THAAD Passes the Test

When the U.S. Successfully tested another THAAD anti-missile system against a ballistic target, it was telling China something it needs to hear.  You can ignore North Korea and play the blame game all you want, but if the North continues to threaten the United States, like it has for the past 15 years, the defensive missiles can make that threat seem less credible.  That was a good step to take.

As we saw yesterday in the U.N. China has decided the US was remiss in not bringing up a complaint about the latest missile firing by the North.  In fact, even worse, the US has gone off on its own to impose sanctions which are not backed by the UN.  China says it is offended by this lack of adherence to protocols of the UN, which it only follows when the subject of "One China" comes up, or it wants to tamp down the heat from North Korea doing something again.  They have played this game so long, even they think it is the only game in town.

The US has ignored the UN using the repeated reasoning that the UN hasn't done anything lately, and China routinely violates the sanctions it imposes.  So, everyone gets warm and fuzzy by passing a UN resolution, then they ignore the provisions and do what they want.  This is a game the US got tired of playing, as we all heard Nikki Haley say last week.

But, THAAD is a different thing than a UN sanction.  It is s real-world interceptor that looks like it works pretty well.  It would be nice to test it on one of those missiles fired off by the North.  Japan could do that, since they have THAAD, and probably more countries as time goes on.  China tries to discourage the world buying THAAD, using the paper-thin argument that it might peer into China to look at its military.  In case they forgot to look, that radar is a ground based radar pointing up at the sky where it is needed.  Even China doesn't believe what it says about THAAD's radar.  But it does know it works, and is a great equalizer to the insane asylums in North Korea's leadership.

China claims this is a problem for the US and the North to work out.  They have been getting away with that for a long time, when it is really a problem China created to get reactions from the US and others on how they are going to deal with nuclear threats.  If the North does fire off a nuclear loaded rocket, China knows what will happen.  They are going to have a bunch of North Koreans getting in line to jump the border to seek asylum, or get away from the destruction.  You saw Xi running around in fatigues last week pretending to be the guy running the military and getting ready to repel an attack - from somewhere.  We are pretty tired of that game too.

Let's try to remember the Korean War.  Do we think the UN is not going to fight on the side of the South?  Is China going to push down all the way to the southern tip of the the South, then retreat back to the North and sue for peace?  I don't think so.  China, though its control of the South China Sea, is going to make it very hard for anyone to set foot on South Korean soil.  They will own the South in no time and they won't be retreating.  The North won't be a problem after that.