Guy-jin
Legendary Member
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2007
- Posts
- 3,836
- Media
- 3
- Likes
- 1,368
- Points
- 333
- Location
- San Jose (California, United States)
- Sexuality
- Asexual
- Gender
- Male
Two problems there. We have no proper diplomatic channel to speak to North Korea. No other country would deliver a message that amounted to an ultimatum. That's not how mediated diplomacy works. Sweden or Ireland or Switzerland or some other neutral country might have delivered a humanitarian message for us or an invitation to talk, but never an ultimatum. That's a case of making the messenger look bad.
The second problem is that we cannot, under international law and our own accord with North Korea (in tatters as it is), shoot down a missile that has no hostile intent. If it's not an armed weapon, you can't shoot it out of the sky. If any country had a right to do so, it was Japan as the missile did pass through Japanese airspace however their constitution is so restrictive regarding when Japan can use force, that they could not shoot down the missile either unless it appeared it was going to land or break-up in Japanese territory.
I don't completely agree. Given its situation with Japan, the United States would have been in its rights to shoot down the missile as it passed through Japanese airspace.
My actual thought on the issue is that our anti-ballistic missile system has had 6/6 successful tests reported. But what an utter shame it would have been if this seventh supposed test of the system had failed. If anything would have shown weakness, it would have been us proving that we can't shoot down that missile when North Korea uses it.
As we stand now, the United States still holds the image of a country that can shoot missiles out of the sky reliably. If a public test of the system fails, especially in response to a generally hostile nation like North Korea, and you've got a far worse image problem than the one that's set up now.
This is completely ignoring the political ramifications of shooting it down, which are complex to the point that I've little impetus to post further on them in this setting. Sufficed to say, it's not at all as simple as shooting that missile out of the sky to show our "strength". The idea that the country with by far the most obviously advanced military in the world needs to show "strength" is just asinine anyway.