Kim Jong-Il,  Missile Defense,  North Korea,  Robert Gates

Will the United States Do Anything About North Korea Missile Launch? Secretary of Defense Gates – “NOPE”

Secreatry of Defense Robert Gates on Fox News Sunday yesterday

The Secretary of Defense has made the Obama Administration’s position on the looming North Korea Taepodong-2 missile test later this week quite clear. They plan to watch and do nothing.

The United States can do nothing to stop North Korea from breaking international law in the next 10 days by firing a missile that is unlikely to be shot down by the U.S. or its allies, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.

Appearing on “FOX News Sunday,” Gates said North Korea “probably will” fire the missile, prompting host Chris Wallace to ask: “And there’s nothing we can do about it?”

“No,” Gates answered, adding, “I would say we’re not prepared to do anything about it.”

Last week, Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, said the U.S. is “fully prepared” to shoot down the missile. But Gates said such a response is unlikely.

“I think if we had an aberrant missile, one that was headed for Hawaii, that looked like it was headed for Hawaii or something like that, we might consider it,” Gates said. “But I don’t think we have any plans to do anything like that at this point.”

North Korea has moved a missile onto a launch pad and says it will be fired by April 8. Pyonyang insists the missile is designed for carrying a communications satellite, not a nuclear warhead that the secretive nation appears bent on developing.

Gates said while he doesn’t think North Korea has the capability yet to shoot off a long-range nuclear-tipped missile, “I don’t know anyone at a senior level in the American government who does not believe this technology is intended as a mask for the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile.”

Flap looks forward to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s trip to see Kim Jong-Il to bring him some autographed basketballs like her husband’s Secretary of State did. Maybe Kim will stop his ICBM nuclear weapons program to put them in his trophy case.

How unbelievably WEAK is this crazy Obama policy toward North Korea. The Iranians who are in North Korea taking notes must be laughing their asses off.

Watch the Fox News Sunday panel discuss North Korea’s long range missile capabilities here.


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