But Can They Hit Us?
Interesting story from today’s Washington Post: U.S. Could Hit N. Korean Missile, Says Commander
The article begins:
There is a “high probability” that the United States could knock down a North Korean missile aimed at this country, the Pentagon’s military commander for the Pacific told Congress yesterday.
This conclusion is debatable actually, though intercept tests of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System have been promising of late.
The bigger issue, however, is that whatever capability we might have demonstrated, it is clear that North Korea has yet to demonstrate the capability to actually strike the United States. The North Korean have announced an upcoming missile test that could change this fact. But we need to remain clear about the nature of the threats we face. Neither North Korea nor Iran have a demonstrated capability to strike the United States with a ballistic missile.
Of course, the lack of a current threat does not necessarily mean we should not develop or even deploy a missile defense system. But we have to be clear that we are planning and spending against a potential threat, not an actual one. At this point there is a higher probability that we could shoot down a North Korean missile than there is of them actually being about to successfully launch a missile capable of hitting us.
