Will Obama Authorize Pre-Emptive Strike On The North Korea Missile Site?

from The National Review
Thursday, March 26, 2009
[Mario Loyola]

Obama and the Imminent North Korea Missile Launch

Now that the Dems are in charge of the national defense, North Korea's planned missile launch, which could occur sometime in the next several weeks, is a good time to recall what some leading Democrats said about this a few years ago. The very last time we were in this situation was in the summer of 2006. Just as North Korea was fueling the missiles for test-launch, William Perry and Ashton Carter, respectively secretary of defense and assistant secretary of defense under Clinton, advocated preemptive strikes on the platforms in a striking op-ed in the Washington Post. "Intervening before mortal threats to U.S. security can develop is surely a prudent policy they wrote:

Therefore, if North Korea persists in its launch preparations, the United
States should immediately make clear its intention to strike and destroy the
North Korean Taepodong missile before it can be launched. This could be
accomplished, for example, by a cruise missile launched from a submarine
carrying a high-explosive warhead. The blast would be similar to the one that
killed terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq.

Two things are different today: First of all, we no longer have a president whose low approval ratings create severe limitations on his freedom of action. Obama has much greater political elbow-room (at home and abroad) when it comes to foreign-policy options. Second, we have missile defenses available today that hadn't been fielded in 2006 which create a new and far less risky alternative to pre-emptive strikes on the platforms, namely that of shooting the North Korean missiles down after they launch. Earlier this month, Admiral Keating, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, made it clear that the missiles North Korean planned to launch could be shot down
Click to read the rest of the article