By James Lewis
The lib media are running around screeching at the heavens because that madman Trump is going to get us attacked by Kim III's nukes. If you Google it you'll see scare stories all over the web.
But we know the left lies every day, and this story shows all the hallmarks of a coordinated scare campaign.
So what should a rational reader think? Well, first of all, don't believe an obvious PR campaign to panic us.
The left is telling us that Kim is a madman, and now he has ICBM's and perhaps an H-bomb. Why did Trump make Kim so mad? Now we're all in trouble. Trump is a nuclear war-monger.
Knowing what we know about the liberal media, and their lie-a-day habit, and their determination to destroy the POTUS, what they say has little value. It would be nice if they had a record of telling the truth, but they don't. They thought we couldn't beat Saddam Hussein. Until Trump, they thought we couldn't beat ISIS. They always try to demoralize this nation, an agitprop strategy that goes back to the Vietnam War.
Question:
In reality, how realistic is Kim's nuclear and missile threat?
Capability. Kim has launched intermediate-range ballistic missiles, which may have a longer range, into the Sea of Japan. Such a long range has not been proven in practice, and we know little about accuracy – although the liberals tell us the North Koreans can hit California.
Our capability. The libs tell us we have no defense against nukes and missiles. But the United States is hardly going to reveal our defensive capabilities for the enemy, right? The libs have now rediscovered high-altitude EMP weapons, which we nominally have no defense against. But if they have EMP capability, so do we, and we can beat them to the punch. We also have layered anti-missile defenses, including Aegis ships, Patriot anti-missile missiles, and jets with a midair anti-missile launch capacity. How good are they? I sure hope we ain't saying.
Israel's anti-missile development. Israel is one of the few countries that has publicized its anti-missile systems, because the Israelis have to reassure their domestic public. But they are inevitably going to understate, not overstate, their capabilities. We do know that their technical capacity keeps growing, in collaboration with the U.S.
Russia and China. There is evidence that Russia and China have helped the Norks and may still be helping them. The Iranians are also said to be working closely with the nuclear and missile programs in North Korea. The strategic problem with that scenario is that a Nork launch of nukes could easily be suicidal for China and Russia, who have territory well within range of Pyongyang.
Neither of those regimes is suicidal. So something doesn't make sense here. Yes, the Russians and Chinese always push the limits when they can, but not to the point of self-destruction. It is quite possible that Putin and Xi have used their weapons aid to North Korea to plant agents in case Kim becomes dangerous. They are certainly not going to tell the world about their espionage apparatus.
Claimed U.S. helplessness. The left-media are constantly telling us about EMP weapons, which can knock out large parts of terrestrial electrical systems. But somehow they never tell us that the United States can also use EMP against the North. It's just as if the libs want us to think we are helpless. I have no doubt that U.S. EMP capacity is better than theirs.
Our Indo-Pacific allies are at least as threatened by the Norks as we are, and they are not stupid or helpless. South Korea has worked closely with the USA for half a century, as have Japan, the Philippines, Australia, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, and Singapore. None of those allies wants to see a rogue nuke power within range of its homeland. Japan is not going to sit by and watch Nork missiles continue to fly over the island. Russia and China are not exactly allies, but we have cooperated with those regimes in the past. Japan has been publicly helpless against Kim, but the idea that the Japanese are actually helpless makes no sense.
All those countries have formidable military forces, and they are not going to publicize them until needed.
Our media are hopeless when it comes to really telling us about threats and defenses. That does not mean we are actually helpless. It means they have not told us, and we simply do not know.
But we know the left lies every day, and this story shows all the hallmarks of a coordinated scare campaign.