North Korea: Threats of Imminent Conflict

Published: Fri, 04/12/13

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In This Issue:
North Korea Is Not America’s Problem By Richard C. Young
Surviving the Ammo Shortage By E.J. Smith
North Korea: Threats of Imminent Conflict By Richard C. Young
VIDEO: The Bowdoin College Disgrace The Editors
The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) The Editors
The Italian Miracle By Richard C. Young

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North Korea Is Not America’s Problem

A recent American Spectator article by Cato Institute’s Doug Bandow gives you the inside track on the bubbling mischief being created on the Korean peninsula by North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. As you’ll note, America’s neocons are rumbling forth with rhetoric like military mobilization in the United States, involving the reserves, a major expansion of the military and a draft. In traditional neocon form, it is suggested that the U.S. needs strong military forces to protect itself from North Korea and to fulfill its alliance commitments.

Who is Kim kidding? China does not need Kim poking his not-so-sharp stick into dark corners. War on the Korean peninsula would lead to mass North Korean refugee intrusion into China, place Japan in an aggressive position, and very likely mean a halt to the never-ending wave of exports China ships off to Wal-Mart each year. And to what positive end for China? I believe the U.S. should have pulled out of South Korea decades ago. South Korea is the giant and North Korea the dwarf. The South should be capable of taking care of itself against a much smaller and technically deficient foe. If America had no forces on the ground, none of this would be going on. How many of our 28,000 troops do you think would get killed if full-scale hostilities broke out? In my three-part series (Part I, Part II, Part III) on Cato’s Chris Preble, I outlined the five-point Weinberger/Powell Doctrine. Give it a look and ask yourself where U.S. involvement with a South Korean security issue fits in. I rate the checklist score 5-to-0 against U.S. involvement.

Doug fills in all the blanks for you and offers a cogent conclusion. Enjoy, learn and benefit from America’s leading foreign policy team. And please consider joining Debbie and me as Cato Institute supporters.

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Surviving the Ammo Shortage

If you’ve tried to buy ammo lately, then you know what it feels like to do without—especially at a reasonable price for .22 LR—it’s as rare as hens’ teeth. The disruption in the supply has no end in sight. I shoot on average about 200 rounds a week at my rifle club. Recently, the club announced that it has reached its membership cap—demand has been unprecedented. At the national level, the government has purchased billions of rounds and has scared gun owners into a buying frenzy. Locally, the Newport city council attempted to pass a resolution recommending tighter gun control at the state level.

I attended the meeting in Newport. You should have seen the looks on the faces of a few council members visibly uncomfortable with the high number of pro-gun supporters at the meeting. That’s what made the difference in the council dropping it all together, which they did. One councilwoman with a license to carry said our support made the difference and mouthed a thank you as we were walking out.

So while federal, state, and local governments threaten Second Amendment rights, scaring gun owners into buying as much ammo as they can, the supply/demand disruption creates a problem for your training. You still need to practice, but at the same time not exhaust your precious supply. I was speaking with a gun shop owner not too long ago. He told me that one of the most important areas of training, and one that is often overlooked, is the physical strength it takes to shoot a pistol. Why not focus on building strength and saving ammo?

Do the wall drill, but without a pistol. Try holding your arm out in front of you, then focus on a point on the wall, and try not to shake. My 9mm Sig 226 MK25 weighs about two pounds, or the equivalent of two cans of SPAM (25% less sodium). Do the wall drill with SPAM once or twice a week. You’ll reap the dividends the next time you shoot.

Threats of an Imminent Conflict Against the U.S./North Korea Warns Foreigners to Evacuate South Korea.

What should be America’s policy regarding North Korea? For guidance I like to reference the Weinberger/Powell Doctrine. The Cato Institute’s foreign policy team is the best in the business, and this original article by foreign policy leader Chris Preble outlines the five key questions our government should answer before considering any foreign entanglement. I rate both the Obama and Bush administrations a Weinberger/Powell Doctrine “F.” Regarding North Korea, I would vote no on each of the W/P/D five questions. Take the W/P/D national security test yourself and see what you think.

For additional support, check in with my Cato friend Gene Healy. Gene has a great way of reducing complexity to KISS. Finally, be sure to reread my Monday Doug Bandow post: North Korea Is Not America’s Problem. You will have all the ammo you need to push back on any interventionist yak from misguided friends and associates. When it comes to aggressive American intervention abroad, remember what I have told you about feeding the intervention fires. The neocon-based Foreign Policy Initiative is home base for this stuff.

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VIDEO: The Bowdoin College Disgrace

Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, on a report detailing how identity politics have run wild at Bowdoin College.

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The Laser Weapon System (LaWS)

ARLINGTON, Va. (NNS) — Citing a series of technological breakthroughs, Navy leaders announced plans Apr. 8 at the Sea-Air-Space exposition to deploy for the first time a solid-state laser aboard a ship in fiscal year 2014.

“Our directed energy initiatives, and specifically the solid-state laser, are among our highest priority science and technology programs. The solid-state laser program is central to our commitment to quickly deliver advanced capabilities to forward-deployed forces,” Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder said. “This capability provides a tremendously affordable answer to the costly problem of defending against asymmetric threats, and that kind of innovative approach is crucial in a fiscally constrained environment.”

The announcement to deploy the laser onboars USS Ponce (AFSB[I] 15) comes as Navy researchers continue to make significant progress on directed energy weapons, allowing the service to deploy a laser weapon on a Navy ship two years ahead of schedule. The at-sea demonstration in FY 14 is part of a wider portfolio of near-term Navy directed energy programs that promise rapid fielding, demonstration and prototyping efforts for shipboard, airborne and ground systems.

“Our conservative data tells us a shot of directed energy costs under $1,” Klunder said. “Compare that to the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs to fire a missile, and you can begin to see the merits of this capability.”

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Naval Sea Systems Command recently performed demonstrations of high-energy lasers aboard a moving surface combatant ship, as well as against remotely piloted aircraft. Through careful planning of such demonstrations and by leveraging investments made through other Department of Defense (DoD) agencies,
researchers have been able to increase the ruggedness, power and beam quality of lasers, more than doubling the range of the weapons.

“The future is here,” said Peter A. Morrision, program officer for ONR’s Sold-State Laser Technology Maturation Program. “The solid-state laser is a big step forward to revolutionizing modern warfare with directed energy, just as gunpowder did in the era of knives and swords.”

Officials consider the solid-state laser a revolutionary technology that gives the Navy an extremely affordable, multi-mission weapon with a deep magazine and unmatched precision, targeting and control functions. Because lasers run on electricity, they can be fired as long as there is power and provide a measure of safety as they don’t require carrying propellants and explosives aboard ships.

Lasers complement kinetic weapons to create a layered ship defense capability, providing improved protection against swarming small boats and unmanned aircraft at a fraction of the cost of traditional weapons.

The advancing technology gives sailors a variety of options they never had before, including the ability to control a laser weapon’s output and perform actions ranging from non-lethal disabling and deterrence all the way up to destruction.

“We expect that in the future, a missile will not be able to simply outmaneuver a highly accurate, high-energy laser beam traveling at the speed of light,” Klunder said.

Following the USS Ponce demonstration, the Navy and DoD will continue to research ways to integrate affordable laser weapons into the fleet.

Watch the Laser Weapon System in action.

Source: Navy.mil