Forum: Off-topic

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in an interview broadcast Sunday he thinks North Korea will launch a missile soon and there's not much the U.S. can do to stop it.

"I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it," Gates told "Fox News Sunday."

I'm no military expert, but then again neither is Gates!!!!

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Yes and no. Gates is talking about a very specific missile launch for a communications satellite. He's not saying we can't, he's saying we're not planning to do so.

It's no surprise to me that the media has made a bigger deal about Obama's "Special Olympics" flub, than Gate's statement. Tell people you aren't going to do anything about N.Korea, no one really cares. Accidentally make fun of the mentally retarded, and The View, MSNBC, and Lush Rum-ball won't STFU about it.

I like Gates so far. Leaps and bounds above the last clown that was in there.

I find it a bit hard to believe that after the hype and talk of a missile shoot down, we now back off and almost admit...it was merely "hype". I am thinking Gates does not want to to expand upon the situation there making it worse but I am not sure if that is the right approach, good thing I am no politican, I'd shoot it down just to prove we can but then where would we be (another war possibly and no one wants that)...crazy times we live in, no doubt.

hey akruse21, you still at the "Heath"? I hope you and your family are all doing well - Cheers mate Cheers

akruse21 wrote:

I like Gates so far. Leaps and bounds above the last clown that was in there.

For me, I don't like Gates' policies. To me, he is an incompetent defense minister, and if I were POTUS, I would have sought a skilled, open-minded and competent replacement, preferably a Chennault-style warfighter.

Regarding the DPRK's Taep'o-dong 2 missile launch, I would have dispatched an Airborne Laser escorted by a flight of four Raptors to destroy the missile and the "communications satellite".

Quote:

For me, I don't like Gates' policies. To me, he is an incompetent defense minister, and if I were POTUS, I would have sought a skilled, open-minded and competent replacement, preferably a Chennault-style warfighter.

Regarding the DPRK's Taep'o-dong 2 missile launch, I would have dispatched an Airborne Laser escorted by a flight of four Raptors to destroy the missile and the "communications satellite".

1. The US doesn't have Defense Ministers, he's Secretary of Defense or SECDEF.

2. The ABL program is still going through testing, it's nowhere near operational, we might as well deploy a squadron of F-35s while we're at it.

3. The North Koreans have enough trouble getting the Type-O-Dung off the launch pad without it blowing up, we can easily let it get up there to give them something to brag about, and then send an Aegis ship to Kwajalein and use it as an ASAT test (like USA193), just to annoy Kim Jong off to no end.

"oops, sorry, was that YOUR satellite? We thought it was one of ours," Like to sea a diplomat say that with a straight face.

skyhigh wrote:

For me, I don't like Gates' policies. To me, he is an incompetent defense minister...

Skyhigh, I hate to sound rude here, but being that you're not American, it doesn't really matter what your opinion of our politicans is. You don't have to deal with him on a daily basis, and none of their decisions affect your daily life, so it's really no concern of yours.

We don't butt into the politics of your nation. Please don't butt into ours.

Difficult to say which missile Gates is talking about as the statement he made doesn't indicate which one. However, I sure hope he's not talking about the one the N Koreans wants to test launch that some analysts believe can reach the west coast of the U.S. and may be nuclear capable.

TC wrote:

skyhigh wrote:

For me, I don't like Gates' policies. To me, he is an incompetent defense minister...

Skyhigh, I hate to sound rude here, but being that you're not American, it doesn't really matter what your opinion of our politicans is. You don't have to deal with him on a daily basis, and none of their decisions affect your daily life, so it's really no concern of yours.

We don't butt into the politics of your nation. Please don't butt into ours.

Very much agree.

CNN just dropped this into my inbox. SECDEF says the DPRK's plans are "militaristic."

YEAH NO SIERRA! There's a razor-thin line between peaceful rocket development and an ICBM, on some of the Russian rockets, it's just a matter of making a different mating bus and nose section to turn a satellite booster into a nuke-tipped ICBM. Even if North Korea can build a rocket, for the next five to ten years, they won't be able to get much in the way of nuclear material to build more than a handful of low-yield nukes--but that could change with A.Q. Khan out of his cage. I've been doing research on this for my term paper.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/0 ... index.html

Quote:

Gates said that the U.S. military could shoot down "an aberrant missile, one that was headed for Hawaii ... or something like that, we might consider it, but I don't think we have any plans to (do) anything like that at this point."

With SM3 coming on line, we D@MN well better be able to stop a ballistic inbound to the West Coast, or heck, anywhere Aegis can reach.

Forum: Off-topic

Did he really say that?