U.S. Second Fleet successfully tracks missile

The U.S Navy this past Saturday conducted a successful tracking test with its Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. The ships were not used to launch the missiles as this was a tracking exercise. The test ended eventually with the missile harmlessly falling into the Atlantic Ocean.

Israel Plans to Have Anti-Missile System Operational in 4 Months

Israel’s anti-missile system, the Iron Dome, will become operational within four months, the Israeli Defense Ministry said Monday.

The security system — which was designed to protect Israel from short-range missiles and rockets — is part of a larger defense system that includes protection from mid- and long-range missiles, intended to protect Israel from a possible Iranian attack, the ministry said in a statement Monday.

Video released by the ministry shows the interception of Grad and Qassam-like rockets, similar to those launched into Israel from Gaza in recent years and from Lebanon during the second Lebanon war of 2006.

Israel has considered rockets and missiles the main threat to its security since it withdrew its troops from southern Lebanon in 2000 and from Gaza in 2005.

North Korea tests U.S. policy of ‘strategic patience’

The term “strategic patience” refers to the Barack Hussein Obama administration efforts to shape the behavior of North Korea, one of the most tyrannical nuclear weapons-capable state in the world. The problem with this approach is, that it is too reactionary. It is impossible to shape North Korean behavior if we just keep reacting to it. What should be the next steps?

Obama administration officials have dubbed their policy toward North Korea “strategic patience” — a resolve that Pyongyang has to make the first move to reengage and that it won’t be granted any concessions. 

Iran warns US to accept ‘final offer’ to end nuclear row

Iranian president Ahmadinejad boldy claims that U.S. president Barack Hussein Obama should accept the deal that Brazil and Turkey brokered with Iran regarding its low enriched Uranium stockpiles. The Administration is trying to pass fourth round of sanctions on Iran. These sanctions are very weak and will not stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The country is already in violation of nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, today urged Barack Obama to accept an offer to export the country’s uranium to Turkey as a “last opportunity” to resolve the crisis with Tehran. He also warned Russia not to support new UN sanctions, triggering a furious rebuke from Moscow.

Amid Tensions on Korean Peninsula, Patterns Revealed in Kim’s Behavior

The following article is explaining general pattern in actions of the North Korean leadership. After March sinking of Cheonan ship sanctions will be extended which will cause yet another complication for people who live under one of the most tyrannical regimes in the world. It is likely that the leadership uses hostile diplomacy to blame the outside world for the hardship.

SEOUL — What does North Korean leader Kim Jong Il gain from infuriating the outside world and triggering sanctions that heighten the misery of his people?

That vexing question has again surfaced as South Korea and the United States moved this week to punish North Korea for apparently torpedoing a South Korean warship and killing 46 sailors. There was a similar international push last year to penalize Kim’s government for exploding a nuclear bomb and launching a flurry of missiles.

DoD: U.S. Space Industry May Lose Edge

Brett Lambert, Pentagon’s industrial policy chief, said that the U.S. space industry is getting less competitive against Asian and European firms, eventually threatening decades of U.S. primacy in this area. He argues that it is necessary to ease export controls on technologies to help the financing of the sector.

The dominance of the U.S. space industry is threatened by European and Asian firms, the Pentagon’s industrial policy chief said May 25.

“We’re at a tipping point with our space industry,” Brett Lambert said at a forum on the strength of the space industrial base hosted by the George C. Marshall Institute think tank. “We have for so long been the dominant player and the most technologically advanced player.”

Russia Says U.S. Missiles in Poland “Don’t Help Trust”

Russia issued a statement condemning deployment of Patriot PAC-3 ballistic missile defense system. The statement reveals that Russia still sees current security international environment in terms of competition and zero-sum game, despite vigorous attempts and concessions of the current Barack Hussein Obama administration.

Russia criticized on Wednesday the United States’ deployment of Patriot missiles in Poland, saying the move did not help security or trust.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said: “Such military activity does not help to strengthen our mutual security, to develop relations of trust and predictability in this region.”

The Free World Strikes Back at Pyongyang

Chung Min Lee comments on South Korean government presenting overwhelming evidence of North Korea torpedoing a South Korean ship in March. He notes that  it is not the first time when the North committed an act of terrorism and discusses options and measures that can be taken to punish the tyrannical regime.

The verdict is in: On March 26, a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo that sunk a South Korean naval vessel, the Cheonan, and killed 46 sailors. This finding was announced formally last week by a joint investigation team consisting not only of Korean civilian and military experts, but specialists from the United States, Britain, Sweden and Australia. The smoking gun appeared in the form of a North Korean torpedo’s propeller shaft. Make no mistake: This is South Korea’s 9/11, and it deserves a strong response.

Thankfully, that’s just what South Korea and its democratic allies are planning. In Seoul, the Lee Myung-bak administration announced yesterday a range of unilateral and multilateral measures, including South Korea’s official warning that additional armed provocations will be met with matching military responses. North Korean vessels will no longer transit South Korean waters and psychological warfare against the North will be restarted.

A Hollow ‘Reset’ with Russia

Robert Kagan in his article argues that the position of Russia with regards to Iran has been long-standing and consistent since at least the Bush administration. He argues that weak sanctions on Iran should not be considered a success and should not be seen as a result of the “reset” diplomacy of President Barack Hussein Obama.

It took months of hard negotiating, but finally the administration got Russia to agree to a resolution tightening sanctions on Iran. The United States had to drop tougher measures it wanted to impose, of course, to win approval. Nevertheless, senior Russian officials were making the kinds of strong statements about Iran’s nuclear program that they had long refused to make. Iran “must cease enrichment,” declared Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations. One senior European official told the New York Times, “We consider this a very important decision by the Russians.”

Yes, it was quite a breakthrough — by the administration of George W. Bush. In fact, this 2007 triumph came after another, similar breakthrough in 2006, when months of negotiations with Moscow had produced the first watered-down resolution. And both were followed in 2008 by yet another breakthrough, when the Bush administration got Moscow to agree to a third resolution, another marginal tightening of sanctions, after more negotiations and more diluting.

Iran and North Korea March On

In yet another interesting article, John Bolton, former ambassador of the United States to the United Nations, thinks about the implications of inability of the administration to prevent Iran from going nuclear. He looks at the case of North Korea, its terrorist actions and notes that Iran will follow similar pattern of behavior if not prevented from going to nuclear.

Last week, while meandering toward a fourth U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran, Washington was blindsided by the revival of a previously discarded plan to enrich some of Iran’s uranium to higher levels for use in the Tehran research reactor. This proposal—a good deal for Iran when it was proposed last year by the misguided Obama administration—is even better in its latest iteration and does nothing to stop Iran’s uranium enrichment program.