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North Korea has just launched a fourth missile. The ballistic missiles were believed to be Scud-B missiles with a range of 340 km or Rodong rockets, whose 1,300-km range was likely to be shortened to 400 km for the upcoming tests.http://www.prokerala.com/news/articles/a62150.html 

Originally it was reported that North Korea test-fired a third short-range missile on Thursday, a South Korean defense ministry spokesman said.  The spokesman said the missile was launched around 7:50 p.m. (1050 GMT) but gave no further details. Earlier the ministry said the North had fired two surface-to-ship missiles between 5:20 p.m. (0820 GMT) and 6 p.m. from its east coast. http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSSP33752020090702  North Korea had cautioned commercial vessels to stay away from its eastern coast and the Sea of Japan through July 10th, allowing it to launch short- and medium-range missiles with no warning and it continues to do so. 

North Korea threatened that a long range missile launch was set and aimed for Hawaii in time for the 4th of July according to Japan’s top-selling newspaper, the Yomiuri.   But CNN says, “A U.S. intelligence official confirmed the test firings and said there are “no indications whatsoever” of an impending long-range missile test.http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/07/02/nkorea.missiles/ 

In mid June, Marine Corps General James Cartwright- vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff claimed North Korea would need at least least three to five years to develop a missile that can reach the U.S. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aOrc17s0Mz7g   Then again, no one thought North Korea capable of another nuclear test either.  Is it okay that North Korea already has the capacity to launch a nuclear missile strike against Seoul and Tokyo with the potential to kill millions of people in Japan, as well as in the South, in addition to blowing to smithereens US bases and airfields in both countries?

According to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group ICG, it “argues that the true danger lies with shorter-range weapons, some of which are mobile and therefore difficult to detect. They include variants of the Scud, which could strike South Korea, and the Nodong which could reach much of Japan. Pyongyang also has a short-range tactical weapon called the Toksa or Viper, which is highly accurate up to 120km. The Musudan, which can be transported by road, could reach US bases on the Pacific island of Guam.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6015449.ece

As a reminder to North Korea of America’s long range capability on Monday, The Air Force launched an unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base that landed 4,200 miles away near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.  North Koreans have threatened to “shower the US with a nuclear fire” if “attacked” see http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/25/north-korea-nuclear-threat  Would America be negligent to not hit North Korea’s launch pads in a preliminary strike?  ABM or Anti-Ballistic Missile technology has been know to have high failure rate so taking a chance with what might be a nuclear warhead weapon seems pretty stupid.

The National Air and Space Intelligence Center,NASIC- hq’d at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the primary Department of Defense producer of foreign aerospace intelligence http://www.afisr.af.mil/units/nasic.asp but has not issued a statement. The F.E.Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming  http://www.warren.af.mil/units/base  became the nation’s first operational ICBM base with the introduction of the Atlas missile in 1958.  The Mighty Ninety operates 150 Minuteman III ICBMs on full alert 24 hours a day, 365 days a year if North Korea or anyone else should launch toward U.S. Soil or its territories. 

United Nations Security Council resolution approved on June 12 that imposes penalties on the regime for previous nuclear tests and launches.  North Korea ignoring warnings continues with provocative acts and threats which will only isolate it further.  Furthering tensions in the region, Japan is considering deploying more troops off its southwestern shores to defend a group of disputed islets in the East China Sea http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_JAPAN_DISPUTED_ISLETS_ASOL-?SITE=YOMIURI&SECTION=HOSTED_ASIA&TEMPLATE=ap_national.html

Adding a little salt in the wound, The U.S. House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee has cut all 95 million dollars (9.1 billion yen) in energy aid earmarked for North Korea from the U.S. government’s budget for fiscal 2010, sources said Wednesday. http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/world/20090626TDY05309.htm  The French government on the other hand allowed a French company to export rifles and other firearms worth a total to North Korea. http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/world/20090625TDY05308.htm

Considering the cost of an ICBM and America’s past support of energy aid that has most likely funded nuclear technology instead, there needs to be an immediate cease and desist for any funds from all countries to North Korea.  I feel for the starving, but they need stop shooting missiles and testing nukes.   One commentator http://www.strategypage.com/militaryforums/22-208.aspx estimated the ICBM costs this way, ”

5 billion $ for R&D cost without nukes.Multiply by three with basic research and nukes R&D for a country with modern high level diversified civilian industry. Then a 3 nuclear warhead ICBM would cost 50 m$ to procure for a twenty year service life plus price of a silo or mobile launching ramp (add 15 m$ at least) plus 3 m$ a year minimum to maintain and closely to a minimum 4 adding salaries of soldiers to maintain it. In twenty years for a 60 ICBM force it would be 1,2 billion $ a year.This is a little more to the less than 1 billion $ supposed Israelis spending for a 200 nukes and IRBM. This is based on French and US prices. French spend 2,6 to 3 billion $ a year today after reduction of their nuclear arsenal to procure a 4SSBN and 48 SLBM with 288 warheads plus a hundred air launch supersonic counter force 300 kt missiles.
 

If North Korea has money for nukes, missiles, and weapons certainly it doesn’t need anyone else’s money.  Adm. Timothy Keating, the U.S. commander in the Pacific region, said the military is ready to handle any orders it might receive in response to North Korea’s threatened missile launches and potential illicit shipments. http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090630/NEWS08/906300336/-1/RSS02?source=rss_localnews

In the game of go fish, it was North Korea’s turn.  This is a game of life and death, not cards.

America and Obama’s turn next.

 photo http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6015449.ece

Related post https://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/missiles-away-strike-north-korea/

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Does the Obama Administration have necessary intelligence to keep our country safe from attack?

The 4th of July’s fireworks in the U.S. could prove to be consequential for our military, world affairs, and life as we know it.  North Korea has warned that it anticipates firing another test missile, this one aimed toward the Hawaiian Islands. 

“North Korea has taken a consistent anti-Washington line since its creation in 1948, denouncing both the United States and South Korea as a puppet of the U.S. Since the end of the Korean War in 1953 the North has not attacked its neighbor, but to this day keeps large concentrations of troops and artillery focused on Seoul, and has regularly engaged in provocations like kidnappings, submarine incursions and missile tests over the Sea of Japan.” http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/northkorea/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=north%20korea&st=cse

Amazingly, President Obama made the decision to fire an an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile configured with a National Nuclear Security Administration test assembly, launched from North Vandenberg yesterday-o6.29.09 at 3:01 a.m. http://www.vandenberg.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123156457  It launched from the California coast to an area in the Pacific Ocean some 4,200 miles away.

Prior to the launch of the missile that certainly provides proof that North Korea is well with in our range, NK “criticized the U.S. on Monday for positioning missile defense systems around Hawaii, calling the deployment part of a plot to attack the regime and saying it would bolster its nuclear arsenal in retaliation.” and ” “Through the U.S. forces’ clamorous movements, it has been brought to light that the U.S. attempt to launch a pre-emptive strike  (emphasis mine) on our republic has become a brutal fact,” the North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said .  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/29/AR2009062900307_pf.html

If North Korea was pissed that Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered the deployment of a ground-based, mobile missile intercept system and radar system to Hawaii before the ICBM launch, imagine what they are thinking now?  America and Obama are about to find our who are friends are in the United Nations and New World Order having tested this missile. 

North Korea has repeatedly fired short and long range missiles, detonated nuclear bombs, threatened to nuke it’s neighbors, announces it’s going to launch a missile aimed for Hawaii and believes we should not defend ourselves.  That America is launching a pre-emptive strike?  By launching missiles from Vandenberg, is America the one’s providing the pre-emptive strike?  Kudos to Obama or has he lost his marbles?  Could he really not care if Hawaii and his original birth certificate gets blown up?

Both Obama and Barney Frank continue to seek a reduction in military spending while we fight: the war on drugs, the war on terror, the war in Afghanistan, the war on immigration, the war for socialism, etc..

Our military budget is not so defunct that  our government couldn’t provide about 40 tons of weapons and ammunition to Somalia’s embattled government in the past six weeks to help it fight Islamist insurgents(Reuters).  Not liking that one bit, “A spokesman for radical Islamic insurgents says his group will seize weapons the U.S. has supplied to Somalia’s embattled government.” (AP)  With props to http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2009/06/29/small-arms-shipped-to-somalia/#comment-11480  Oh the Pirates of Somalia must be drunk with joy.

Why not just drop million of  dollars over the war zones and give everyone an equal chance to steal from America for all the good sending weapons there will do?   How many times in U.S. history have we financed and trained foreign armies only to have them retaliate and fire back at U.S. soldiers? 

In Iraq where 4000+ American soldiers have died, a public holiday was declared today to celebrate the official withdrawal of American troops from Iraqi cities.   http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/world/middleeast/01iraq.html 

In the U.S., Michael Jackson continues to dominate the news as we anticipate our own nation’s public holiday, the 4th of July- Independence Day.  Need you be reminded, banks will be closed.

 

Make no mistake, playing with fireworks is dangerous.

Playing with a nuclear North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-il, could be deadly.

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unclesamwarPardon me, but wake the fu(k up.  We are at war and the Obama Administration is busy signing tobacco legislation giving the government control over yet another industry.  Arggh.

In an interview broadcast on Monday evening by CBS, Mr. Obama said: “This administration – and our military – is fully prepared for any contingencies.” 

The North Korean regime said last week that it could fire a missile toward Hawaii on or shortly after July 4, which is U.S. Independence Day. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/5600854/Barack-Obama-US-fully-prepared-for-North-Korea-missile-launch.html

Unacceptable fireworks, to say the least.  North Korea test-fired a similar long-range missile on July 4, 2000 but it failed just seconds after liftoff.

The Homeland Security Advisory System is designed to guide our protective measures when specific information to a particular sector or geographic region is received.  It remains at high or orange with two more levels to go until the shit would really hit the fan. Don’t you feel secure?  http://www.dhs.gov/xinfoshare/programs/Copy_of_press_release_0046.shtm  Meanwhile a flu pandemic has been declared by WHO .

What does it take to raise the threat level in the U.S.? North Korea is ready to launch a missile toward Hawaii or Alaska, Iran is out of control, Swine Flu is spreading with the UK Telegraph reporting half the population could be infected and yet,  our threat level remains the same.  This isn’t Halloween and Orange should not be the flavor of the day for American’s safety.

nkoreato hawaii

22 June 2009 07:00 GMT, the breakdown of the number of laboratory-confirmed cases is given in the following table and map from http://www.pandemicflu.gov/ updated today shows more than 52,000 cases with nearly half of them occurring in the U.S.  http://sharing.govdelivery.com/bulletins/GD/USHHS-7BCC3.  A report from Canada has the total confirmed cases at 6,457. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/23/content_11586485.htm

Borders open, business as usual for most except in Hawaii where the deployment of Theatre High Altitude Area Defense- http://www.army-technology.com/projects/thaad/  weaponry for “support” in case of a North Korean launch, is somewhere out to sea.  Yeah, that’s business as usual. No reason for a threat level increase?

THAAD weapons, coupled with a radar system nearby, are designed to shoot down ballistic missiles.  Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), formerly Theater High Altitude Area Defense, is a United States Army project to develop a system to shoot down short- and medium-range ballistic missiles using a hit-to-kill approach. The missile carries no warhead but relies on the kinetic energy of the impact. THAAD was designed to hit Scuds and similar weapons, but also has a limited capability against ICBMs. http://chrisabraham.com/2009/06/21/links-for-2009-06-21/ What if North Korea’s missile has a nuclear war head on it?  One might shoot it down, but does the nuclear warhead explode anyways killing millions in radio active poison?

Ground-based defenses in the state of Alaska are also ready, Mr Gates said in The Telegraph article.  Meanwhile, a US navy destroyer, the John S. McCain, has been tracking a North Korean ship that has been previously linked to illicit missile-related cargo, according to US defense officials. 

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said about North Korea last week, “We will be continuing to do everything we can to really put pressure on their military capability”, and “if there are miscalculations, they will be by the other side, he emphasized:”I think that’s why we are concerned about the North Korea provocations, that at some point they might, in fact, do something intentionally or unintentionally that sparks a larger crisis.””That is why,” he added, “we have repeatedly condemned the actions that they’ve taken as being irresponsible, provocative, but also dangerous.”http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/06/22/nearly-60-years-after-the-war-north-korea-still-playing-danger/

Well thanks for condemning the actions of a rogue government.  I feel so much better. And O- say it isn’t so, ” The Obama administration cut funding for missile interceptors scheduled to be deployed. Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), the ranking member of the Committee’s Strategic Forces Subcommittee, offered an amendment to restore $120 million in funding to allow the Department of Defense to continue fielding 44 interceptors and complete construction of Missile Field 2 in Alaska.” http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/under-the-radar-dems-inexplicably-block-missile-defense/

Denied by House Democrats.

What am I doing about it?  Assuming there are no miscalculations and there is enough money to blast North Korea’s weapon- we are praying, drinking, swimming….enjoying the freedoms afforded to me that so many have died for.  Smoke ’em while you got em. 

Oh yeah, we’re washing our hands to avoid the flu- as if it matters.

flag tounge

Open wide, say ahhh and check out these posts on the A/H1N1 Swine Flu from Ahrcanum, where the conspiracy spreads as fast as the virus itself .  Our disclaimer-Swine Flu Conspiracy theory can sometimes be triggered by real world events.  https://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/swine-flu-report/

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Military Spending

“I don’t think that anybody in the (Obama) administration thinks there is a crisis,” Gates told reporters aboard his military jet early yhttp://apnews.myway.com//article/20090529/D98G22BO0.html  after North Korea recently detonated another nuclear test and prepares to fire more missiles capable of hitting Alaska.  Stupid duck say what?  No crisis from a totalitarian, communistic, secretive country who has made it clear on more than one occasion it seeks to dominate not only South Korea, but the world?

North Korea calling its actions preparations for self defense, accused the Security Council of hypocrisy and in defiance said, “There is a limit to our patience, The nuclear test conducted in our nation this time is the Earth’s 2,054th nuclear test. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council have conducted 99.99 percent of the total nuclear tests.”  

“Our nuclear deterrent will be a strong defensive means … as well as a merciless offensive means to deal a just retaliatory strike to those who touch the country’s dignity and sovereignty even a bit,” the official Korean Central News Agency quoted Pyongyang’s state-run Minju Joson newspaper as saying.

An inter sting report on The North Korean regime’s history can be found here http://socialistworld.net/eng/2009/06/0701.html 

Last year- 2008, countries around the world spent $1.5 trillion on weapons, vehicles and intelligence and reconnaissance services, according to a Monday report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or Sipri. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/global-military-spending-hits-a-record-in-2008   The amount represented a 4% increase from 2007 with the U.S. accounting for the largest percentage of the increase in spending. Undoubtedly, North Korea’s funding is not included in the study.

Read more on military spending and escalation here http://www.sipri.org/yearbook. There is also an overview of arms control and disarmament agreements and international security cooperation bodies, and a chronology of events during 2008 in the area of security and arms control.

33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age is a one-hour documentary produced by The Heritage Foundation that tells the story of the very real threat foreign enemies pose to every one us. The truth is brutal – no matter where on Earth a missile is launched from it would take 33 Minutes or less to hit the U.S. target it was programmed to destroy. 

33 Minutes is the definitive documentary exposing the untold vulnerability we all face and the action plan necessary to revive a strategic missile defense system that America uniquely can develop, maintain, and employ for its own defense.  The trailer for the movie can be seen here http://www.heritage.org/33-minutes/index.htm 

Security, stability and peace aren’t cheap, but there are too many rogue nations and terrorist organizations who pose a constant threat that demands The Obama administration lay a course of military defense of America first and foremost.  Even Japan is on guard with the Anti-Missile defense system named the “Son of Star Wars,” already installed aboard Japanese Destroyer in anticipation of another North Korean Missile test or in the event of an attack with possibly nuclear war heads from North Korea.  http://www.nowpublic.com/world/missile-crisis-japanese-sea-escalating-further

The good news is that The U.S. Defense Department led the surge in global military spending over the last decade, climbing to $607 billion in 2008 — more than seven times the military budget of China and greater than the combined budgets of the next 14 ranking nations, according to Sipri. 

The bad news is that President Obama  is cutting military spending.  Read the Obama budget here http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/02/26/fy10.budget.pdf  Our military exists to defend America. Period. Not “peacekeeping” or
meals-on-wheels missions for the UN, not to prop up NATO, and not to maintain bases on foreign soil writes a commentator at http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=32169 where you can also view further military cuts and see that the ability to engage in conventional warfare appears on the chopping block.

Sarah Palin weighed in on CNN, “Reducing Alaska’s defense readiness in these perilous times is a show of weakness, it is not a sign of strengths…And yet, Washington thinks it’s best now to actually cut defense spending in Alaska by hundreds of millions of dollars,” she said. “Now that is an odd priority there.”http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/07/palin-defense-cuts-are-a-sign-of-weakness/  

Congress requires a “Quadrennial Defense Review” to answer the demands of the Defense Department and base its budgets on the QDR results.  But the 2009 QDR hasn’t been done yet.

Taiwan’s First ever QDR http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2009/06/02/2003445104 offers the principle “preventing war but not fearing war and preparing for but not provoking war.”  Sounds like a sound policy.

“We want defenses, but what should we look like? If you really truly want disarmament at the end of the day, having defenses is not a bad thing,” she said. “(But) if the U.S. has a strong defense and it’s too unilateral, then it looks to others like we’ll marry that to our offensive capability and have first-strike capability.” said Cristina Hansell, director of the Newly Independent States Nonproliferation Program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/09/MNGF183579.DTL  I’d rather the world know we have the capability than not.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher seeks Senate confirmation today as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.  She seems as resolute as Obama on goal of a nuke-free future just as North Korea and others ramp up their nuclear programs.  The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, new strategic arms-reduction treaties including the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty all challenge the balance between peace and preparedness. 

I am again reminded; A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Related:

https://ahrcanum.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/north-korea-missile-aimed-at-the-new-world-order/

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NorthKmissile

North Korea isn’t the only country that has missile capability to hit the USA, and they are clearly taking aim not only at Alaska; but at The New World Order that they want no part of.  North Korea is one of the world’s most secretive societies next to the Illuminati.

While the Illuminati existence is arguable, North Korea officially named the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,  remains under strict communist rule and clouded in secrecy.  Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il has headed up a hard lined state controlled, totalitarian system since 1998.  It’s dismal economy, numerous natural disasters, and human rights failures have not stopped its nuclear ambitions, but have increased its ongoing isolation from the outside world and by all accounts Kim Jong-il likes it that way. 

Unapologetic, they do as they please.   Who is going to stop them?  Al Jazeera reports, “Warning the North that its actions will “no longer be rewarded”, James Steinberg, the US deputy secretary of state,  told Lee Myung-bak, the South Korean president, that “North Korea would be mistaken if it thinks it can make provocations and then get what it wants through negotiation as it did in the past. The US won’t repeat the same mistake again”.

America in the past has done what it deems necessary to maintain our unprecedented freedoms.  Should the rest of the world have the same privilege? Is is in our best interest to demilitarize, while North Korea fires away numerous missiles and continues to hold underground nuclear tests?  GWB said it best, “You are either with us or against us in the fight against terror.” 

North Korea has one of the world’s largest armies even though the west claims standards in training, discipline and equipment are reported to be poor.  One thing they have excelled at is the building of tunnels along the border with South Korea, leading into Seoul.  Tunnel Hunters claim to have evidence that at least 20 others have been dug in 2005.  Tunnels reaching 60 miles toward the heart of Seoul and capable of moving thousands of troops within hours. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2982213.stm

I doubt North Korea will barely bat an eye at the fact that “The United States has agreed to sell “bunker-buster” bombs to South Korea that are capable of destroying underground facilities in North Korea, a military official said Tuesday. ”   They wont be be delivered to South Korea until sometime between 2010 and 2014 http://www.spacewar.com/2006/090602122750.0ln21iq0.html.  – 4 years? 4 years too late. 

The Obama budget has numerous military cuts and that may be the reason for the delay.  Ironically, Obama has proposed shutting down Yucca Mountain nuclear storage facility.  I wonder where he intends to store the nuclear waste instead?  Just keep it in loaded on a missile warhead? Obama still has no plan for the Gitmo detainees for heaven’s sake.

Read the Obama budget here http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/02/26/fy10.budget.pdf

Just imagine what Kim Jong-il thinks when Obama reads his TelePrompter to talk about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the fact that we still have not found Bin Laden- who is most likely hiding in the tunnels.  Bin Laden continues his threats in this most recent tape saying “Obama and his administration have sown new seeds to increase hatred and revenge on America,” at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10576368  Obama is on a world tour trying to keeping peace with the Muslims without pissing off Israel, who also has nuclear capability.

An American military official confirmed an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the U.S. was being readied and it appears capable of reaching Alaska,  said Fox News.   Satellite images from the GlobalSecurity website show the new Tongchang-ni launch site in the North’s west coast near China.  A missile with armed with a  nuclear warhead, even with a miss, would most certainly impact the population and environment.  In 2003 a NK Missile warhead was found previously in Alaska http://able2know.org/topic/4901-1.

Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan left for Washington to consult with his counterpart (Hillary Clinton, perhaps?) and prepare for a June 16 summit between Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.  Reports have suggested that North Korea may try to time its next missile launch to coincide with the summit. 

It would be the perfect time to once again show the might of not only North Korea but of the technology that America supplied to them in the first place.  http://www.infowars.com/north-koreas-nukes-paid-for-by-the-us-government/ reports, “Rumsfeld was also the man who presided over a $200 million dollar contract to deliver equipment and services to build two light water reactor stations in North Korea in January 2000 when he was an executive director of ABB (Asea Brown Boveri).  In The New World Order, I guess we share and share alike, eh?

In April 2009 North Korea walked out of talks aimed at ending its nuclear activities.  “Senior U.S. diplomats pressed North Korea on Wednesday to halt its belligerent behavior and return to nuclear disarmament talks even as the isolated communist nation pushed ahead with preparations to launch a long-range ballistic missile….The U.N. Security Council meanwhile continued to discuss how to punish the North.” says http://www.thestate.com/world/story/812144.html.  Punish them just how?  Attack, invade, sanctions that have never worked?  By calling them belligerent?  Economic sanctions to an already starving nation? 

Weapons of mass destruction can be a deterrent, look at the atomic bombs dropped America dropped on Japan.  It took not one bomb but two- Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Somewhere along the lines, America had become the world’s defender of The New World Order and globalization; but where Obama takes us, only the future will tell but,  “At almost every stop, Obama has made clear that the U.S. is but one actor in a global community.  Talk of American economic supremacy has been replaced by a call from Obama for more growth in developing countries. Claims of American military supremacy have been replaced with heavy emphasis on cooperation and diplomatic hard labor.” according to Time http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1889512,00.html 

North Korea is playing by its own rules and making the game up as it goes along.  So far in America, The New World Order has resulted in something like a staggering half a million dollar debt per family according to Evergreen Securities, let alone the millions of jobs lost.  Seems Obama is playing by his own rules and making the game up as he goes along. 

It is just as staggering in The New World Order to have a rogue leader who defies what the rest of the world finds appropriate. 

Are we talking about Kim Jong-il or Obama?

photo props to GlobalSecurity.

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google war dead

Just when you thought you heard all the Memorial Day stories, May 25th was also Towel Day.  Created as a tribute to the late author Douglas Adams (1952-2001). Adams was mostly noted for as the author of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series.  Adams’ official biography shares its name with the song “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd.

So why a towel to honor someone?  A towel (…) is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value…More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. http://www.towelday.org/faq/index.html

If Adams were alive today, I am sure he find all of this quite humorous.

I decided to forgo carrying a towel yesterday.  Had I, it would have been to wipe away tears for the dead and the surviving families from wars.

Google Earth has a new map to honor the more than 5,700 American and Coalition servicemen and women that have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each figure on the map denotes a service member lost during the last six years. Tied to their hometown, each figure pops up a screen that gives information about that fallen troop.  It is a work in progress,

http://www.mapthefallen.org/ Look at this map, and explore the stories of heroism and sacrifice made across this nation and across the world. Although this map only shows the hometowns and places of death for these soldiers, it’s important to remember that each of these servicemen and women have a rich story in between, which leads me to something a Gold Star mom recently shared with me:

“There’ll be two dates on your tombstone
And all your friends will read ’em
But all that’s gonna matter is that little dash between ’em…”
 
Ain’t it the truth.
United States armed forces deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom, starting with the invasion on March 20th, 2003 has a current tally of 4300. http://www.fixiraq.com/ Cost of the War in Iraq
$672,414,114,148  The tally changes each second. http://costofwar.com/
The cost of Freedom–PRICELESS.
The Cost of a Towel- a buck from the Dollar Store.
 

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Russia is putting it’s foot down and it isn’t in a gentle way. 

” Kyrgyzstan’s president said Tuesday his country is ending U.S. use of an air base key to military operations in Afghanistan- a decision with potentially grave consequences for U.S. efforts to put down surging Taliban and al-Qaida violence.

A U.S. military official in Afghanistan called President Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s statement “political positioning” and denied the U.S. presence at the Manas air base would end anytime soon.   The United States is preparing to deploy an additional 15,000 troops in Afghanistan and Manas is an important stopover for U.S. material and personnel.

Ending U.S. access would be a significant victory for Moscow in its efforts to squeeze the United States out of Central Asia, home to substantial oil and gas reserves and seen by Russia as part of its strategic sphere of influence.” From AP http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_RUSSIA_KYRGYZSTAN_US_BASE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-02-03-12-49-12

Well isn’t that just special?  The Russians come, play war games and poke at us with Cuba and Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea, right off the U.S. coastline, and now want to end American presence at a key base just as we are about to increase troop presence.  Such timing.

Just this weekend (Feb 1,09)Near the Pakistan/ Afghan border lies the Swat Valley, where the Taliban and Al Qaeda have traditionally had their strongholds.  17 people were killed in fighting  and the military recently vowed to reinvigorate its efforts where Taliban fighters have set up their own courts, destroyed scores of girls’ schools and reportedly driven out hundreds of thousands of residents.  Swat is less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,486388,00.html 

Yesterday (Feb 2, 09)  Gunmen kidnapped an American U.N. worker and killed his driver in southwestern Pakistan on Monday, underscoring the security threat in a country wracked by al-Qaida violence and rising criminality.  http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/02/gunmen_kidnap_american_un_official_in_pakistan.php John Solecki, the head of the U.N. refugee office in the city of Quetta was abducted as he traveled to work.

Vice President Joe Biden says the nation should expect more U.S. military casualties.  Pentagon officials say they plan to send up to 30,000 additional troops to the Afghan war, where the Taliban is resurgent and violence has been on the rise. 

Biden said Sunday that additional U.S. forces will be engaging the enemy more. Asked if that means the U.S. public should expect more American casualties, the vice president said: “I hate to say it, but yes, I think there will be. There will be an uptick.”   From CBS’ “Face the Nation.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/25/biden-on-afghanistan-expe_n_160689.html

An uptick?  Frig your uptick- everyone of those numbers has a name Mr. Biden and no matter one’s opinion of GWB, he never referred to any soldier so insignificantly as being an uptick.  With that said… 

The United States set up the Manas base in Kyrgyzstan and a base in neighboring Uzbekistan after the September 2001 terror attacks, to back operations in Afghanistan. Uzbekistan expelled U.S. troops from the base on its territory in 2005 in a dispute over human rights issues, leaving Manas as the only U.S. military facility in the region.

Russia has long been suspicious of the U.S. presence in what it considers its strategic backyard and agreed Tuesday to provide Kyrgyzstan with $2 billion in loans plus another $150 million in financial aid.

Russia also uses a military airbase at Kant, Kyrgyzstan.

The United States currently pumps a total of $150 million into Kyrgyzstan’s economy annually, including $63 million in rent for Manas, Petraeus said last month. http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/02/03/kyrgyzstan-closing-us-base-key-to-afghan-conflict/

No one in the Obama administration has referred to the term, “the war on terror,”  yet the effort to stop terror continues, rightfully so -but at the cost of an uptick of human life.  http://icasualties.org/oef/ and here http://www.unknownnews.net/casualties.html .

It becomes difficult to absorb the fact that we can not, “Get” the bad guys when Google Earth http://earth.google.com/ has released it’s next generation technology that pretty much enables anyone to see a fly on a camel’s ass- anywhere, any time. 

French officer Maj. Pierre-Henri Bunel said, “The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive the ‘TV watcher’ to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money.”

Ain’t that a kick in the ass if he is telling the truth?

I miss old Dean Martin.

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I am just too f n tired to battle WordPress tonight as it deletes and eats my conservative posts regularly.  America dropped bombs launched from Iraqi soil and citizens are reported dead.  Democrats announced a 25% budget reduction in military spending today.  George Bush is still the President for the time being- making the best decisions he can, no matter what pundits have to say after he is out of office.

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