Dear Members and Friends,
This week, President Obama spoke on the topic of North Korea in an interview with NBC. In this conversation, the President brought up the importance of missile defense in respect to its ability to guard against any miscalculation and to help contain North Korea’s anticipated provocative action over the next several weeks. The President’s remarks are as follows:
“But, you know, we have to make sure that we are dealing with every contingency out there. And that’s why I’ve repositioned missile defense systems to guard against any miscalculation on their part.”
“I’m not a psychiatrist,” “This is the same kind of pattern that we saw his father engage in, and his grandfather before that. Since I came into office, the one thing I was clear about was, we’re not going to reward this kind of provocative behavior. You don’t get to bang your – your spoon on the table and somehow you get your way.”
President Obama further stated that he would “anticipate” that “North Korea will probably make more provocative moves over the next several weeks, but our hope is we can contain it and we can move into a different phase, in which they try to work through diplomatically some of these issues so they can get back on a path where they’re actually feeding their people.”
The United States missile defense platforms in the Pacific are in place, but as this mission continues it will require more inventory and more capacity. Missile defense is an invaluable tool for President Obama that allows him to prevent conflict, contain provocation, and guard against miscalculation. The President of the United States, with missile defense, plays a vital and global role in making our world safer.
President Obama released his Fiscal Year 2014 budget request for missile defense last week. The President’s request calls for 1.739 percent of the entire $526.6 Billion defense budget to be spent on providing inventory and capacity for our nation’s missile defense systems. This percentage is down from the 1.831 percent of the $530.5 Billion Fiscal Year 2013 defense budget spent on missile defense last year.
Yesterday, Representative Michael Turner sent a highly critical letter to the President of the United States in regards to his policies, positions, and actions on missile defense.
“At a time when our missile defense system is the only defense that we have to the threat from North Korea, and the emerging threats from Iran, I am greatly concerned that your missile defense strategy is languishing, resulting in increased risk to the United States, increased cost to the taxpayer and needless alienation of our allies. Our enemies around the world have sought nuclear weapons and missile technology, yet your Administration has consistently reduced missile defense funding, abandoned previous Bush Administration strategies that sought to respond to these emerging threats and has compromised the implementation of missile defense programs, while seeking elusive Russian approval of the right of the United States to defend itself.”
- Representative Michael Turner, April 17, 2013
A link to this letter is enclosed below.
Letter from Representative Michael Turner to President Obama:http://www.missiledefenseadvocacy.org/data/images/repturnerlettertopresidentonmissiledefense-apr172013(2).pdf
Our world and nation, today and for the foreseeable future, need to prevent conflicts and need at least two percent of our defense budget in order to provide the capacity and inventory of missile defense across the world and for our nation to ensure peace from nations that continue to proliferate ballistic missiles and nuclear missiles.
The President cannot have this critical defense without the necessary spending it requires let alone reducing it from a year ago.
Posted by missiledefense 
Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance
