Posted on 10/13/2006 6:40:00 AM PDT by truthfinder9
On the forefront of our country's most western state, against the backdrop of the USS Arizona Memorial and the Battleship Missouri, floats 4 of our major Missile Defense assets; the USS Russell (DDG-59), USS Lake Erie (CG-70), USS Port Royal (CG-73), and SBX-1. These 4 ships, in conjunction with the GBI sites in Alaska and California can neutralize North Korea's ballistic missile intentions.
In the last 12 months, the United States has successfully intercepted 13 ballistic missiles during realistic operational testing. In the last 90 days, the United States intercepted 4 ballistic missiles from long range to short range and on each of its different platforms that are deployed or will be deployed soon. The platforms included the long range GBI, the medium to short range sea based Ageis, the medium and short range THAAD, and the short range PAC 3.
Deployed on 24 hour operational status to defend against North Korea are 13 long range missile defense interceptors in Alaska and California, along with a multitude of SM 3 missile defense interceptors on the USS Shiloh (CG-67) which is operating with the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) Strike Group in the Sea of Japan, and Patriot 3 units deployed in Japan and South Korea.
With this capability, our President has chosen the right path not to recognize or cater to North Korea and force them back to six party talks with China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States.
Intimidation, threats and bluffing does not work when you have a U.S. battle group off your coast with the capability to defend, as well as to have a very serious offensive force. That is called deterrence and that creates stability in an unstable region.
North Korea may, or may not know its limitations and that is something that the experts can ponder and pontificate on, however the United States knows North Korea's limitations and has responded with real capabilities that will defend our country and allies.
Riki Ellison President and Founder Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance
A blockade of NK is not as easy as we think. It would tie up a good portion of our fleet (over 50%) for years and be terribly expensive. FYI
"A blockade of NK is not as easy as we think. It would tie up a good portion of our fleet (over 50%) for years and be terribly expensive."
of course it's expensive and not easy!
but what are the lives of hundreds if not millions of Americans and America's safety and security worth with missles and maybe nukes not to mention the illegal drugs & counterfeit dollars NK exports.
and "years?"...I don't think so, kim jong mentally il won't be around for "years"
You could blockade NK with 2 subs, after the first 1/2 dozen vessels go down, no one would approach their ports.
Just one question and a comment.
How much do you think a nuked Honolulu, or Tokyo for that matter, would cost?
We have also gone way too far in cutting back the fleet anyway. Its time to build some ships.
I agree with all that you say, but I'm only suggesting that we look at all the options, and prepare for the worst. (see my post above).
Intimidation, threats and bluffing does work when you are intimidating a country who stumbles around with leadership that is not willing to back up it's talk with action... We are sadly lacking in this area.
We should have already flattened N.K.'s launch sites, as well as the Iraninal nuke facilities.
We don't seem to hear any more BS from Momar in Libia... Gee, I wonder what the difference is???
There is a cheaper and easier way... I call it "The Khrushchev Option". As we remember, Khrushchev got Kennedy to remove IRBMs from bases in Turkey by his gambit to place nuclear SAMs in Cuba in 1962 as a result of "Cuban Missile Crisis".
[See http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDcubanmissile.htm ]
To that end: quietly (but not so quiet that China doesn't see it) start arming Taiwan with more sophisticated weapons and make it obvious that if NoKo continues its nuclear WMD programme, we'll help Taiwan achieve the same goal, at which point they may well declare independence. China would forever lose any hope of the possibility of having Taiwan.
Being on the receiving end of possibility of "Taiwan Nuclear Missile Crisis" should quickly impress upon China that they need to slowly choke off NoKo's energy supply, once the measures are taken to prevent NoKo refugee crisis.
Problem solved, relatively quietly and inexpensively.
Everybody is happy, as China really doesn't want unstable nuclear Kim on their border. It's her problem, much more so than ours. China is in a bit of bind, we can help them save face by applying "gentle" pressure of nuclear threat directly to her forehead (Taiwan). NoKo was her nuclear proxy, Taiwan could be ours.
Taiwan is the best vehicle for this as Japan may not want to become military-nuclear, and SoKo is wobbly (though that may be changing soon) and unreliable partner; there may also be a chance of Korean re-unification and we may not necessarily want nukes there if that happens.
I still say one phone call does it all.(poet and didn't know it. LOL)
Bush calls China and informs them that if they don't get their "Dog" back on the porch that not one container of their junk will be offloaded in Long Beach...or anywhere else.
next case...
Now that much of the obsolete rusting iron is out of service, the fleet can be renewed and modernized for the 21st century. Bet they will have defensive lasers before the Air Force.
I think Japan is all gun ho on the embargo and, are willing to do more than their share. It's getting others to go alone that will be the problem for the block aid to be successful.
The ships carrying cargo go both ways.
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