North Korea Tests More Long Range Missiles, Obama Administration Reacts By Cutting Missile Defense?

Over the past two weeks the intelligence community, global leaders and news agencies and have maintained a constant vigil over an impending North Korean long range missile test. With no certainty as to when the tests might proceed, speculation as to the purpose of the tests and timing of the tests ran the gamut. As recently as just 12 hours before North Korea launched their tests, US news agencies were speculating that perhaps the missile tests had failed at ground level or that perhaps it the tests were nothing more than an empty threat.

But then the they came...and the missile tests failed after just 15 minutes of flight...

Global reaction to the tests were half-hearted when compared to the swift and incendiary reaction that followed the series of short-range and long-range missile tests that North Korea conducted in 2006. For the most part, U.S. reaction, especially that of the Obama Administration, was non-existent compared to the swift and strong reaction of the Bush Administration during the 2006 events. Administration officials, for the most part, downplayed the significance of North Korea's tests, focusing on the overall failure of the tests rather than the disturbing reality that their technology and delivery systems were improving. Administration officials were careful not use incendiary language in order to preserve the ongoing six-party talks with North Korea and the President Obama failed to utilize his world stage to condemn North Korea's actions and call for punitive action to be taken.

For twenty years North Korea has remained a forgotten state. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union the first Bush administration and Clinton Administrations viewed North Korea as nothing more than a powerless remnant of the fallen Soviet Empire and nothing more than an isolated nuisance. Since North Korea's nuclear capabilities were discovered the nation has perplexedly remained a forgotten enemy as the Bush administration, and now it appears the Obama administration, have failed to recognize the Northern threat. North Korea was never Soviet Satellite as much as it was a necessary partner. North Korea is directly under the control of a narcissistic megalomaniac who has successfully isolated his nation to a point that there is no longer any generation of North Koreans who are aware of the freedom that exists outside of their borders. Every day that passes in which the world fails to counteract North Korean ambitions is a step closer to the North Korean capabilities of striking the US with a nuclear weapon.

While the Obama administration and news agencies have focused on the eventual failure of these tests, our true concerns should be focused on the successes of these tests. It took our government hundreds of unsuccessful missile tests and more than a decade to develop a missile capable of delivering its payload half-way around the world. But that was 60 years ago and missile technology has since been passed from nation to nation. North Korea is not building their program from scratch, they have the luxury of 60 years of gathered technology and the confirmed collaboration of missile ready states such as Iran. Over the course of just one test, North Korea was able to demonstrate exponential progress in the rocket propulsion systems. In 2006, the north achieved less than 3 minutes of flight, yet in their next test obtained more than 15 minutes of flight. Although 15 minutes may seem insignificant, consider a NASA shuttle launch and the amount of time that it takes to put a shuttle into orbit...Now how long does 15 minutes seem?

This weekend I listened to administration official during the talk shows mention that the best way to deter North Korea was to maintain a strong defensive capability. Although that statement was somewhat disturbing, the fact is that our nation should be taking every step possible to provide security our citizens through strong defensive measures. Yet, less than 2 days after North Korea's test Secretary Gates releases the proposed pentagon budget, which portrays a blueprint of the administration's policies, that cut spending on key defense initiatives including an advanced laser-based missile defense system. Now chalk it up to poor timing if you wish, but what on earth were they thinking? And what message did the administration just send to North Korea?

I am not surprised that the Obama administration would push Secretary Gates towards cutting back missile defense systems, after all President Obama openly stated (with little coverage) his opposition to advanced missile defense systems during the campaign. However, I would think that in light of North Korea's further missile testing and further abrogation of the terms of the latest disarmament agreement, that the administration would have removed that language from the pentagon budget until such time that the current situation has been dealt with. This announcement by the administration was ill-advised at the least and the idea that our government would consider a cut in funding for critical defense initiatives such as advanced missile defense systems is indefensible. Let's hope that cooler heads prevail when the budgets are up for congressional approval.