North Korea Launches Ballistic Missile Over Japan: Why Are We Still Pussyfooting Around With This Commie Runt?

North Korea went ahead and launched a ballistic missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean, in total defiance of the international community and the UN Security Council, which prohibited North Korea from playing with it's military hardware.

And the end result of this anger that's been building against North Korea? Absolutely nothing, from a do-nothing Security Council.

We can end North Korea's missile program right now. All Washington and Tokyo have to do is declare North Korea's missile launching facilities as weapons testing ranges for the United States and Japan. Whenever a missile is set up for launching by North Korea, the two countries conduct missile and bomb testing on the North Korean missile while it's still on the ground. Or they shoot it down while it's in the air, denying the North Koreans their research data.

We need to quit pussyfooting around with North Korea and start throwing serious punches at North Korea's missile development program. North Korea is too childish to be trusted with advanced military hardware and cannot be trusted under the current regime.

They're already launching missiles over Japanese territory, which doesn't make other nations in the region very happy. And they're continuing to rattle their sabers at Japan, the U.S., South Korea and the United Nations.

It's better to deal with them now before they develop the means to put a nuclear warhead onto their ballistic missiles and they can actually hit something without their missiles falling apart in mid-flight.

Pentagon Rethinking Two War Strategy: It's About Time!

The Pentagon appears to be rethinking it's policy of being prepared to fight two major wars simultaneously and still having enough force left to put up a fight somewhere else.

This policy has been in place since World War II and has been the cornerstone of American military strategy . But they're re-examining the policy now that America has had two wars going on for over six years, and their resources are stretched mighty thin.

With 170,000 soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, we don't have the necessary conventional ground forces to stop a North Korean attack on South Korea or a Chinese attack on Taiwan if trouble were to break out in that part of the world right now. The Navy and Air Force would have to carry the fight to the enemy until ground troops could be redeployed in a huge hurry.

Secretary Gates is engaged in a top-to-bottom review of every aspect of planning for wars of the future. Budgeting, weapons purchases, staffing, training, and the entire gambit of planning that goes into equipping a military force is being looked at.

I'm relieved that they're looking at this, though I am troubled that it's taken six years for them to get around to it. This should have been talked about much more thoroughly before troops were sent into Iraq.

The sooner the military wraps things up in Iraq, the sooner balance can be restored to the international scene. A threat of military force against an aggressor is only effective if there is muscle behind it. North Korea has realized this, and has effectively called our bluff. They realized that no American army will materialize to threaten them if they rattle their sabers around a bit while we're still engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iran is playing the same game; so is Venezuela. "When the cat's away the mice will play" seems to be the strategy being employed by North Korea, Venezuela and Iran; pretty soon the cat will be back, and those mice are going to start running for their lives.

Then we'll see how much they enjoy our undivided attention.

USS Pueblo Still Intact and Being Used By North Korea for Anti-American Propaganda Purposes

North Korean officials took a surprised U.S. delegation aboard a captured U.S. Navy spy ship on Monday, saying it represented "...continued U.S. aggression against North Korea."

Governor Bill Richardson said it was a pure propaganda move on the part of the North Koreans.

The USS Pueblo was captured in January 1968; it's crew was held for eleven months before being released by North Korea. They kept the ship and have used it for "anti-American education" ever since.

North Korea has dangled returning the ship to the U.S. Navy in exchange for a high-level visit from the U.S. Secretary of State, but that has been flatly refused by the U.S. government. The U.S. Navy still has the Pueblo on the books as an active unit, and does want it back, but the current level of tension between the U.S. and North Korea has made it impossible to facilitate a transfer.

The Pueblo is the only U.S. warship under the control of a foreign power, and was the first ship to be captured since 1941, when invading Japanese forces captured the USS Wake in Shanghai's harbor.

Bush Administration Chooses New Nuclear Warhead Design; Critics Charge Hypocrisy in Move As Negotiations With North Korea and Iran Continue

The Bush Administration has chosen a new nuclear warhead design to replace aging warheads sitting atop ICBMs for more than twenty years.

The move is to match Russia’s announced upgrading of their entire nuclear missile inventory back in December of last year. The timing of the U.S. announcement couldn’t have come at a worse time.

With nuclear negotiations ongoing with North Korea and Iran, the move will undoubtedly be seen as hypocrisy on the part of the U.S. in upgrading its nuclear arsenal while talking to other nations about not developing their own nuclear arms.

There is a very fine line that Washington needs to walk at this moment, and announcing a new nuclear warhead design and plans to replace obsolete ICBMs with state-of-the-art ones isn’t a real smart idea.

North Korea’s already screaming about it; how far behind can Iran be?

Iraq War Limits Our Options Against North Korea, Iran and Sudan: Shortsightedness in Political Planning of Iraq War Is Biting Us Now

The U.S. involvement in Iraq is having a detrimental impact on America's foreign policy objectives and more attention needs to be paid to keeping order in America's other foreign endeavors.

Six-party talks with North Korea ended without agreement yesterday. On the agenda for the five powers talking to North Korea this Friday is whether to continue the six-party negotiating format, or to go over to something else. They're waiting to find out what impact last month's U.S. elections will have on America's foreign policy.

Sudan has until December 31st to accept a U.S.-brokered deadline to admit United Nations peacekeepers into Darfur or else face "consequences." But we don't have an ambassador at the U.N. right now to keep up the pressure. Stronger resolutions were opposed by some of the other veto-wielding nations on the Security Council.

Iran faces a weak U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an end to their nuclear enrichment program, or other (undefined) steps will be taken, leaving Iran free to do what it wants. The same powers (Russia and China) also threatened to veto the entire resolution if it wasn't watered down.

Political mistakes and manipulations by the Bush Administration in the Iraq War are backfiring big time right now. When January comes around President Bush needs to have a master plan to deal with all of these critical foreign policy situations. And this should not include unilateral military approaches to dealing with the issues.

For instance, when December 31st comes and goes, the U.S. shouldn't announce that it alone is imposing a no-fly zone over Darfur to force compliance with the U.N.'s wishes when the Sudan tells the international body what to go do with itself. And Sudan is going to do exactly that.

It also shouldn't abandon the talks in favor of unilateral miliary action against Iran or North Korea. We have one major war going on, one smaller war, and not enough available ground troops to handle much more. At this stage of the game, we won't be able to help South Korea with sizable U.S. ground forces if North Korea decides on one final gamble to settle the score with South Korea. All of our heavy divisions are tied up elsewhere.

And if Washington chooses to settle the Iran question with force of arms, it's likely that U.S. forces in the region will be fighting the Revolutionary Guards in Iraqi and Afghan cities as well as the insurgency, al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

America's enemies are taking full advantage of the fact that the Iraq War is a tar baby and the U.S. military's strongest arm is already stuck. This perceived weakness is what is driving Iran and North Korea to be sure.

All of these problems can be dealt with if we have a cohesive strategy for Iraq, followed by a withdrawal and retooling of the U.S. military to put Iran and North Korea in their places.