Congressional GOP want to shoot down any NK missile while the White House says there's nothing to wo - Polidicks

[quote]Washington (CNN) -- North Korea's missile maneuvering has raised the question of how the United States should respond, with some in Congress calling for shooting down anything that goes up. The issue gained new urgency on Thursday with the disclosure that a Pentagon intelligence assessment suggested North Korea may have developed the ability to fire a nuclear-tipped missile at its foes. [/quote] [quote]However, the legislator said even a remote chance that a North Korean missile could be carrying a nuclear warhead means the United States should intercept it instead of waiting to find out. Hawkish Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, endorsed such a response earlier this week, saying that if North Korea launched a missile, [B]"we should take it out." "It's best to show them what some of our capabilities are,"[/B] McCain told Foreign Policy's The Cable in remarks that his office confirmed as accurate.[/quote] [quote]The White House made clear Friday that the government doesn't believe North Korea has the capability mentioned in the Pentagon document, with spokesman Jay Carney telling reporters: [B]"It is our assessment that North Korea has not demonstrated the capability to deploy a nuclear-armed missile."[/B] Carney's comment was similar to a statement by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who concurred with a Defense Department response that "it would be inaccurate to suggest that the North Korean regime has fully developed and tested the kinds of nuclear weapons referenced in the passage" of the Defense Intelligence Agency assessment made public on Thursday. Clapper, the nation's top intelligence official, also said the information from the DIA assessment was "not an Intelligence community assessment."[/quote] [quote]"Moreover, North Korea has not yet demonstrated the full range of capabilities necessary for a nuclear armed missile," Clapper's statement concluded. [B]The GOP member of Congress described Clapper's statement as carefully worded and noted the final sentence indicated North Korea was on its way to nuclear missile capability, even if it had yet to prove it could execute a successful launch.[/B] Carney offered a similar assessment Friday, telling reporters that North Korea had demonstrated nuclear capability and missile capability. "While it might sound simple, it is not surely simple to take the next step," Carney said. "But make no mistake, the North Koreans have thus far demonstrated a desire to continue along this path."[/quote] [url]http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/12/politics/us-korea-missile/index.html?hpt=hp_t2[/url] How did this turn into a left-right issue :v:

War-mongering from the GOP. How surprising.

[QUOTE=Vodkavia;40261857]Shooting down missiles to prevent them from hurting innocent people isn't warmongering.[/QUOTE] While this is very true, the leading advocate here is John McCain who isn't exactly known for his pacifism.

[QUOTE=Vodkavia;40261857]Shooting down missiles to prevent them from hurting innocent people isn't warmongering.[/QUOTE] The GOP wants to shoot down [I]any[/I] missile launched from NK, whether it's headed for land or not. Of course, appropriate measures should be taken in the event that its trajectory is headed for Japan, for example. But our main priority should be minimizing tensions. Shooting down a missile NK intended solely for testing in the ocean would just piss them off, and they're already unpredictable as it is. [editline]12th April 2013[/editline] Read the article, especially you people rating me dumb.

Didn't Japan pretty much say they intend to do the same? People are getting fed up of NK messing around, they're going to want to shut them up.

Seems like a good time for Congress to take a vacation, what'd you say?

[QUOTE=asteroidrules;40262112]Didn't Japan pretty much say they intend to do the same? People are getting fed up of NK messing around, they're going to want to shut them up.[/QUOTE] Difference being, the US is trying to wind down two decade-long wars and the populace is weary of conflict, no matter what the risks may be.

Well considering many of their possible platforms for a nuclear missile is road mobile, I feel that we should worry about what they fire off regardless of direction. If pulled off successfully, a road mobile ICBM can be easily hidden in the mountains of NK, or the dense wooded areas along the coast. Further providing a larger intelligence gap for a possible launch toward their intended target. Their missiles start in the upright position, and remain in that position for a while even after launch. This basically means that Air Defense units nearby could only react when they found where the missile was starting to arch. This would only provide those said AD units only a couple of minutes or less to react (depending on missile type). However this wouldn't be the case for a strike against the United States, because the missile would start to arch much earlier after launch. Thus providing US Air Defense a longer time to react. The smaller the missile = faster the arch, but less distance, and less reaction time. Or the larger the missile = slower the arch, but more distance, and more reaction time. For example the road mobile KN-08 (NK) has the same engine characteristics of the Russian RSM-54 SLBMs. Which have a maximum range of ~8,300km (~5157mi). Despite being a shorter size, it still has the capability to reach a further range than the Taepo Dong 2, and provides an excellent baseline for analysis since Russia has already lobbed a few of these off. Not necessarily saying that the KN-08 has the same range as the RSM-54, but merely implying that the KN-08 has a lot of thrust compared to the rest of their TBMs.

Why not both? Shoot them down will saying theres nothing to worry about.

let japan handle the missiles they seem pretty ready for it. we don't need to shoot shit down, japan can defend their own land and the missiles don't really threaten the us.

[QUOTE=yawmwen;40262722]let japan handle the missiles they seem pretty ready for it. we don't need to shoot shit down, japan can defend their own land and the missiles don't really threaten the us.[/QUOTE] The US is Japan's main military defense. Any country that attacks Japan essentially attacks the US.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;40262743]The US is Japan's main military defense. Any country that attacks Japan essentially attacks the US.[/QUOTE] i thought all this drama was over nk performing missile tests that could possibly fail and leave debris to crash into japan i thought that's why japan said they will shoot down any missile nk launches.

it truely would be sad if NK launches the missile and it malfunctions and does arc towards japan, i mean guidance systems are very difficult, and software glitches especially when it hasn't been proven to work by testing it frequently [editline]12th April 2013[/editline] as it is, any excuse to blame the other side is used in Washington these days, in the sad political minefield we live in today