Hollow US defense for an empty threat

June 26th, 2006 at 20:15 Björn Hallberg

David Isenberg of the Washington-based British American Security Information Council (BASIC) writes for Asia Times:

The US is activating its missile defense system in response to North Korea possibly test-firing an intercontinental ballistic missile, presuming it even has one to fire. Pyongyang has nothing to fear. The multibillion-dollar US program is years away from readiness to intercept anything but another billion dollars.

[The] North Koreans have previously launched exactly one intermediate-range ballistic missile. That missile, a combination of smaller Nodong and Scud missiles – went about 2,000 kilometers or so.

Now, US intelligence assumes the North Koreans have been working on strapping together more Nodong and Scud engines for an ICBM – something that can reach three to five times as far, and hit the United States. But no one has actually seen the missile. Even how many stages the mystery missile has is unknown; some folks say two, others say three.

But, by far, the most laughable news is the US government announcement that it is activating its missile defense system. This, no doubt, is causing the North Korean leaders to shake – in fits of laughter. One can only imagine some flunky saying, “Good news, Dear Leader: the American imperialists have activated their missile defense system. Now we can launch.”

The activation of the system is what one can only call a Pyrrhic readiness gesture, considering the system has a particularly distinguished record of failures in its operational tests to date and is still considered to be in the laughing-stock stage by most impartial experts.

So there you go. Another phantom enemy and a recycled one of America’s own making at that, with a phantom defense to match.

Interestingly, the notion that a North Korean missile or parts of such a device was recovered in Alaska has cropped up again. One would have to call BS on that story. It traces to back to South Korea and is most likely part of a disinformation campaign that was being floated at some point. Some also seem convinced that the Bush administration is too lenient towards NK. Yeah right. That is probably why they have been so diligent in realizing the agreed framework that Clinton deceitfully set up to scam North Korea. In reality, Bushco have handled NK in a way that is consistent with previous administrations and that of course amounts to arrogance, hostility, threats, posturing and sanctions.

Entry 574 filed under: Asia. This entry was posted 3 years, 8 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.