Tag: Missiles

Slice And Dice Death

Recently there has been a rise in civilian deaths….both reported and those that are hidden from the light…..and it is not limited to one conflict or another it is across the spectrum in our War on Terror…..

“There is no military solution” is an often-heard saying since the “global war on terror” began almost 18 years ago.

We need political solutions to the military conflicts we’ve embroiled ourselves in over the last two decades, most policymakers agree. But in the meantime, the last three administrations have sent in the military to pave the way for a political solution—and have kept them there, allegedly to protect civilians from the Taliban in Afghanistan, ISIS in Syria and al-Shabab in Somalia, among other militant groups.

Yet all too often, these civilians become casualties of the very military forces Washington supposedly deployed to protect them.

A series of new reports document an alarming escalation of civilian casualties caused by U.S. operations in Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia — and with it, a pattern of U.S. denial about the scale of the problem. The result is a global war on terror that persists in killing and injuring civilians—including children—in ever rising numbers.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/05/10/alarming-rise-civilian-deaths-war-terror
 
The Pentagon has come up with a solution to the alarming rise in civilian deaths……a new missile!
Ever heard of a missile that doesn’t explode? That, the Wall Street Journal reports, is a key feature of a secret weapon adapted by the US military. It’s a modified version of a Hellfire missile that hits pinpoint targets but doesn’t explode on impact, meaning reduced damage and less risk of civilian casualties. The weapon, which the Journal likens to a “speeding anvil” falling out of the sky, is known as R9X. But it also has a nickname, “the flying Ginsu,” inspired by its hidden ring of six blades, which emerges just before impact and shreds anything it meets. The missile was in development as early as 2011—a similar weapon was reportedly considered in the plot to kill Osama bin Laden—but so far the Journal has found only two instances in which it’s been used.
 
Essentially, the weapon is employed when a regular airstrike on a high-value target would pose a risk to innocent bystanders. Aware that the US would want to avoid civilian casualties, terrorists routinely hide in places with women and children. With the R9X, the US can minimize the risk. After the CIA used the R9X to kill an al-Qaeda terrorist traveling by car in Syria in 2017, for example, photos showed a large hole in the vehicle’s roof, along with some cracks in the windshield. Otherwise, the exterior of the car appeared in pretty good shape. Gizmodo notes rumors have been swirling about a secret weapon since that time.
 
(antiwar.com)
 
The key to the claim is the term “minimize” civilian deaths…..then they, the civilians, are still at risk just a lower risk than say a Hellfire…..
 
Sorry I am still not impressed….it is still an implement of destruction that will continue the killing of civilians but at a lower rate (does anyone see how silly that sounds?)

North Korea In The News!

I realize that our Beloved Supreme Leader has said that he trust Kim and that Kim would not break his word to Trump….and yet Kim has done just that…..

North Korea fired at least one unidentified projectile from the country’s western area on Thursday, South Korea’s military says. It was the second such launch in the last five days and a possible warning that nuclear disarmament talks could be in danger, the AP reports. The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff had no other immediate details, and it wasn’t clear what the North had fired. But some analysts have said that if the North returns to the kind of longer-range banned weapons that it tested in 2017, when many feared a Washington-Pyongyang standoff could end in war, it will be a strong sign that a frustrated North Korea is turning away from diplomacy.

A summit earlier this year between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended in failure. North Korea wants widespread sanctions relief in return for disarmament steps that the United States has apparently seen as insufficient. Longer-range ballistic missile tests, banned by the United Nations and seen as threatening by surrounding countries, would likely result in more sanctions. The launch came hours after the North, through its state media, described its firing of rocket artillery and an apparent short-range ballistic missile on Saturday as a regular and defensive military exercise and ridiculed South Korea for criticizing the launches.

Apparently North Korea has done what it does the best….Lie to American presidents…..and Trump is no different and may be the most gullible of the bunch…..

North Korea on Saturday tested a new short-range missile system and a multiple-rocket launch system, marking the regime’s first missile launches since November 2017. The tests reflect Kim Jong Un’s continued adherence to the regime’s longtime strategy of blackmail diplomacy, which seeks to secure sanctions relief without making meaningful concessions of its own.

The projectiles “landed in the water east of North Korea and didn’t present a threat to the United States or South Korea or Japan,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday. At the same time, he said, the United States remained committed to reaching a deal with Pyongyang to achieve its “final and fully verified denuclearization.”

The tested short-range missile is a new system (based on the Russian Iskander) for North Korea’s military. Both the missile system and the rocket system can now target major U.S. military bases in South Korea, namely the newly built Camp Humphreys and Osan Air Base and beyond.

https://www.fdd.org/analysis/policy_briefs/2019/05/07/north-korea-short-range-missile-test-reveal-kims-true-intent/

On another side of this situation…the US has walked out of the negotiations on the Korean War remains……

In a new sign of troubled relations with North Korea, the Pentagon said Wednesday it has suspended its efforts to arrange negotiations on recovering additional remains of US service members killed in the North during the Korean War. In a statement Wednesday, the Pentagon’s Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency said it has had no communication with North Korean authorities since the Hanoi summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un in February. That meeting focused on the North’s nuclear weapons and followed a June 2018 summit at which Kim committed to permitting a resumption of US remains recovery, which had been suspended by the US in 2005.

“As a result, our effort to communicate with the Korean People’s Army regarding the possible resumption of joint recovery operation for 2019 has been suspended,” the agency said. “We have reached the point where we can no longer effectively plan, coordinate, and conduct field operations in the DPRK during this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, 2019.” The agency had hoped to arrange for recovery operations this spring, but the North never agreed to face-to-face negotiations to work out details such as payments required for the provision of support services by the North Korean army, reports the AP. Last summer the North turned over 55 boxes of what it said were the remains of an undetermined number of US service members. Thus far, three American service members have been identified from those remains.

After writing this draft news broke that the US had confiscated NK’s 2nd largest cargo ship for sanctions violations…..

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48221507

I recall something that was used in the military and has now become mainstream……..the North Korea situation is…..SNAFU!  (the “F” does not stand for “Fouled”)

Syrian Attack Debrief

Below is a debrief of the attack of a couple weeks ago……yes it is from a Russian source and it does not hold to the lies Trump tells but to be honest the truth will be somewhere in the middle of both accounts…..

https://southfront.org/trumps-smart-missiles-in-syria-summing-up-evidence-and-numbers-provided-by-russia/

We have seen a detailed account from Russia…will we see the same from our government….something other than a lie?

From Iran With Love

Recently US ambassador Nikki Haley had a meet and greet in some warehouse where she presented a bunch of “evidence” that Iran is providing missiles to the Yemeni rebels, the Houthis, that are being used against the Saudis.

While the US has long accused Iran of having directly and heavily armed Yemen’s Houthi movement, and Iran has denied any such thing, concrete proof has remained elusive. This continues to be the case, though a new UN report is likely to continue to fuel allegations.

The UN panel says they’ve found that Iran is in violation of the Yemen arms embargo, and that there is evidence that some of the missiles the Houthis have contain components that originated in Iran after the embargo was in place.

(antiwar.com)

She had all this “evidence” that she presented to the UN and now the kicker…..

…….there’s no evidence the Iranian government actually provided any of this, and rather the panel is simply saying that the Iranian government’s violation was failing to prevent such transfers.

That part of the rhetoric will not make it into the conversation….all the US and Saudis will do is present this as “Iran sent missiles to the Houthis”….in other words they will lie to gain the upper hand with Iran.

There is so much more……

Saudis have had a couple planes shot down by those “Iranian missiles”…..then there is another wrinkle in the lies spread by Haley and her Saudi proxies……

Houthi rebels announced they had built a new locally designed missile to fight against the Saudi-led alliance. And now the rebels are threatening to block the Red Sea shipping lane if the coalition keeps pushing towards the western port city of Hudaida – which the Houthis control.

The Houthi are building their own missiles…..if true then they do not need ones supposedly built in Iran…

But this story will not be part of the conversation for it craps on the lies the US is spreading about Iran.

Time for there to be some truth being told about this conflict….The UN has called Yemen the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with eight million people on the brink of famine. Thousands of others are suffering from malnutrition and disease, including cholera.  The fighting has killed at least 10,000 people and displaced millions more.

That is the only truth that is important.

OOPS! Sorry About That

The  weekend and just a little excitement…..it seems that war games was being played in Hawaii….missiles away!

A tourist in Waikiki tells Hawaii News Now it was “the biggest fright of my life.” On Saturday, residents and visitors in Hawaii got an emergency alert on their phones reading, in all caps, “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.” The AP reports the result was panic on the ground and on social media. Businesses opened their doors to people seeking shelter. A video posted online shows a person putting children into a storm drain to protect them. And KPRC anchor Sara Donchey tweets that her family texted her their love while they hid in their garage.

Officials confirmed the alert was a false alarm 15 minutes later, but CNN reports a second emergency alert letting people know no missile was on its way wasn’t sent for nearly 40 minutes. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii says “it was a false alarm based on a human error.” And Hawaiian Gov. David Ige says someone “pushed the wrong button” while employees were changing shifts. Investigations are underway to find out exactly what happened and to prevent it in the future. “Everyone in America needs to understand what the people of Hawaii just went through because they would be angry—like I am—that we have known about this threat continuing to build for years, but the leaders in this country have failed us,” Hawaii News Now quotes Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as saying.

As you can imagine this was/is big news……some poor dude//dudette was tired and pushed the wrong button…..and the country lost its collective mind.

Since there was no mushroom cloud and Hawaii is still there with its lovely beaches and overpriced drinks….there is nothing to worry about…….but after all the war mongering rhetoric for the last couple of months I can understand the panic……

Enjoy the rest of your day…..TTFN  chuq

 

Would You Believe It Is North Korea Again?

You know there is not a lot to write about these days…..sex, investigations or just the sheer stupidity of the president…..I guess this post would fall in the last category.

I cannot tear myself away from the whole North Korea drama…..it has everything a good false flag should have…..the end game is that if we do not act then the missile with our name on it is headed for downtown Chicago.

Well the continuing saga…..North Korea fired a new ballistic missile…..and now we pick up the story as it unfolds…….

North Korea released dozens of photos Thursday of the Hwasong-15, a new intercontinental ballistic missile it claims can reach any target in the continental US. The AP reports the photo dump, published in the paper and online editions of the ruling party’s official daily, is a gold mine for rocket experts trying to parse reality from bluster. Their general conclusion is that it’s bigger, more advanced, and comes with a domestically made mobile launcher that will make it harder than ever to pre-emptively destroy. But there’s a potentially major catch: It might not have the power to go much farther than the West Coast if it’s loaded down with a real nuclear warhead, not a dummy like the one it carried in its test launch on Wednesday. Here’s a closer look:

  • The Missile: The new missile appears to be significantly bigger than the Hwasong-14 ICBM tested twice in July. It dwarfs North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who stands about 5 feet 7 inches tall. Size is important because a missile targeting the US would have to carry a lot of fuel.
  • The Launcher: North Korea boasted that the Hwasong-15 was fired from a domestically made erector-launcher vehicle. The photos back that up. Being able to make its own mobile launch vehicles, called TELs, frees the North from the need to get them from other countries, like China, which is crucial considering the tightening of international sanctions that North Korea faces.
  • The Payload: North Korea claims the Hwasong-15 can carry a “super-heavy” nuclear payload to any target in the mainland US. But the heavier the load the shorter the range. Michael Elleman, a leading missile expert, has suggested that Hwasong-15’s estimated 8,100-mile range assumes a payload of around 330 pounds, which is probably much lighter than any real nuclear payload the North can produce.

Okay their boasting has been confirmed….now enter the clueless ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley……she adds to the drama…..

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said Wednesday that North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that some observers believe could reach Washington and the entire U.S. Eastern Seaboard “brings us closer” to a war the U.S. doesn’t seek.

Haley, speaking at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, said that if war comes as a result of further acts of “aggression” like Tuesday’s launch, “make no mistake the North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed.”

“The dictator of North Korea made a decision yesterday that brings us closer to war, not farther from it,” Haley said. “We have never sought war with North Korea and still today we do not seek it.”

You know I bet if we could ask Li’l Kim he would have a different opinion than Haley….all he needed to do was quote Trump and Haley on several events and he would conclude that war was eminent.

Moving on with the script….after this most recent test what can the US do?  More sanctions?  What is left that we have not already sanctioned?  But please tell the audience what is there to do?

Will our protagonist will turn to his nemesis China…..

China’s main leverage point with North Korea is the supply of oil — but Beijing is wary of shutting it off out of concern that Pyongyang could turn on Beijing.

What to watch: If China does not at least reduce the oil supply to North Korea, expect the U.S. to sanction a major Chinese financial institution, such as China Merchants Bank or the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, to “punish” Chinese inaction. But that could backfire, as the anger in Beijing may lead China to halt any cooperation with the U.S. over North Korea.

The bottom line: China is not going to fix this problem. The U.S. either accepts a nuclear North Korea and sits down for negotiations once Kim is willing to talk, attempts a deterrence strategy that allows the region to live with a nuclear North Korea, or launches a pre-emptive war.

So what will be the next chapter of this saga?

“I want your listeners to know that by the end of this week there’s gonna be some strong signals to China and North Korea that the military option is very viable,”Senator Lindsey Graham told Tony Perkins on his radio show Wednesday.

The South Carolina Republican, who in recent months has conveyed President Trump’s most chilling threats to the Kim regime, did not specify what he had in mind, but he did lay down a marker. As Graham told Perkins, “Now, nobody wants a war with North Korea, thousands, maybe millions, could get hurt or get killed but the president has to pick between our homeland security and regional stability and he has told me, he has told the Chinese, that he’s not going to live under the threat of a nuclear attack from North Korea and if he has to use military force he will and if there’s going to be a war it’s going to be in China’s backyard.”

https://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2017/12/01/is_donald_trump_getting_ready_to_attack_north_korea_112645.html

Is there something missing with the Trump strategy?

US President Donald Trump certainly has a point when he complains that he inherited the difficult problem in North Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has shown no interest in negotiation, or even in listening to what anyone has to say about his reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons and the long-range missiles needed to deliver them.

But the fact that Trump inherited the problem does not absolve him of responsibility for addressing it. So far, he has failed even to articulate, much less implement, a strategy for dealing with North Korea. Almost one year into his presidency, his only achievement has been to secure additional sanctions at the United Nations. Worse still, his bitter complaints about his predecessors suggest that he has no idea what to do next.

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-north-korea-terrorist-list-by-christopher-r-hill-2017-11

This saga continues….our protagonist being the loud mouth bully that he is cannot help himself but make the situation worse….but how much worse can this get before it boils over in the fires of war?

Check out Lindsey Graham on Face The Nation…..

https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2017/12/03/lindsey-graham-talks-war-coming-north-korea/

Scary stuff!

But with all the rhetoric there are still options that could be taken….if only the loud mouths would consider them……takes little effort to read the proposal…..

https://www.usip.org/publications/2017/11/united-states-north-korea-stuck-dangerous-zero-sum-game

Please do not let “STUPID” rule the day.

Am I high?

Look who is president….STUPID is all we have.

Li’l Kim’s At It Again

It has been 2 months and not much has come out of North Korea….and then when we least expect it…..Li’l Kim is back with a vengeance.

The two-month lull is over: North Korea has launched another missile, ending a pause in testing that had raised hopes for diplomatic progress. The ballistic missile went up about 3am Wednesday local time and flew east before coming down in the Sea of Japan. “We will take care of it,” President Trump told reporters afterward, per CNBC, but he did not elaborate. Military analysts from the US and South Korea were still assessing the type and scope of the missile. More details and developments:

  • An ICBM? One big question is whether it was a standard missile or one of the intercontinental variety capable of reaching the US. The answer wasn’t immediately clear, but the initial assessment points to an ICBM, according to Pentagon spokesman Col Robert Manning, per Yonhap News Agency.
  • Long flight: Early reports suggest the missile flew for about 50 minutes, which the Guardian reports would be a North Korean record. The Pentagon’s Manning estimates it went about 620 miles, and it may have come down within 200 nautical miles of Japan’s coast, reports the AP. There were conflicting reports on whether it actually flew over Japan, as previous missiles have done.

This most recent test set a couple of records……

North Korea says its latest missile is capable of reaching the entire US mainland—and experts warn that Pyongyang could be right. The Hwasong-15 missile launched early Wednesday went up almost 2,800 miles—10 times the height of the International Space Station—and flew around 590 miles, demonstrating what analysts say is the capability to hit American cities including Washington, DC. “With this system, we can load the heaviest warhead and strike anywhere in the mainland United States,” North Korean newsreader Ri Chun Hee said in a special broadcast, per the Washington Post. “This signifies that our rocket development process has been completed.” Japanese officials say the intercontinental ballistic missile did not fly over the country, but landed in the sea off its northern coast. In other developments:

  • Game-changer. Analysts say that Pyongyang probably still has some technical hurdles to overcome, including mastering targeting and the ability to deliver heavy warheads, but the launch is still a game-changer, Reuters reports. “We don’t have to like it, but we’re going to have to learn to live with North Korea’s ability to target the United States with nuclear weapons,” says Jeffrey Lewis, head of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program.

Of course Fearless Leader had to open his worthless mouth and out fell the normal crap…….

In a completely inept response, North Korea launched an ICBM, and all the president could say was we will take care of it, and it is a situation we will handle.

Trump said, “I will only tell you we will take care of it. We have Gen. Mattis in the room with us, and we’ve had a long discussion on it. It is a situation that we will handle.”

Experts believe that North Korea can now fire a missile that could reach New York or Washington, D.C. and all Trump can say is that we will handle it. Does the President understand what is going on around him? Does he have the mental capacity to grasp the danger to the world that this threat poses?

When people question Trump’s mental state, responses like this one are exactly what they are talking about. The President Of The United States needs to project strength and have a plan in moments like these. This isn’t an episode of The Apprentice. Trump can’t bluff his way through issues of war and peace.

We’ll handle it is the kind of answer that an in over his head idiot gives when he doesn’t understand the issue and has no intention of doing anything about it.

There is something seriously wrong with Donald Trump. His answer is more proof that he is not fit to be president.

(politicususa.com)

And then our clueless UN ambassador had to open her mouth and let shit fall forth…….

US Ambassador Nikki Haley said Wednesday that North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile that some observers believe could reach Washington and the entire US Eastern Seaboard “brings us closer” to a war the US doesn’t seek, the AP reports. Haley, speaking at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, said that if war comes as a result of further acts of “aggression” like Tuesday’s launch, “make no mistake the North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed.” “The dictator of North Korea made a decision yesterday that brings us closer to war, not farther from it,” Haley said. “We have never sought war with North Korea and still today we do not seek it.”

The Trump administration threatened new sanctions on North Korea after the reclusive government shattered 2½ months of relative quiet with its most powerful weapon test yet. President Trump tweeted that he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about Pyongyang’s “provocative actions,” and he vowed that “additional major sanctions will be imposed on North Korea today. This situation will be handled!” Trump’s top diplomat, Rex Tillerson, said the US could target financial institutions doing business with the North. The fresh deliberations about new forms of punishment for North Korea came after its government said it successfully fired a “significantly more” powerful, nuclear-capable ICBM it called the Hwasong-15. Outside governments and analysts concurred the North had made a jump in missile capability.

Does this douche realize that her words could,be construed as a declaration of war?

She then proceeded to dictate what China should or else……..

“We now turn to President Xi to also take that stand. We believe he has an opportunity to do the right thing for the benefit of all countries. China must show leadership and follow through. China can do this on its own, or we can take the oil situation into our own hands,” she said.

How do you think that ultimatum will sit in the craw of the Chinese?

THe one “bright” spot that I saw was something that Li’l Kim had to say after the last test…..”North Korea has declared itself a full nuclear power, saying they have the ability to deliver a “super-large heavy warhead” anywhere within the mainland United States now.”

North Korea has long believed that negotiation could only take place once the US was no longer able to hold the threat of attacking over their head

This could be the perfect time to try diplomacy….but the problem is that we have NO diplomats other than a clueless SecState and a president that is suffer from on-set dementia.

For 10 months Trump has promised that NK would never become a nuclear power and in one missile test Li’l Kim made Trump out a liar (we all knew he was but this just confirms it)……

As the Trump administration seeks to prevent North Korea from becoming a nuclear power, it will probably want to close the barn door as well, now that the horse has gotten out.

Tuesday’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile simply underscores the status quo. It changed nothing. North Korea is a nuclear power. It also has a highly sophisticated missile program. The two will soon be linked—if they’re not already—and Pyongyang will shortly have the ability to launch nuclear attacks on the U.S. mainland. (By the way, can we marvel for a moment at the technical aptitude of the North Koreans? This impoverished, isolated country has managed to build weapons of fearsome strength and remarkable sophistication. They’ve literally mastered rocket science, under the most arduous of circumstances.)

http://www.weeklystandard.com/its-over-north-korea-is-a-nuclear-power/article/2010644

Trump inherited a shit sandwich but that does not absolve him from doing the right thing……that is if the nit wit is capable of doing anything right……

US President Donald Trump certainly has a point when he complains that he inherited the difficult problem in North Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has shown no interest in negotiation, or even in listening to what anyone has to say about his reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons and the long-range missiles needed to deliver them.

But the fact that Trump inherited the problem does not absolve him of responsibility for addressing it. So far, he has failed even to articulate, much less implement, a strategy for dealing with North Korea. Almost one year into his presidency, his only achievement has been to secure additional sanctions at the United Nations. Worse still, his bitter complaints about his predecessors suggest that he has no idea what to do next.

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/trumps-missing-north-korea-strategy/

So yet another opportunity to avoid a possible war will be missed…..that we can count on.

Iran: A Big Ass Can Of Worms?

Everyone is watching the drama with the US and North Korea play out….so far there has been little more than words fired at each other.  Almost daily there is an exchange of words…well threats, veiled threats…….and daily the speculation ramps up to a feverish pitch.

But behind the headlines and the scenes another nuke crisis is brewing…..the world is the the deal between the P5+1 and Iran on their nuke programs is in jeopardy….the rhetoric is not as loud between these player than the US and NK…..but the simmer pot is getting hotter everyday.

Word is the Trump is prepared to not re-certify the deal….even though all conditions seem to be met at this point.  The news is not good and Iran has jumped onto the rhetoric bandwagon….

The news that had come out the the US will not re-certify the deal and possibly extend more sanctions on Iran….that news has the Iranians thumping their chests as well….

Iran warned the United States against designating its Revolutionary Guards Corp as a terrorist group and said U.S. regional military bases would be at risk if further sanctions were passed.

The warning came after the White House said on Friday that President Donald Trump would announce new U.S. responses to Iran’s missile tests, support for “terrorism” and cyber operations as part of his new Iran strategy.

“As we’ve announced in the past, if America’s new law for sanctions is passed, this country will have to move their regional bases outside the 2,000 km range of Iran’s missiles,” Guards’ commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said, according to state media.

Source: Iran warns U.S. against imposing further sanctions

Before you take sides maybe you should learn a bit about the deal….

US President Donald Trump is expected to refuse to certify Iran’s compliance with the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, an agreement between world powers and Tehran aimed at limiting the latter’s nuclear programme to non-military purposes.

The move comes despite thinly-veiled criticisms from US allies in Europe who have developed burgeoning commercial and political ties with Iran

Source: Trump and the Iran deal: What you need to know | Iran News | Al Jazeera

I have stated many times that I support the Iranian deal….if a person would familiarize oneself with the deal then I think any rational American would support it also.

If for NO other reason than the problem with North Korea and its nuke resources could be doubled if the US pulls out of the Iran deal……how much further can this go before someone has the bright idea to stop talking and that the time for action is NOW?

Closing Thought–19Sep17

“Devil’s Venom”!

That would make a great title for a bad scifi movie.

Since North Korea is the main topic of conversation these days I thought I would add some things that may not be part of it just yet.

There are sanctions, heavy sanctions in place against NK…..I am pretty sure that would also include fuel of sorts….jet fuel, rocket, fuel, car fuel….so when I read this I was taken aback…..

A highly volatile fuel known to the Russians as the “Devil’s Venom” has been powering the success of North Korea’s missile program, analysts say—and it may be too late to cut off its supply. Intelligence memos from as far back as the George W. Bush administration warn that unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine, or UMDH, could allow North Korean missiles to reach the US, but there was no serious effort to cut off the supply from China or Russia and officials believe the country can now produce the fuel itself, the New York Times reports. Russia has tried to avoid the potent fuel since a 1960 explosion killed more than 100 people in the worst-ever space-related disaster, and NASA switched to safer propellants decades ago.

The rare fuel—which is made from chemicals, not oil—has caused other disasters and Vann H. Van Diepen, a former State Department official who long worked to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, tells the Times that Pyongyang probably dealt with a few catastrophes in the process of learning to make UMDH over the last 25 years. “My guess is that the North Korean tolerance for casualties is probably pretty high,” he says. The fuel and its ingredients are not included in the sanctions whose effect President Trump boasted about on Sunday. In a tweet, he called Kim Jong Un “Rocket Man” and spoke of “long gas lines forming in North Korea.” (Kim says his country is nearing military “equilibrium” with the US.)

Why not target that supply solely since he is determined to launch those those damn rockets….cut off the gas supply and problem could be lessened.

Just a thought!

What Was The Plan?

About now everyone with a couple of functioning ears will know that NK fired a couple of missiles towards Japan and they landed in the Pacific.

Japan knew they were coming and let lose the high shrills of the CD sirens.

Then back in Washington the chest thumping began all over again….

North Korea’s provocative new missile launch has prompted an early morning warning from President Trump in which he says that “all options are on the table.” Trump doesn’t offer specifics but chastises Pyongyang for launching a ballistic missile that flew over Japan. “The world has received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear: this regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior,” said the presidential statement, per the Washington Post.

In its coverage for the North’s test launch, the New York Times characterized Pyongyang’s move as a “direct challenge” to Trump, who said last week that the North was “starting to respect us” after Trump began talking tough. Trump spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday night, and afterward Abe told reporters that Japan and the US were “completely matched” in their stances and would discuss ways to increase international pressure on the North. Pyongyang has twice before fired missiles over Japan, in 1998 and in 2009, but it said afterward that those missiles were carrying satellites. The AP reports that the latest launch involved a midrange ballistic missile, which is “unambiguously” for military purposes, unlike the two earlier missile launches.

After all the news I got to thinking…..after all the foreign aid and cash we ship to Japan and they have NO way of intercepting these missiles?

Do they have the capacity for self-defense?  Were they timid?  Did the US stop them from acting?

If so, why did they allow the missiles to come so close?

In the aftermath of North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile across Japan early on Tuesday morning, the Japanese government went to great lengths to reassure the public that it is taking all the necessary steps to protect them. In truth, however, there was effectively very little that the Japanese military could have done to neutralize this latest provocation by Pyongyang.

Source: What stopped Japan from intercepting North Korean missile? | Asia | DW | 30.08.2017

I have no expertise in Asian affairs so I have to do what most people do when they want answers…..RESEARCH.

NK has fired numerous missiles at Japan…..just what is the plan here?

North Korea’s launch of a missile over Japan early on Monday morning was certainly irresponsible. But for Pyongyang, it was more of a carefully calculated risk than a reckless gamble. It is the latest step in a strategy aimed not to get into a shooting war but designed to build up the nuclear and missile capabilities that the regime firmly believes it needs.

A potential nuclear power firing missiles is of course enough to put the world on edge – and possibly provoke retaliation. Even mainstream U.S. commentators such as Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass are now suggesting that Pyongyang’s apparent irresponsibility is so great that it undermines faith in deterrence as a strategy and turns “a preventive strike [into] a serious option, notwithstanding its high risks and potential costs”.

Source: The Strategic Thinking behind North Korea’s Missile Gambit | Crisis Group

After a speech before the UNSC Amb. Haley made it clear the path that lay before us….

One day after North Korea conducted its largest-ever nuclear test, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley says the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, is “begging for war,” CNN reports. Haley made the claim during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council Monday as part of a lobbying effort to convince them to take the “strongest possible measures” against North Korea after the country detonated a thermonuclear warhead underground on Sunday. “Enough is enough,” Haley said. “We have taken an incremental approach, and despite the best of intentions, it has not worked.” Yesterday Defense Secretary Jim Mattis responded to the latest test by saying the US will answer North Korean threats with a “massive military response — a response both effective and overwhelming.”

Experts believe the explosive tested Sunday has a power range of between 50 and 150 kilotons, far larger than the power of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima at the end of WWII, the BBC reports. Pyongyang claims it has the capacity to reduce the warhead in size and attach it to an ICBM capable of hitting the US mainland, though some analysts remain skeptical. Regardless, Haley said, US patience with North Korea is “not unlimited.” “Only the strongest sanctions will enable us to resolve this problem through diplomacy,” she told her colleagues on the security council. “We have kicked the can down the road long enough. There is no more road left.”

At the latest UN Security Council meeting on North Korea’s nuclear test, US Ambassador Nikki Haley declared that the US is certain North Korea is “begging for war.” She added that the US, which has been threatening to attack North Korea for months, doesn’t want a war.

The more I research this situation the more I smell something fishy….there is more to this than the straight up bravado that we hear about nightly.

Watch this soon the real reason for this news will come to light….if it has not already.