Remind me again that it’s the Bush people who are the rabid-dog warmongers itching to bring death and destruction to the Korean Peninsula—from the Washington Post:
Former defense secretary William J. Perry has called on President Bush to launch a preemptive strike against the long-range ballistic missile that U.S. intelligence analysts say North Korea is preparing to launch.
In an opinion article that appears in today’s Washington Post, Perry and former assistant defense secretary Ashton B. Carter argue that if North Korea continues launch preparations, Bush should immediately declare that the United States will destroy the missile before it can be fired.
Perry and Carter suggest using a cruise missile launched from a submarine and carrying a high-explosive warhead. “The effect on the Taepodong would be devastating,” they write, using the name of the Korean missile. “The multi-story, thin-skinned missile filled with high-energy fuel is itself explosive — the U.S. airstrike would puncture the missile and probably cause it to explode. The carefully engineered test bed for North Korea’s nascent nuclear missile force would be destroyed.”
If you want to read the actual opinion piece—click here. It appears to have sparked a fair degree of discussion, considering the 94 blogs so far that have linked to it (according to Technorati). Personally, I think the move is unnecessary, although I have to admit it could be emotionally gratifying, if for no other reason than it would lay bare the stark reality that North Korea’s response options are fairly limited (assuming it does not want to start a war it probably knows it will lose). North Korea is the master at playing a weak hand, but in the end, the hand is still weak. A strike on North Korea’s missile complex, however, fails to resolve the real problem at hand here, which is the fact that we’re even thinking about taking out a North Korean missile possibly aimed at us when it should be the South Koreans or Japanese contemplating a strike on a missile possibly aimed at Seoul or Tokyo.
17 Comments
Oh, great. Now if the Taepodong goes up in smoke on its own (a real possibility, methinks), Washington will look like it’s to blame.
These two guys are awesome. My kind of people. Gen. McArther will be proud. Very proud.
Just do it. The article (quoted in Korean version) says NK will have no option but to lie down and take it.
I agree 100%. NK will protest and SK may have to do some damage control ($100Mil), but that will be that.
Hit NK. Hit the missle site now. Some of the posts in Korean discussion board also applaud this action.
Another way is to use B2 bomber and JDAM. Precision bombing.
Democrates + Bush = Awesome action!
great idea.
Like what Cheney said on the BBC: the U.S. was addressing the issue “in a proper fashion”, while warning the North that “if you’re going to launch strikes at another nation, you’d better be prepared to not just fire one shot”.
Hear that norks? Cheney’s locked and loaded! Bring it on! Go ahead, make my day! Do you feel lucky, punk?
if the US hits NK, my life will be in danger from SK. for selfish reasons, im against it.
If the US launches a pre-emptive strike it should be against a nuclear facility or something of the like–something that will set back NK’s ambitions and capabilities. Blowing apart the missile before it launches won’t set back NK at all. The US should want NK to launch this sucker.
Mr. Cheney’s response — this time — seems appropriate. Striking NK only provides them with a justification for their insistence on arming themselves and leads off in another direction.
Patience and time may yet bring better results than military action.
That’s some serious USA communication.
Missles talk Bullshit walks.
The interesting thing, though, is that coming as it does from Perry and Ashton Carter this is a decidely unemotional response, and a politically counter-intuitive one as well. Coupled with Cheney’s remarks, there should be no confusion in the NORK’s heads about the nature of US resolve in this matter and it’s wide-ranging support over a very broad spectrum of the US political elite.
Not that any such realization will make any difference to how the NORKS behave.
I’m not sure what exactly you mean there. Cheney was simply stating the obvious, something people forget when they get all excited about the North Koreans—unless Pyongyang is able to take out with a first strike enough of the U.S. nuclear arsenal to have a reasonable chance of surviving a U.S. retaliatory strike, missiles don’t talk. They sit in their silos and do a whole lot of nothing.
I mean the North Koreans and Iranians would stop mouthing off about America if Bush blew their toys up. Saddam seems to be in a different mood compared to 10 years ago.
You don’t need a B2, you could use a F/A 18. B2 is over kill.
What happens when we blow up their missile and then the Michinome lights off the 15,000 artillery pipes on Seoul? Remember the Sea of fire statement?
Perry is a hypocrite. His 1999 report made our-way-or-hiway recommendations is NK did not choose the right “path,” but when the Bush admin actually began playing hard - and after it was clear what path NK had taken, he was criticial of some of his own suggestions.
Now he is suggesting something that a) he never would have done as SecDef, and b) he knows (or should) that the Bush admin won’t do. I wonder if he is actually being sincere or not. I rather think not.
railwaycharm,
NKs has no justification. It was the US, not SK, who attacked them. They have no reason to attack SK.
However, if they do, that is great. Korean Unification time!
Dropping bombs on the launch pad missile would be an insane demonstration of US aggression towards NK. Kim Jung-Il would throw a tissy and turn Seoul into swiss chesse as a response. He knows that he’d be taken out for this, but being such an avid fan of American movies he’d be sure to go out in a flurry of destruction just like Pachino in Scar Face.
However, a mid-air interception would be exceptionally good theatre and a a great demonstration of the US’s technical prowess–that is if the interception actually works.
If we’re going to go through the trouble of engaging an enemy with force, we might as well go to war officially and topple its government too.
–Remort
One Trackback
[...] In their bombshell op-ed to the Washington Post (discussed here), Ashton Carter and Bill Perry suggest that if the U.S. were to launch a surgical strike on North Korea’s missile/rocket launch facility, Pyongyang would have little choice but to suck it up and take it. Frankly, I’m inclined to agree, although I think I’ve made it fairly clear that I do not support attacking North Korea over something like this. [...]