Back in January 2011, I unleashed a rude outburst directed at then SecDef Robert Gates, “Robert M. Gates, totally full of it. Totally”, prompted by Bob’s statement that, in five years’ time, North Korea would be able to “target” the U.S. with a nuclear-tipped ICBM.
Well, it’s six years and counting, so how’s that “direct threat” (Bob’s words) working out for us? The WashPost’s Anna Fifield tells us—well, they’re working on it, definitely, though, surprisingly enough, this shit is complicated. For one thing, last year, the North Koreans tested an intermediate range missile, and only one of the seven launches was a success.
So we don’t have to worry, right? No. Anna quotes an “expert” who “explains” that “Even a failure might put the North on a path to success.” So, the more they fail, the more we have to worry!
But then Anna, to her credit, waxes skeptical all on her own: “It’s one thing to make a missile fly, but it’s another thing to make it land where you want it. And North Korea has not shown any evidence that it has made a reentry vehicle capable of surviving the extreme changes in temperature and the vibrations associated with bringing a missile back into the atmosphere.”
So, North Korea can’t really launch its missiles all that well, and can’t bring them down to earth in one piece—and can they put a nuclear warhead in a missile in the first place? Well, proven liar James Clapper, director of national intelligence under President Obama, says yes: “We ascribe to them the capability to launch a missile that would have a weapon on it to reach parts of the United States, certainly including Alaska and Hawaii.”
Which is something I remember Charles Krauthammer warning us about during the Clinton Administration. And here it is only twenty years later and, four or five years from now, well, you folks in Anchorage and Honolulu better watch out!
