Sarah Palin Was Right #18: Iran and the Alaska Missile Shield

- by upinak

When Obama stands there with his feeble limp-wristed style to swoon the stupid liberals into believing all is good and no harm will come to them. It makes one wonder about the safety for the country as well as question when Obama is actually going to do anything about the troops in Afghanistan.

Iran has made it clear to the world that it will not abide by the sanctions that were put in place to make it “safe” for what they are doing with the yellow cake uranium. They are going their own way regardless. The mullahs have not cooperated with this nation, and Cheney and Joint Chiefs predicted that it was never going to happen. And Obama just sits there looking like the schoolyard mama's boy being pushed around by the bully.

But here is a new shocker. I have pointed out that Alaska has a missile shield for the United States which would protect the West Coast and the Eastern Seaboard in some cases as Alaska's location in the hemisphere the ability of the the 49th Missile Defense Battalion to react quickly argue strongly for the US. to expand and strengthen its missile defense capabilities. Indeed, recently in the news it has come to light that there is a new measure on the table to complete the missile defense system at Ft. Greely but only subject to a bizarre condition:

Sen. Mark Begich, a Democrat, appealed to the Senate Armed Services Committee in June to maintain money to expand the ground-based missile defense system, saying it's not just about North Korea but also about shooting down missiles launched by Iran. In a news release Tuesday, Begich said the plan is "a welcome decision that will decrease the risk of the ever-evolving ballistic missile threats from rogue nations by increasing capacity required to defend the United States."

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, was less enthusiastic about the decision in an e-mailed statement to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, noting that the completion of Missile Field 2 comes with plans to decommission another missile field at the base, about 100 miles south of Fairbanks. "I remain unconvinced that abandonment of the Bush administration's plan, previously supported by Secretary Gates, is the right thing to do from a national security perspective," Murkowski said.

So we can have all the missiles that were slated for our protection under the Bush administration for overall protection, but we have to dismantle Missile Field 1, fund get the missiles for Missile Field 2 at Greely. Does anyone else think this sound like a self-defeating proposition? Especially since the Missile Field 1 only became fully operational in 2003/2004! Why does the Washington establishment want to waste the taxpayers' hard-earned money in such a cavalier manner?

Sarah Palin, you were right. It is America's misfortune that it has come to this.

- u

Sarah Palin Was Right #14: Missile Defense - Russia and Iran

- by upinak

I wrote about Russia a few days ago concerning Iran and why Russia doesn’t seem to care. I also noted that something was amiss, and here it is: Russia said no to sanctions and now is allowing Iran to have a preemptive nuclear option. No regulations, no sanctions, nothing. What is Russia getting out of this deal?

Breitbart shed some light on the situation:

The interview appeared in the daily Izvestia during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, as U.S. and Russian negotiators try to hammer out a nuclear arms reduction treaty by December. It also came amid grumbling in Moscow over U.S. moves to modify plans for a missile shield near Russia's borders rather than ditch the idea outright.

Patrushev said a sweeping document on military policy including a passage on preventative nuclear force will be handed to President Dmitry Medvedev by the end of the year, according to Izvestia.

Officials are examining "a variety of possibilities for using nuclear force, depending on the situation and the intentions of the possible opponent," Patrushev was quoted as saying. "In situations critical to national security, options including a preventative nuclear strike on the aggressor are not excluded."

As did Reuters:

"There is no need to frighten the Iranians," Putin told reporters in Beijing.

"We need to look for a compromise. If a compromise is not found, and the discussions end in a fiasco, then we will see," he said, adding that talks of sanctions was "premature" at present.

This stinks, worse then a dead elephant in the room. And what is worse is the fact that Obama is letting Russians visit our nuclear sites. WHY????

Via Foxnews.com:

Russia and the United States have tentatively agreed to a weapons inspection program that would allow Russians to visit nuclear sites in America to count missiles and warheads.

The plan, which Fox News has learned was agreed to in principle during negotiations, would constitute the most intrusive weapons inspection program the U.S. has ever accepted.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said publicly Tuesday that the two nations have made "considerable" progress toward reaching agreement on a new strategic arms treaty.

The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, expires in December and negotiators have been racing to reach agreement on a successor.

There are two start agreements, START 1 and START II. The Fox report refers to START II. But take a look at the title on the State.gov website:

THE TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS ON THE REDUCTION AND LIMITATION OF STRATEGIC OFFENSIVE ARMS AND ASSOCIATED DOCUMENTS

Interestingly, all of a sudden it seems that Russia wants to look into this. Putin has been around for a while, so why the sudden interest? I believe it has to do with that Russian-Iranian alliance, that was forged in 2005. Yet no one really talks much about it in the U.S., even now.

Sarah Palin was right about Missile Defense here at home. But is anyone listening? There is good cause for concern.

- u

You can see Kim's missiles from Fort Greely

The AP is reporting:

North Korea has restarted its nuclear facilities to harvest weapons-grade plutonium, an official said Saturday, in an escalation of the communist state's standoff with the international community over its nuclear and missile programs.

The move "will contribute to bolstering the nuclear deterrence for self-defense in every way to cope with the increasing military threats from the hostile forces," the North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said in comments carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

Diplomacy has been a miserable failure as a strategy for the West to deal with North Korea. Negotiations with the NoKors have been dead in the water since December. And, like Generalissimo Francisco Franco, they are still dead. The United Nations, in a characteristically ineffective move, announced sanctions against three North Korean companies. I'm sure that Kim is quaking in his jack boots. The UN is the Barney Fife of world cops. But Barney, at least, had a bullet and he wasn't afraid to use it.

This comes on the heels of a recent article from The Times of London:

The world’s intelligence agencies and defense experts are quietly acknowledging that North Korea has become a fully fledged nuclear power with the capacity to wipe out entire cities in Japan and South Korea, the Times of London reported.

The new reality has emerged in off-hand remarks and in single sentences buried in lengthy reports. Increasing numbers of authoritative experts — from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the U.S. Defense Secretary — are admitting that North Korea has miniaturized nuclear warheads to the extent that they can be launched on medium-range missiles, according to intelligence briefings.

At least the Korean communists, unlike their Iranian allies, are beyond the stage of trying to convince the rest of the world that their nuclear development is for the peaceful purposes of generating electricity. No, Kim makes no bones about the fact that he has the bomb and he's willing to use it. 

The Obama administration doesn't seem to be sufficiently "up on the wheel" about the stunning and dangerous elevation of North Korea to full-fledged nuclear power status. It is cutting back on missle defense and taking the posture that our most critical threat comes from sources other than rogue nations. At a time when the world is getting more dangerous, Obama is cutting back on critical defense programs and weapons systems. The political Left always dismisses any cautionary talk of what the NoKors have been up to. Their standing talking point is, "North Korea's latest missile test was a failure. Nothing to see here, folks. Don't worry, be happy. Move along."

One who does not dismiss the significance of North Korea's 50 years of missile and warhead development is Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin:

"I am deeply concerned with North Korea’s development and testing program which has clear potential of impacting Alaska, a sovereign state of the United States, with a potentially nuclear armed warhead," Governor Palin said. "I can’t emphasize enough how important it is that we continue to develop and perfect the global missile defense network. Alaska’s strategic location and the system in place here have proven invaluable in defending the nation."

Governor Palin never misses an opportunity to stress the importance of Fort Greely and the need for continued funding for the Missile Defense Agency. The governor opposes SECDEF Robert Gates’ proposed $1.4 billion reduction of the Missile Defense Agency. Greely is the nation’s only ground-based missile defense complex:



Critics of missile defense take the "can't do" approach, as if these arguments are some kind of rationale for not taking every precaution we can to defend our country. The same sort of arguments were being made in 1914, "Aeroplanes are not reliable weapons platforms. The bombs they carry are not accurate. There is no future for military aviation." Yet we now have precision-guided bombs and missiles which can penetrate a building and be detonated inside it. It's a good thing the naysayers did not prevail in those early days of military aircraft development nearly a century ago.

Sarah Palin is not just a voice in the Alaskan wilderness. She is joined by Alaska's bipartisan congressional delegation of Senators Murkowski and Begich, along with Rep. Young:

"Our early opposition to reduced funding for the Missile Defense Agency is proving to be well-founded during this turbulent time," Governor Palin said. "I continue to support the development and implementation of a defensive missile shield based in Alaska. We are strategically placed to defend the critical assets of the United States and our allies in the Pacific Theater."

Her political opponents, of course, attempt to deflect her compelling argument with such nonsense as, "What does this snowbilly know? She said that she could see Russia from her house." Not only does this not address the issue, but Sarah Palin never said that. Her detractors have her confused with comedic actress Tina Fey. But this isn't the first time that small minds have been unable to distinguish between whimsy and reality. They've got nothing more than snark, and they're not afraid to use it.

- JP

Cross-posted at RedState.com