And the
Rockets Red Glare
Missile
Defense:
North Korea's test of an ICBM shows the folly of depending on others for our
security. If we wanted to stop the threat of nuclear weapons, we should have
shot it down. In Prague on Sunday, President Obama pledged an effort to rid
the world of nuclear weapons, calling them "the most dangerous legacy of the
Cold War." Well, we won that war in part because of our possession of those
weapons and in part to the commitment by President Ronald Reagan to build a
missile defense against them. Such defenses were available Sunday but went
unused when North Korea test-fired a Taepodong 2 ballistic missile in
violation of U.N. resolution 1718 that forbade just such a test. That
resolution, passed after North Korea's first test of the Taepodong 2 in
2006, demands North Korea "suspend all activities related to its ballistic
missile program.""As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon,
the United States has a moral responsibility to act," Obama said.
Was he saying our use of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was immoral? Was he once again apologizing to the world for U.S. actions? A world without nuclear weapons is Obama's goal. A world without thugs and dictators is ours. We are not threatened by the nuclear weapons that Britain and France possess. We are threatened by nukes in the hands of Pyongyang and Tehran, co-conspirators in missile and nuclear proliferation. We warned the North Koreans that there would be "serious consequences" if they conducted their ICBM test. Apparently that consists of running back to the United Nations. As Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Ahmadinejad's Iran demonstrate, there is nothing so intimidating as a U.N. resolution. U.N. sanctions have worked so well with Iran. As we plead for international help to save us from our naivete, we probably shouldn't expect much help from U.N. Security Council member China, upon whom North Korea depends for life support and who could have stopped this test with a phone call.
President Obama received word at 4:30 a.m. Prague time. Ironically, the Czech Republic was to be the site for missile-tracking radars which, in tandem with 10 ground-based interceptors based in Poland, were to form a defense against Iranian Shahabs launched against NATO and Europe. Iran's missiles too are a real growing threat. They will soon be able to reach Europe — given what we know now of Iran's nuclear program, can nuclear-tipped missiles be far behind? Yet, Obama seized the moment to announce, not that he was reconsidering his objections to missile defense, but that he would still drop the European system if Iran was persuaded to shelve its missile program. It was like the police saying that if criminals promised not to shoot, the police would give up their bulletproof vests. After thanking the Czechs and the Poles for sticking their necks out, he said: "As long as the threat from Iran persists, we intend to go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven." He also said that if the Iranian threat was somehow eliminated "the driving force for missile defense in Europe at this time will be removed."
Cost-effective? How much is a city worth? Proven? We've shot satellites out of the sky, but had a real test teed up on Sunday. Did we knock their missile out of the sky to show our resolve? No. We passed and gave North Korea a green light the Sunday before, when Defense Secretary Robert Gates said there was nothing we were prepared to do about it. We are quite able to guarantee our own security without U.N. resolutions or sanctions. This test cries out for a renewed and robust commitment to missile defense. President Reagan was willing to trust our security to the genius of American technology and not to the promises of our adversaries. So are we.
2009 IBD