North Korea Provokes, Dems Retreat - Time for America to invest in domestic defense systems that protect the whole of the United States, not just parts of it. Fanatical regime in North Korea, apocalyptic government of Iran

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Arnold Ahlert * Canada Free Press

A missile defense system for the eastern seaboard that was dropped from the final version of the 2013 Defense Authorization Act is getting a second look, in light of North Korea’s escalating threats. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) characterized that threat as a “wake up call,” noting that “the next issue that needs to be taken up right away is [a] missile defense site to protect the East Coast of this country.”

It would appear to be a logical argument in light of the administration’s recent move to shift $1 billion in defense spending from developing a missile shield for Poland and Bulgaria, to adding 14 land-based interceptors in Alaska. The move would expand to 44 the number of long-range ballistic missile interceptors that comprise part of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system.

On March 19, Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee used the decision to beef up West Coast defenses as a rationale to begin pressuring the Pentagon for a similar effort on the East Coast. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) took the issue up with Gen. Charles Jacoby, head of the Northern Command, which is responsible for the U.S. missile defense system. Inhofe contended that the Alaska system was a step in the right direction, “but that doesn’t resolve the problem of the East Coast,” he said during the hearing. “The threat is very real..it needs to be corrected… it needs to be addressed,” he added.

Jacoby was forced to admit that even with the Alaska site, America was not in “an optimum position” to defend itself from ballistic missile threats, but he assured Inhofe that the Pentagon took the emerging threat of such attacks seriously. “I think that we need to continue to assess the threat and make sure that we stay ahead of it and not fall behind it,” Jacoby responded. “I think that that is a process that we are committed to.”

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) shifted the discussion from North Korea to Iran, citing reports predicting that Iran could have an intercontinental ballistic missile as early as 2015, and asking Jacoby how long it would take to construct an East Coast system. His answer was hardly reassuring, calling it an “an issue of years,” due in large measure to the reality that the timeframe would be affected by how long it took to complete an environmental impact statement. Yet the general further noted that the timeframe “could be affected by urgency, any increased threat.”A Congressional Research Service report written in 2012 dismissed the seriousness of the 2015 threshold. “It is increasingly uncertain whether Iran will be able to achieve an ICBM capability by 2015 for several reasons,” the CRS report concluded. “Iran does not appear to be receiving the degree of foreign support many believe would be necessary, Iran has found it increasingly difficult to acquire certain critical components and materials because of sanctions, and Iran has not demonstrated the kind of flight-test program many view as necessary to produce an ICBM.”

Such reports are hardly reassuring. A 2007 report by U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Iran had completely abandoned its nuclear program in 2003. Now the public is being reassured that ICBM capability is yet another straw man erected by Republicans such as Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), who contended that the failure to build an East Coast system before 2018 or 2019, even if we began today is “unacceptable.”  “The United States, as soon as possible, should begin the construction of an East Coast missile defense site,” she argued.

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