Posted on 06/08/2017 4:56:22 AM PDT by Kaslin
I’m old enough to remember Democrats mocking President Ronald Reagan for the idea of a missile defense program. They contemptuously labeled the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) as “Star Wars,” after the popular movie series. It was impossible, they said, and a complete waste of time and money. Thank God they were so wrong.
While it’s funny to think of Democrats complaining about wasted money, very few dollars Washington has spent since then have been better used.
The threat of terrorism from ISIS, al Qaeda, and other radical Islamic groups to individuals is very real, as we've learned all too often. But behind the threat looms a larger one – the rogue nation with nuclear weapons.
Thanks to the Obama administration, the Iranian regime is on course to have a nuclear weapon in a few years. Thanks to the Clinton administration, the North Koreans have one now and are feverishly working on an intercontinental ballistic missile to deliver a warhead to the continental United States.
President Reagan’s dream of a missile defense system was important during the Cold War, but the Soviet Union was at least a rational actor with its self-preservation impacting its actions. There is little reason to believe Iran and North Korea can be held in check by the concept of mutually assured destruction.
This reality makes the need for continued work on perfecting the missile defense system more important than ever.
That’s what made the news of the recent successful test of a defense system that intercepted an intercontinental ballistic missile such great news. The test was of something called the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) technology that intercepts incoming missiles. The technology has been deployed in Alaska and California, but should be a higher priority with this Congress.
Preventing an evil organization from smuggling a small nuclear device into a city is the charge of the intelligence communities of civilized nations, but stopping a rogue nation hell-bent on attacking the United States, or any other nation for that matter, with a missile strike. Both are important, obviously, but one is getting a lot more attention than the other.
Under the Obama administration the missile defense program was not a priority. It wasn’t stopped, but it wasn’t getting the resources something upon which our very existence depends deserved.
The administration of President Donald Trump has made rebuilding our depleted military a top priority, which is a very good thing. Missile defense needs to be a part of that rebuilding.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is certifiably insane. Raised to be a god with absolute power, it’s unclear if he believes his own press or is in on the joke. But that “joke” is the central premise behind his still being alive. Since no one in his circle has taken him into custody for crimes against humanity or simply applied his warped sense of “justice” to him is a testament to his grip on power. In other words, he’s probably not going anywhere anytime soon.
Kim’s continued missile tests and his own declarations of wanting to strike the United States with a nuclear bomb have to be taken seriously. That they are all being done with the full understanding that the United States could make the entirety of North Korea a cautionary tale and a distant memory of humanity is a clear indication the dictator is not constrained by the boundaries of reality and won’t be deterred by it.
The Mullahs in Iran share a similar attitude untethered to reality, though theirs is religious and hatred based. The United States is certainly on the Iranian “hit list,” but our ally Israel sits alone atop their target list.
Ideally preventing religious zealots who believe murdering non-believers and even similar believers who don’t believe properly is the key to paradise would be the priority. But thanks to former President Obama and former Secretary of State John Kerry, that horse has left the barn. The deal with Iran all but ensures the Islamist regime will go nuclear in the near future. That leaves a reliable and robust missile defense the only sensible reaction to the previous administration’s folly.
Thankfully the research and development partnership between the military and the private sector has not been deterred by the actions of reckless administrations in the past, and the technology needed to keep us safe has advanced since President Reagan was mocked for speaking of it.
What was once a dream and a joke is closer to reality than ever before. It’s also needed now more than ever.
South Korea’s new liberal president SUSPENDED our installation of missile defenses designed to protect SK. That’s how misguided liberals are about defending their own countries.
Have Democrats ever been right about anything?
Trump needs to tell that clown that THAAD is there to protect OUR forces and Japan. If he won't agree, then inform him that our troops will be pulling out and he can provide for his own defense.
A video has surfaced of Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama talking on his plans for strategic issues such as nuclear weapons and missile defense.
The full text from the video, as released, reads as follows:
Thanks so much for the Caucus4Priorities, for the great work you've been doing. As president, I will end misguided defense policies and stand with Caucus4Priorities in fighting special interests in Washington.
First, I'll stop spending $9 billion a month in Iraq. I'm the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning. And as president I will end it.[i.e. not win it]
Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending.
I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.
I will not weaponize space.
I will slow our development of future combat systems.
And I will institute an independent "Defense Priorities Board" to ensure that the Quadrennial Defense Review is not used to justify unnecessary spending.
Third, I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear weapons; I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material; and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert, and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenals.
You know where I stand. I've fought for open, ethical and accountable government my entire public life. I don't switch positions or make promises that can't be kept. I don't posture on defense policy and I don't take money from federal lobbyists for powerful defense contractors. As president, my sole priority for defense spending will be protecting the American people. Thanks so much.
Article: Obama Pledges Cuts in Missile Defense, Space, and Nuclear Weapons Programs:
http://web.archive.org/web/20090412030633/http://missilethreat.com/archives/id.7086/detail.asp
"MissileThreat.com is a project of The Claremont Institute devoted to understanding and promoting the requirements for the strategic defense of the United States."
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From Investor's Business Daily, Jan 2012:
Appeasement: From ObamaCare to recess appointments, honoring the Constitution has not been an administration hallmark. But when it comes to betraying secrets to mollify the Russians, it becomes a document the president hides behind.
It was bad enough that the 2012 defense authorization bill signed by President Obama set America on a downward spiral of military mediocrity.
He also issued a signing statement, something he once opposed, saying that language in the bill aimed at protecting top-secret technical data on the U.S. Standard Missile-3 - linchpin of our missile defense - might impinge on his constitutional foreign-policy authority.
Section 1227 of the defense law prohibits spending any funds that would be used to give Russian officials access to sensitive missile-defense technology as part of a cooperation agreement without first sending Congress a report identifying the specific secrets, how they'd be used and steps to protect the data from compromise.
The president is required to certify that any technology shared will not be passed on to third parties such as China, North Korea or Iran, that the Russians will not use transferred secrets to develop countermeasures and that the Russians are reciprocating in sharing missile-defense technology. ..."
"In his signing statement, Obama said he would treat these legal restrictions as 'non-binding' and that 'my administration will also interpret and implement section 1244 (sic) in a manner that does not interfere with the president's constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs and avoids the undue disclosure of sensitive diplomatic communications.'
Betraying our secrets is easy for a president who betrayed allies Poland and the Czech Republic to placate Moscow.
Poland was to host ground-based interceptors such as those we've deployed in California and Alaska, with missile-tracking radar deployed in the Czech Republic.
Obama pulled the plug when Moscow objected. Never mind, he said, we have a better approach: a four-phase plan that calls for using three versions of the Navy's Standard SM-3 interceptor missile that forms the backbone of its Aegis missile-defense system.
The fourth phase consists of a missile still on the drawing board scheduled for deployment by 2020, a version of the SM-3 called the Block IIB. It would intercept hostile missiles in the "early intercept" phase before an enemy missile could release its warheads and decoys. The Russians want the SM-3's secrets, and Obama appears to be willing to turn them over.
The president wants to save the New Start Treaty, which the Russians have threatened to abandon if we try to fully implement President Reagan's dream of defeating a nuclear missile attack.
Russia has unilaterally asserted that any qualitative or quantitative improvement in U.S. missile defenses would be grounds for withdrawal from the treaty.
Read More At Investor's Business Daily:
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/010912-597158-obama-gives-russia-missile-defense-secrets.htm#ixzz3jXmMbVwY
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March 2012...
"Obama was talking with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev when neither of them realized that their conversation was being picked up by microphones. Here is what they said:
Obama: "On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved, but it's important for him to give me space."
Medvedev: "Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you ..."
Obama: "This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility."
Medvedev: "I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir."
"This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility." That statement tells us much about the president's mindset.
The specific mention of missile defense is worrisome enough. Mr. Obama has retreated from the missile defense plan that was negotiated with European allies during the George W. Bush administration.
Apparently, he is signaling Moscow that he intends to retreat further. The clear implication from the president's comments is that he cannot tell the American people before the election what he plans to do after the election.
In addition, there is the phrase "on all these issues," implying more is at stake than just missile defense."
Article: Obama plans double cross on missile defense
When it comes to keeping America safe, we shouldn't be too flexible:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/29/obama-plans-double-cross-on-missile-defense/print/
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LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said NATO was obsolete because it had not defended against terror attacks, but that the military alliance was still very important to him, The Times of London reported.
“I took such heat, when I said NATO was obsolete,” Trump told the newspaper in an interview. “It’s obsolete because it wasn’t taking care of terror. I took a lot of heat for two days. And then they started saying Trump is right.”
Trump added that many NATO members were not paying their fair share for U.S. protection.
“A lot of these countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States,” Trump said. “With that being said, NATO is very important to me. There’s five countries that are paying what they’re supposed to. Five. It’s not much.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-nato-obsolete-still-very-important-004548554—finance.html?ref=gs
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Former Senator Al D’Amato (R-NY) dropped a bomb on Sunday Morning Futures this AM. D’Amato told Maria Bartiromo that Hillary allowed Russia to take ownership of US uranium so they could sell it to Iran.
Hillary made it possible for the Russians to take control of one of our huge uranium producers and allow them to own the company, export the uranium and who do they sell the uranium to? Iran!
Now if people knew that and that the foundation as a result of that got $135 million. I think people would start saying, “What?”
It’s true.
In January 2013, Pravda celebrated the Russian atomic energy agency’s purchase of the company “Uranium One” in Canada.
That same company, Uranium One, owned uranium concessions in the United States. Because uranium is a strategically important commodity, the Russians would need approval from the Obama administration, including Hillary’s State Department, before the purchase took place.
Nine shareholders in Uranium One just happened to provide more than $145 million in donations to the Clinton Foundation in the run-up to State Department approval.
The Clintons took the cash from Uranium One officials before the deal was approved by Hillary Clinton’s State Department. The Clintons hid the donations which is a clear violation of the Memorandum of Understanding Hillary Clinton signed with the Obama administration wherein she promised and agreed to publicly disclose all donations during her tenure as Secreatary of State. (Via Breitbart)
The New York Times reported on the crooked deal in 2015.
As the Russians gradually assumed control of Uranium One in three separate transactions from 2009 to 2013, Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well.
And then there’s this...
Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) told Greta Van Susteren the deal Hillary approved gave Putin ownership of 20 percent of US uranium and Russia sells uranium to unfriendly countries, including Iran.
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Remember those side deals Obama forged with Iran that were not part of the text of the official treaty? Now we are finding out some of the details.
Yesterday, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Iranian officials confirmed they have received at least $10 billion in cash, commodities, and assets from Washington since 2013. And that is likely a conservative estimate.
But cash is not the only thing the Islamic Republic of Iran is receiving for gracing us with their willingness to sign onto our own capitulation. The AP is reporting that Russia, with the support of President Obama, is shipping Iran 116 metric tons of natural uranium.
While Iranian officials have obviously declined to disclose the use of such uranium, AP notes that this is enough to enrich weapons-grade uranium for nuclear bombs:
“Despite present restrictions on its enrichment program, however, the amount of natural uranium is significant should Iran decide to keep it in storage, considering its potential uses once some limits on Tehran’s nuclear activities start to expire in less than a decade.
David Albright, whose Institute of Science and International Security often briefs U.S. lawmakers on Iran’s nuclear program, says the shipment could be enriched to enough weapons-grade uranium for more than 10 simple nuclear bombs, “depending on the efficiency of the enrichment process and the design of the nuclear weapon.” ...”
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Aug 2015
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From Real Clear Politics, Sept 10, 2015...
"In a 2014 New Yorker interview, Obama said his goal was to create a 'new equilibrium' in the Middle East.
In the short run, at least, his signature diplomatic undertaking can be counted on to bring more violence to this volatile region.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the [Obama-Putin Iran deal] agreement is formally known, provides the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism an infusion of somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 billion of unfrozen assets and a great deal more of continuing revenues as businesses and governments around the world rush to profit from oil-and-gas-rich Iran's reintegration into the world economy.
The agreement relaxes the international isolation of the Islamic Republic and ratifies Tehran's status as a nuclear threshold state. And it relieves restrictions on Iran's acquisition of weapons, including ballistic missiles. ..."
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I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.
I will not weaponize space.
I will slow our development of future combat systems.
And I will institute an independent "Defense Priorities Board" to ensure that the Quadrennial Defense Review is not used to justify unnecessary spending.
Third, I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear weapons; I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material; and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert, and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenals.
He may not be as naive as you think he is. Could be in cahoots with Russia and NK.
Agreed, that makes him delusional and treasonous. As a liberal he undoubtedly has conversations with China and Russia in which he agrees with their policies designed to weaken South Korea.
“...Thank God they were so wrong....”
Since never has, and never will be, a friend of Democerats.
The party of science, ya know.
Either way, the system needs a lot more testing. One missile hit does not make for a reliable system. The problem is, each test will cost about the equivalent of two satellite launches, somewhere near one hundred million per test. If we are going to trust THAAD or it's successor to defend the country we are going to have to pay the price.
Have Democrats ever been right about anything?
The reason the left was opposed to Regan’s missile defense is specifically because they thought it would work. The bastards were supporters of the Soviet Union. The “anti-nuke”, as was/is the “anti-war” movement were and are still entirely controlled by communist organizations. Namely Communist Party USA and their front 'peace' groups United for Peace and Justice, and Peace Action (PA basically stems from the Regan era groups SANE and FREEZE).
Workers World Party and their phony 'peace' groups are The Party for Socialism and Liberation, International Action Center, and ANSWER.
The Revolutionary Communist Party and their front group World Can’t Wait. And a few others. But these are the main three behind these movements (CPUSA, WWP and RCP). They are also the scum behind the pro-illegal immigrant and Black Lives Matter movements. All have the same basic long-term goals in mind.
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
'Goals' 4-45 can be found here:
http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm
IPS’s [Institute For Policy Studies] Washington, DC headquarters quickly became a resource center for national reporters and a place for KGB agents from the nearby Soviet embassy to convene and strategize. Cora Weiss headed one of the IPS's most successful forays -- into Riverside Church in Manhattan. She was invited there in 1978 by the Reverend William Sloane Coffin to run the church's Disarmament Program, which sought to consolidate Soviet nuclear superiority in Europe -- in the name of "peace." In 1982 Weiss helped organize the largest pro-disarmament demonstration ever held. Staged in New York City, the rally was attended by a coalition of communist organizations. During her decade-long tenure at Riverside, which became home to the National Council of Churches, Weiss regularly received Russian KGB agents, Sandinista friends, and Cuban intelligence agents. Weiss became infamous for her role in the psychological warfare conducted against U.S. prisoners of war held in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" during the Vietnam War.
The Liberation News Service, which is a news source for hundreds of "alternative" publications nationwide (with antiwar, Marxist-oriented perspectives), was founded in 1967 with IPS assistance."
[lots more at link...]
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6991
Maybe we can defend SK from our base on Guam.
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From Investor's Business Daily (IBD), August 27, 2008:
"Ayers, now a tenured distinguished professor of education at UIC, works to educate teachers in socialist revolutionary ideology, urging that it be passed on to impressionable students.
One of Ayer's descriptions for a course called 'Improving Learning Environments' says prospective K-12 teachers need to 'be aware of the social and moral universe we inhabit and ... be a teacher capable of hope and struggle, outrage and action, teaching for social justice and liberation.
The Annenberg papers are quite extensive - 132 boxes containing 947 file folders with 70 linear feet of material. They undoubtedly contain more surprises regarding Obama's relationship with Ayers, one of many relationships Obama has sought to hide.'..."
Article: Annenberg Papers: Putting On Ayers?
http://web.archive.org/web/20090131022531/http://www.ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=304729375940845
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REVOLUTION: Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA [Maoist]
[Revolution] Interview with Bill Ayers, Revolution #63, October 1, 2006:
"On Progressive Education, Critical Thinking and the Cowardice of Some in Dangerous Times"
http://web.archive.org/web/20110727113745/http://rwor.org/a/063/ayers-en.html
Yes, missile defense is important.
But as long as those people hate us enough to want to kill us all they will be trying to figure out ways around any defense system.
If we can’t break their will and convert them to friends, allies, trade partners or at a minimum neutrals, eliminating the enemy from the face of the earth is essential.
Slavery, the Klan, Jim Crow? Oh wait, wrong forum...
*nvrmnd* *blush* Do I really need a </sarcasm> or a </J/K> tag???
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