China, Russia rap US missile defence plan in S. Korea
by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) April 29, 2016
China
and Russia on Friday rapped US plans to put a missile defence system on
the Korean peninsula, less than 24 hours after Pyongyang twice tested
rockets thought to be capable of reaching American territory.
A
series of missile tests and nuclear blasts by North Korea have pushed
Seoul into talks with Washington about deploying the United States’
sophisticated Terminal High Altitude Area Defence System (THAAD), which
fires projectiles to smash into enemy missiles.
Beijing fears that
the presence of more US hardware on its doorstep will further tip the
balance of power in the Pacific towards Washington.
An anti missile system:
- Is of NO USE unless a nation is already under attack
- Can help deter attack and therefore war
- Can be used only against missiles ALREADY IN THE AIR
- Can have NO POSSIBLE USE EVER as an offensive weapon
So why are China and Russia objecting to systems which can be used only when a nation HAS ALREADY BEEN ATTACKED?
7 comments:
Because that is not the "flexibility" that Obama promised them.
Great comment, Pastorious
Devil's advocate once again but ...... imagine if other countries deployed an effective countermeasure to our nuclear triad.
We're essentially proposing to take away not just North Korea's ability to Nuke South Korea, but China and Russia's current ability to do the same.... at least from their mainland.
Why Would they be happy about such a development?
..... not that we should care what they think, but I can understand why they are concerned. It diminishes some of their offensive capabilities in the region.
Looks like the Sadr led Theocracy in Baghdad has arrived.
Shades of 1979.
Worst part is .... he's right about the flawed quota system we setup and the corruption and disfunctionality of the current democratic system there.
Red Neck good points.. the idea that a defensive system adequate to degrade or stop a Nork attack on south Korea, Japan, and or the Philippines and our bases there and perhaps as far as Guam, is NOT the same as stopping the THOUSANDS of warheads in the air (including cruise), SLBM's etc, with a Chinese or Russian theater attack.
In terms of true strategic defense, I (PERSONALLY) would WELCOME Chinese and IVAN $$ being spent on that kind of defense, instead (or slowing) of generations of mobile offensive systems with ever shortening CEP's (the SS-18 was down to part of football field if I remember correctly)
Those MORE SECURE in retaliatory forces are not likely to to fire on warning or lose their weapons systems. And those worried that a bolt from the blue attack they launch will be be so degraded the enemies' retaliation will be completely successful are far less likely to take such step.
Besides, IMHO, Kim ain't shooting for the bases in SK, or on Okinawa(primarily). He's going for Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo type targets because that's who he is.
Well for now this is merely a political effort to get China to move on Kim.
All we've really done here is announce that we are having talks with SK about deploying THAAD.
Strategically, this would only encourage NK to launch now BEFORE we deploy.
I guess the real question is why we didn't unilaterally deploy it years ago to protect OUR forces.
THAAD system only has 49 interceptors. The countermeasure is to launch at least 50 dummy missiles in the first wave, then follow that up with the real warheads.
Personally, I remember when our good ally South Korea didn't have any spare troops to send to Iraq to help us out when we needed it. That leads me to question why we are still there. Are we still trying to check the global spread of Communism? I would much rather have those 28500 soldiers patrolling our southern border and let the Koreans determine unification on their own.
Its hard to seriously denounce Communism these days when China is our largest trading partner.
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