Missiles, then missile defenses

A couple of weeks ago, we sent an aircraft carrier to the South China Sea.

Over the weekend, North Korea launched four medium-range missiles — apparently testing their ability to reach US bases in Japan. Today, the US has deployed a missile defense system to South Korea. And North Korea is saying this could lead to open warfare between the North and South.

Things are heating to a boiling point out there, and I’m not seeing more than cursory reporting. Am I missing it? Because it seems like a disaster that’s ready to erupt. And it sheds new light on the dismantling of our State Department. The only reason to have a State Department is because you value negotiation. Which means that 45/President Bannon have no intention of negotiating, ever. They see no value in it.

North Korea. With all the horror at home, it feels like people are going to be completely blindsided when our peripheral areas are attacked. Hell, maybe that’s the plan. Keep the agitation focused on domestic issues, so when the attack comes, Trannon can look like a hero to the base.

Per Al Jazeera:
“China is warning it will take measures against a US missile defence system deployed in South Korea, with the stated objective of countering threats from North Korea. … The equipment needed to set up Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence system (THAAD), a missile defence system, have arrived in South Korea, according to American and South Korean defence forces. … The deployment announcement was made on Tuesday, a day after North Korea test-launched four ballistic missiles into the sea near Japan. …

“The plans to deploy THAAD within this year have angered not only North Korea, but also China and Russia, which see the system’s powerful radars as a security threat. China responded quickly, saying it would take “necessary measures” to protect itself and warning that the US and South Korea should be prepared to bear the consequences. The US and South Korea say the system is defensive and not meant to be a threat to China or Russia.

“THAAD can intercept and destroy short- and medium-range ballistic missiles during the last part of their flights, according to the US military.

“On Monday, North Korea fired four ballistic missiles in an apparent protest against ongoing US-South Korean military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal. …

On Tuesday Ju Yong-choi, a North Korean diplomat, told the UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva that the annual drills were ‘a major cause of escalation of tension that might turn into actual war’ on the divided Korean peninsula.

“‘The ongoing joint military exercise is carried out with massive mobilisation of troops, unprecedented in size, and various types of US strategic forces including nuclear carriers, nuclear strategic bombers and Stealth fighters,’ Ju told the 61-member forum. “It will certainly jeopardise peace and stability in the region and drive the situation in the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war.”

Of course, that’s Al Jazeera, so they have their own spin, like all the big news outfits do. But even without the histrionic quote from the North Korean diplomat, this is information we don’t seem to be getting at home. Because our life, now, is hiding from the world and destroying our own people, so that billionaires can become billionty-billionaires. I feel like the only place to get any kind of broad news is from sources outside the US. Sounds more like Iran, eh?