It appears to me that Japan, S. Korea, and the U.S.A. either mutually agreed not shoot down the missile or perhaps one/two of the three was not willing to to stomach the DPRK reaction and thus urged restraint while their could have been other motives in play. I would like to know where exactly we stood on this but perhaps we never will. I know the launch was monitored closely and we were ready to shoot it down with Japanese and U.S. assets in place and on full alert but obviously we did’nt. Oddly enough the next day President Obama’s administratiuon announced his desires to cut ABM spending by 2/3. Perhaps a decision was made not to intercept the missile if its flight profile, payload or trajectory appeared non-threatening even though it did fly right over japanese airspace. Perhaps a more disturbing reason could be that the Obama administration was urging restraint for the fear that Japan or the U.S. successfully shooting down the DPRK missle would derail his plans to cut these programs. My guess is the reasons for our inaction are a combination of all these and perhaps other considerations which I’m not privy to.

What would an DPRK declaration of War towards the United States really mean? How would the DPRK prosecute such a war if they could. I believe, this is really just empty rhetoric on behalf of their insane leader. They are in no position to invade South Korea and would be defeated easily if they tried to do so. Since the DPRK can do nothing on the military front towards the U.S. then all a declaration of War really means is North Korea isolates themselves even further by not resuming 6 party talks regarding their Nuclear program. These negotiations with North Korea have been and will continue to be fruitless. North Korea is like a bad child that throws tantrums seeking attention to get what they want. Ideally, we should spank the child but thus far 3 U.S. administrations have instead chosen to reward (Clinton), delay (6 party talks-Clinton&Bush), and outright ignore (Bush) this behavior rather than act. Part of the problem we face with North Korea is our desire not to disrupt our relations with China which though they publicly criticize North Korea they also benefit from the check to U.S. power that North Korea provides them.

China wishes to expand its sphere of influence currently limited by U.S. naval dominance in the Western Pacific and they too occasionally act out such was seen recently with their actions against various USN surveillance ships and the PRC downing of the U.S. EP-3 Aries in 2001. It would seem the Chinese are slowly getting the power they seek and in my opinion this shift in power may now be accelerated as the Obama administration eliminates weapons systems such Ballistic Missile Defense and the F-22 Raptor that rivals China and Russia fear the most. Already severely weakened economically with worse long term economic prospects the U.S. is intent on diverting resources away from strategic deterrence to fight the perceived terrorist threat. In my opinion Secretary of Defense Gates is severely misguided and now I can only hope China and Russia will accommodate us but given our fundamental economic weakness, I highly doubt it.

For all his incompetence what may turn out to be Bush’s greatest failing is his contrived “war on terrorism” now to be perpetuated by Obama as he facilitates the collapse of America with unsustainable spending to fund a socialist society that expands the democratic power base of people who rather be given what they are unable or unwilling to earn for themselves. Yes, we were attacked in 2001 and that warranted a response but we should not have 550 billion dollar defense budgets which ignore long term strategic threats for the sake of stabilizing middle eastern countries whose population is inclined to hate us even more in spite of our motives. Surely, there is room in our 3.5 trillion unfunded spending spree to allocate 30 billion to buy another 30 F-22’s and 100 billion for THAAD interceptors in Alaska to counter the DPRK and PRC threat.