Posted by
Bert Chapman on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 4:56:56 PM
North Korea is threatening to conduct a ballistic missile test in the next several days. Such weapons could carry nuclear weapons which could be used against our allies in South Korea or Japan or even against the western U.S. Japan, fortunately, has the good sense to begin deploying its Patriot missile defense system against this danger. Unfortunately, Barack Obama and his administration seem to be taking a "whatever" attitude toward this threat. Obama is seriously considering scaling back or even eliminating the missile defense systems that we have installed in Eastern Europe, Alaska, and the Pacific Ocean as part of his ideological attachment to failed 1970s style arms control ideology. One of the tenets of this ideology is its belief in mutually assured destruction in which all sides participating in a nuclear exchange are destined to be destroyed and that it's useless to try to defend your populations and security interests through missile defense or other protective measures. Was this the change you wanted when you voted for Obama last November?
While Obama is at the critically important G20 summit in London this week and will also be attending a subsequent NATO summit after the G20, his administration seems more intent on asking the United Nations Security Council for another toothless, spineless resolution against Kim Jong Il's Stalinist regime. Obama should be working to make sure the military is prepared to take all defensive and offensive measures necessary to prevent the North Koreans from carrying out a missile test. Kim Jong Il only understands brute force and the credible threat of regime change. Passing another empty UN resolution or tightening already existing economic sanctions against North Korea will have no impact on a regime that doesn't care about its citizens well-being and is only interested in clinging to power at all costs. If Obama were a true leader, he would use his eloquence to persuade leaders at the G20 and NATO summits of the need to take decisive action against the North Korean missile threat and its rogue regime. Failure to take out North Korean missiles will be noticed by anti-American factions in Iran, Al Qaida bases in Pakistan, Hizbollah in Lebanon, the Taliban, and China. Conversely, resolute action against the North Korean missile threat will produce positive behavioral responses from anti-American regimes and terrorist groups.
This is truly Obama's first critical national security test as commander-in-chief. So far, his response, and that of his Administration, have not been encouraging.