US Successfully Tests US Missile Intercept System

[Benton]

(08-01-2017, 12:05 PM)Au165 Wrote: Here is the problem with waiting, we didn't think they'd have ICBM capabilities for three years and we were wrong. They are possibly a year, or less, away from capable ICBM technology capable of carrying nuclear warheads. We have sat around laughing at them, but now most agree they are going to get the technology, not if but when and that appears to be soon.

Understood.

But it's a two-decade old problem dating back to Clinton. Bill, not the one who — according to the Right — is single-handedly destroying the economy, health care, the middle class and freedom from her couch while she sits around in an old sweat suit talking about 'what could've been.'

Bill was told North Korea was a threat. So he offered them a few billion bucks to dial down the crazy. The problem? That was Bill's approach, not Congress' or Bush's. If we had kept paying NK to not be crazy, they might have backed off the nukes. Or, if we had never given them the cash, they might not have ran through it like a crackhead with a roll twenties. Either way would've been good, but what we did was say "Hey, act crazy enough and we will give you some cash" ... and then we stopped paying them. So now we just get the crazy.

Which leaves us allowing them to continue bankrupting themselves in their show, applying diplomatic pressure (what we've tried with China and Russia up until recently when we started parking spy gear at the border), or attacking. If we attack (shoot down their missile tests), they'll say it was provocation for attacking SK in a defensive strike. Which means we will either have to get slapped in the nuts by a nut, or get into another conflict. And that conflict could potentially bring China/Russia into it.

Shooting down their rocket now runs a significant risk of having open conflict either directly or indirectly with us, allies and some major countries. Even if they manage to get a nuclear payload on a rocket, it's more of a threat to their allies (China/Russia) and our allies (Japan, SK, etc) than it is to us. Which might facilitate all of those countries opening up a dialogue to deal with NK.