Posted on 08/14/2017 4:01:20 PM PDT by mandaladon
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday that the United States would know the trajectory of a missile fired by North Korea within moments and would "take it out" if the missile looked like hitting the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.
U.S. officials and South Korea's president in recent days have played down the risk of an imminent conflict after Washington and Pyongyang exchanged fiery rhetoric last week.
But Mattis told reporters that war could break out if North Korea were to fire a missile at the United States.
"If they fire at the United States, it could escalate into war very quickly," Mattis said. The United States would know the trajectory of a North Korean missile "within moments" and if a missile is assessed to be hitting Guam, "we will take it out," he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump warned last week that the U.S. military was "locked and loaded" if North Korea acted unwisely after threatening to land missiles in the sea near Guam later this month.
Mattis said that if a North Korean missile were headed toward the waters near Guam, instead of aimed directly at the island, then the president would decide what action to take.
Concern that North Korea is close to achieving its goal of putting the mainland United States within range of a nuclear weapon has caused tension to spike in recent months.
Tension on the Korean peninsula eased slightly on Monday as South Korea's president said resolving North Korea's nuclear ambitions must be done peacefully.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Just take them all down. No matter they are headed. Say the UN said to do it.
The North Koreans should know that any missile fired at Guam or any other US territory will be met with a definitive attack on North Korea and its leadership.
This is not nearly clear enough.
Is the missile armed?
Are there more than one?
Do we treat this as an attack or a THAAD missile test (but more realistic than other tests?)
Is it a preemptive attack for us to shoot down their missile? What is China going to do?
How far away from Guam can it go and still be in our shoot down range?
What about taking it out on the launch pad? That would certainly stop them from shooting, but we would not really know that the trajectory was at our territory, but still, it would be nice to let NK have to rebuild the launch facility would it not?
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>> “What about taking it out on the launch pad?” <<
I’m sure that is exactly what President Trump has in mind.
We have the means to do that without firing a single missile.
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I would take it further. I would shoot down every missile they launch.
Good policy. But way, way, way too narrow.
This policy needs to be applied to all missile launches by North Korea. That’s “all” as in “ALL”. The nice side benefit of this policy is that North Korea never gets to complete their ICBM Development Program.
Mattis said a whole lot more than shooting down a missile. He mentioned a little something called War.
I would like to think we would take out any missile that he tees up. Any of these ICBM’s take time to fuel. We know when he is going to launch one.
And if we can’t?
I've wondered if this entire crisis was engineered by China to try and see exactly what our anti-ballistic missile capabilities are.
It is absolutely “clear enough”!
Doesn’t matter whether the NORK missile is armed if we project the target to be close to Guam. And, yes, we’ve pre-defined “close”.
If there are more than one we knock them all down.
(you over estimate their capacity)
We don’t care what they call it, if the projected target is dear to us.
We hit before it gets close to Guam.
Taking out the launch pad is pre-emptive and carries other risks with China.
Kim should have been taken out a long time ago.
Star wars?
There is something to be said for showing everyone just how well missile defense works. It would be a great operational test, and we don’t even have to pay for the target. However, if it is far enough away from our assets we may want to let it come down. That way we get to collect intelligence on their reentry vehicle. Destroying it mid-course would deny us that information.
Yeah, the US will try, is more like it. What if, the missile defense system tries feverishly to stop the many fired and fails? What then?
I think the NORKs have solid rocket motor technology now.
Well reasoned points. Even so I still like the idea of destroying every single missile NK launches. Besides frustrating Fat Boy it would send a strong message to those that would follow NK’s path.
NK and Iran are just the tip of the iceberg. We have to deal with the notion of dozens of countries like NK coming down the road and try and nip this in the bud.
Any day now some protest group will call itself, Missile Lives Matter. Stupid morons.
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