This is beyond ridiculous. Do they really think North Korea is going to attack the West Coast? Really?
So let me get this straight. Obama had to close the White House to public tours because of budget cuts but we can afford to place 14 additional anti-missile systems on the West Coast to protect against a 3rd world nation that couldn’t hit the side of a barn with a missile from 50 yards away. This country gets more surreal by the day. Have you been surviving those devastating sequestration cuts? The horror!!!!
Run for cover. The North Korean missiles are about to be launched.
Korea tensions push U.S. to up missile defenses
By Don Nissenbaum and Julian Barnes
Getty Images
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un salutes as he watches a military parade in 2012.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Pentagon is preparing to strengthen its missile-defense systems on the West Coast in response to increased threats from North Korea and rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The U.S. plans to boost its ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska and California by one-third, adding 14 additional systems to the 30 in place on the West Coast, a senior defense official said Friday. Interceptors are vehicles that are launched to intercept intercontinental missiles in flight.
The expansion in the system was due to be announced by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at a news conference Friday.
Earlier this month, North Korea threatened to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the U.S. and South Korea. While American officials don’t believe North Korea is capable of launching a long-range attack, the threat is seen as a concerning sign of the nation’s state of mind.
Pentagon officials signaled the possible expansion days earlier. “North Korea’s shrill public pronouncements underscore the need for the U.S. to continue to take prudent steps to defeat any future North Korean ICBM,” James Miller, undersecretary of defense for policy, said in a speech last week at the Atlantic Council.
The administration decision comes four years after President Barack Obama put a hold on the deployment plan soon after he took office. Republican lawmakers said Friday they agreed with the enhancement, but said the administration was wrong to freeze the system in 2009.
Pirate Jo says:
Kim Jong-Un with those chubber cheeks looks like the little boy in ‘Up.’
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15th March 2013 at 4:19 pm
Zarathustra says:
In 1942, a Japanese submarine surfaced off the mouth of the Columbia River and briefly shelled Fort Stevens before slipping back into the deep. The only casualty was a cow. I personally think the Japanese sub commander only did it for bragging rights.
Nevertheless Oregon coastal communities went full retard. Private pilots volunteered to do daily patrols up and down the coast. Locals were petrified that a Japanese invasion was imminent.
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15th March 2013 at 4:21 pm
Dorkus Maximus says:
“Never go full retard” is awfully good advice.
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15th March 2013 at 4:23 pm
AWD says:
They do have mobile rocket launchers
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15th March 2013 at 4:25 pm
Eddie says:
The North Koreans are more capable than you give them credit for…maybe not in launching missiles, but our system is so fragile and vulnerable. They could take us out with an EMP attack launched from a rusty freighter. They are as dangerous as a pit full of poisonous snakes imho.
Of course, the response of TPTB is, as usual, strategically worthless.
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15th March 2013 at 4:37 pm
Tim says:
Kim Jung Un
Little Kid From “Up”
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15th March 2013 at 5:34 pm
KaD says:
Eddie: I’m pretty sure our goobermint has already taken that into account and OUR nukes are protected from EMP so they’d still launch. I’d be willing to be China realizes this too, and it would be in their best interests as well that North Korea not do anything stupid.
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15th March 2013 at 5:41 pm
Cynical30 says:
Apparently you folks didn’t see how potent and ruthless NK can be from their daring invasion of the US in the Red Dawn remake.
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15th March 2013 at 5:54 pm
Persnickety says:
Here’s an extremely thorough analysis of NK’s actual military capability:
http://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-special-reports/mind-the-gap-between-rhetoric-and-reality/#axzz2NeJZtvCa
tl;dr version: NK’s only winning move is not to play. Any war started by NK will result in their total annihilation.
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15th March 2013 at 6:15 pm
uncle ebb says:
dear administrator and friends-
the true danger from north korea is an emp strike which is certainly probable,given their recent successful nulear test of a small yield, lightweight bob (ideal for emp). additionally a ‘satellite’ was launched successfully as well. the thought process is this is actually a nuclear bomb disguised as a satellite (copying a russian design from the cold war years). as we sit and make fun of the north koreans, that bomb floats over america regularly in its orbit. all kim needs to do is push the button and it will send us back to the stone age. laugh at your own peril
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15th March 2013 at 7:07 pm
mabuk says:
Am I the only one that is surprised to learn — after forty years of Cold War build-up, billions in SDI research funding, Iraq Military Fun Days (Senior and Junior) and a decade of color-coded terror-sicles — that a coastline extending from Alaska to Southern California has a paltry *thirty* anti-missile positions? Forget North Korea for a moment, has anyone heard of China or Russia?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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15th March 2013 at 7:37 pm
SSS says:
“Korean peninsular geography is characterized by very defined north-south corridors between mountain ranges. Almost everything that is flat in Korea is a city, a village or agriculture. The KPA cannot simply bypass built up areas. Built up areas favor the defender by a great margin meaning an attacker would like to outnumber the defender by a ratio of 3:1.”
—-from the linked article posted by Snick aka Persnickety
Exactly. I’ve been saying the same thing for years on this site. North Korea is a fucking shell. Everything in that nation is geared to international blackmail. It’s a criminal enterprise. That’s it!
As for “uncle ebb” and others regarding an EMP strike, get fucking serious. Uncle ebb challenges me and others to laugh at our own peril at the threat from North Korea. I’m laughing. Provide anything credible that these fucking clowns pose ANY threat to South Korea, let alone the U.S.
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15th March 2013 at 8:07 pm
Persnickety says:
The danger of EMP from a third-rate power is massively exaggerated. A major power like Russia or China, yes they could orbit a large nuclear weapon and detonate it over Kansas, which would cause substantial EMP, the main effect of which would be disable the national power grid (destruction of electronics requires higher EMP levels and would likely not happen more than a couple hundred miles from the blast, if that far). NK doesn’t seem able to orbit anything, may not have any decent nuke, etc… they could threaten a harbor city or maybe Seoul. And upon realizing who did it, they would be wiped clean off the earth, with China probably only protesting diplomatically. NK is nearly as much of a headache for China as for us – nearly. If they get too belligerent they become as much of a problem for China and then China stops caring about their safety/existence.
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15th March 2013 at 9:39 pm
Makati1 says:
Actually, a well placed EMP bomb could take out most of North America’s electronic systems, permanently. And if they can shut down power to the nuclear plants, they don’t have to bomb us. We have 100+ nuclear bombs on the ground in the form of nuclear power plants. No cooling….Boooom!
However, I think that those interceptors may be meant for the growing possibility of war with China and NK is the excuse. China CAN easily hit the West Coast or anywhere else in North America, if they want to. Ditto Russia. Or did you think they stopped targeting American Cities back in Ronnie Reagan’s day? lol You can be sure the hot targets are still in their sights.
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15th March 2013 at 10:20 pm
flash says:
We the US are worse off than ever imagined.
From the hard-hitting ,fact finding, truth telling NK Press
North Korea Television Takes A Look At American Poverty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OA22zJagiU
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15th March 2013 at 8:55 am
AWD says:
Flash,
Nice video. You can hear the propaganda and the brainwashing of the NK state. People eating snow and birds, together in adversity etc. Hilarious. It’s pretty tough to make any country look worse than NK, but they did a fine job in the video. What a bunch a cave-men wackos.
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15th March 2013 at 10:21 am
flash says:
AWD
We’re all north Koreans now..
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15th March 2013 at 11:24 am
AWD says:
Tens of thousands of North Koreans starve every year. Thank goodness they have 1.5 million men in uniform.
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15th March 2013 at 11:28 am
DaveL says:
I smell a “Mouse That Roared” situation. NK will declare war and we’ll send them $500 billion in reparations.
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15th March 2013 at 12:07 pm
Administrator says:
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15th March 2013 at 12:17 pm