We've Got To Take The Missiles From This Lunatic

[Nbadan]

Of course, I'm talking about Dubya, not Lil Kim

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amid concerns over an expected North Korean missile launch, the United States has moved its ground-based interceptor missile defense system from test mode to operational, a U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a Washington Times report that the Pentagon has activated the system, which has been in the developmental stage for years.

"It's good to be ready," the official said.

U.S. officials say evidence such as satellite pictures suggests Pyongyang may have finished fueling a Taepodong-2 missile, which some experts said could reach as far as Alaska.

"There's real caution in how to characterize it so as to not be provocative in our own approach," the defense official said of the move to activate the system.

Reuters

Ok, so the MDS has never actually worked, unless you count the times when the defense contractors building this multi-billion boondoogle strapped homing beacons onto older scuds, but it's ed and loaded, and it's the illusion of safety that's really more important here, right?

[RandomGuy]

Har, Why spend money developing missle programs when you have Fed Ex?

Seriously. We don't check stuff that is shipped from overseas for radioactivity.

Easiest thing in the world:
Ship something in a cargo container or refrigeator box addressed to a warehouse/address in a target city, have an agent hang around until it is delivered, arm it, and leave.

Maybe spend a few thousand dollars on the delivery, a few thousand on the agent's expenses, and for less than $10,000, you have delivered your nuclear weapon to a US city of your choice, easily bypassing the trillion dollar missle defense system.

If I can imagine it, someone else can too.

[clambake]

UPS get's no respect.

[boutons_]

U.S. Says Missile-Defense System Limited

By TERENCE HUNT
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 22, 2006; 10:34 AM

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- The United States said Thursday that a U.S. missile-defense system under development has "limited operational capability" to protect against weapons such as the long-range missile North Korea is said to be close to test-firing.

National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley underscored U.S. calls for North Korea to abandon any plans for testing the ballistic missile believed capable of reaching U.S. soil.

"We're watching it very carefully and preparations are very far along," Hadley said when asked about South Korea's assessment that a launch was not imminent.

"So you could, from a capability standpoint, have a launch," Hadley said. "Now what they intend to do _ which is what a lot of people are trying to read _ of course we don't know. What we hope they will do is give it up and not launch."

Hadley, who briefed reporters while traveling with President Bush in Europe, also spurned a suggestion by former Defense Secretary William Perry that the United States launch a pre-emptive strike against the North Korean missile.

"We think diplomacy is the right answer and that is what we are pursuing," Hadley said when asked about Perry's recommendation in an opinion article published Thursday in The Washington Post.

"The way out of this is for North Korea to decide not to test this missile," Hadley said.

The United States has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on missile defense systems during the past few decades.

( ??? duyba gave the MDA $B5 in his first term )

"We have a missile defense system ... what we call a long-range missile defense system that is basically a research, development, training, test kind of system," Hadley said. "It does ... have some limited operational capability. And the purpose, of course, of a missile defense system is to defend .... the territory of the United States from attack."

( IOW, it doesn't ing work )

Hadley said it was hard to say what North Korea would do.

"In terms of North Korean intentions, you know this is a very opaque society, and very hard to read," he said.

"What we need to do is look at their capabilities and that's what we're trying to do," Hadley said.

He said a missile test would disrupt the stalled six-party talks about North Korea's nuclear program.

In the op-ed, Perry said the Bush administration should strike and destroy the missile before it can be launched. Perry noted the Bush administration's doctrine of pre-emption, which it used as the basis for sending U.S. troops into Iraq in 2003.

"Therefore, if North Korea persists in its launch preparations, the United States should immediately make clear its intention to strike and destroy the North Korean Taepodong missile before it can be launched," Perry said in the piece, co-written with Ashton B. Carter, Perry's assistant at the Pentagon.

© 2006 The Associated Press

===========

IOW, the anti-missile shield doesn't ing work. But the Repugs have this blind faith that it does/will someday, so keep pooring in the $Bs (while cutting cancer/health research)

[xrayzebra]

^^boutons, they are also working on the voting system so we get MORE votes
in November. Bring on those hanging chads.