing now may not appear to be necessary or useful to the American public (or even Congress). However, it is the future for which we are developing our defensive capability (note that our military is overseen by the civilian run Department of Defense - vice the original Department of War). The threats we will face in the next decades will range from the truly assymetric (Islamofascist assaults on computer infrastructure) to the traditional (nation on nation aggression - likely against a US ally).
7 comments:
My last ship was heavily involved in TBMD Testing. I hope to hell it is never needed to be used, but if it is I am confident we have the capability to meet the threat.
It is interesting to go back and read some of the published naysayers in the missile defense field. Now, many theorists credit the US undertaking of the "Star Wars" Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) with accelerating the demise of the Soviet Union.
Now, when we are faced with nations that may possess tens of missiles (vice hundreds) the ability of our forces to shield allied nations or our own forces is critical.
Anyone remember the Patriot batteries deployed to protect Israel and other nations in 1991. Anyone want to guess what is the most desired unit in the US Army by friendly nations?
I have, for a long time, argued that, as hard as the world community tries to keep rogue nations from getting nukes (I know - ha, ha), sooner or later states we consider rogue states, will by hook or crook, get or develop lauchable nukes. So why not be ready with a missile defense system? It's funny. The same people who argue we need to radically change our lives because we humans are causing global warming even though the evidence is only corollary and not causal, are the same people who are against saving lives by preventing an earth bound nuclear rocket from reaching its goal, thereby ensuring the deaths of millions.
And the same people who deny DDT to emerging nations, thus responsible for more than 22 million deaths.
Sorry about my post today. I miswrote the title implying that is what I wanted to occur. This is not the case. I do, at this point in time, wearing the hat of the neutral political observer, think it could happen Lord save us all!
Hardly, although for some reason that has been playing in reruns on TV. To see Steve Gutenberg again as the anguished soul is always uplifting.
See the article in Foreign Affairs on US Nuclear Primacy.
...plus, that was a horrible movie. It's the same kind of worst-case-scenario techniques used by the hyper-anthropogenic global warming crowd (RFK jr. to name one) that makes so many not take them serious.
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