Apparently, there are signs that NK may be readying to launch a missile. For the purposes of this thread, we will assume that these are credible. A stretch, but humor me here.
It seems to me that this represents a golden opportunity for proponents of missile defense to prove their mettle. We know who and we know where; this presents a real-life scenario (rather than the heavily padded “tests”) and stacks the deck in our favor.
I say we spool up whatever gizmos we have, and get ready to shoot down whatever NK lofts. If it’s a success. we take away any leverage the North was hoping to get out of the test. We humiliate them in the eyes of the world (except for the average North Korean, of course), and maybe make them think twwice about the direction they’re heading. When they put up a stink, we casually reply that we were merely fulfilling our obligations to South Korea and Japan, both of whom will breathe a lot easier. (China might not be too pleased, but then again, North Korea can send its missiles west as well as East and south) Missile defense gets a feather in its cap, and the congressional purse strings are loosened.
If we miss, we merely claim that this was intentional, or better yet, don’t mention it at all- If N. Korea puts up a stink, we just blink and say “missile? What missile, prithee, are you talking about?” and bat our eyes coquettishly. Once and for all, missile defense is shown to be a boondoggle and we shut it down, saving billions of dollars which can now be lavished on, say, Haliburton no-bid contracts.
To pre-emptively address the inevitable “where’s the debate?” comment, I say: Should the US take any overt action if and when North Korea launches a tactical missile, given their beligerent actions and intents (not to mention the fact that their leader is crazier than a shit-house rat)?
Well given the fact that the NK leadership at least appears to be as you put it, “crazier than a shit-house rat”, and that they do in fact have some dangerous military capability, is it wise to casually take actions which could reasonably be considered an act of war*?
I for one think not.
*And if you don’t think blowing up another countries misslles, provided they’re being tested on that countries own soil is an act of war, then that’s another debate.
Actually, there is a much easier and safer way to test the missile defense system and that is to do war games where they set up an “offense team” that uses an ICBM and whatever technology we think they might be able to perfect (like mylar balloons) to make decoy warheads and they launch it and see if the missile defense system can shoot it down.
And, that is exactly what the missile defense folks are planning to do … Oh, wait, no they’re not. They’re just planning to deploy it after a few Mickey Mouse tests that it worked about half the time on.
Ok, ok…maybe I have been reading too many Tom Clancey novels. I was thinking not so much of blowing them up on North Korean soil, but was envisioning a scenario where a ballistic missile is launched from North Korea, destination unknown. Once it leaves the stratosphere, I figger it’s fair game, especially if no advance notice is given by Pyonyang.