The United States has one of the best Air Forces in the world, without question. They are one of the reasons that it’s inadvisable for anyone to mess with the United States in any way that might incur our wrath.
Unfortunately, North Korea has decided they might want to take their lives into their own hands and taunt the United States with nuclear weapons. This isn’t something the U.S. takes very kindly too, and it’s prompted a concerning standoff. Since no one has blinked yet, the tensions continue to rise but the United States is assuring the world that its recent missile tests have nothing to do with the growing unrest in that region.
Via The Hill:
The U.S. on Wednesday tested an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile from California, but the Air Force says it was not meant to be a response to North Korea’s recent missile tests.
The test launch was routine, Air Force Global Strike Command spokesman Joe Thomas told AFP, and was not intended to send a message to North Korea.
The missile, the Minuteman III, launched from Vandenberg Air Force base Wednesday morning and traveled about 4,200 miles.
Linda Frost, a spokeswoman for strike command, said the missile is tested about four times a year.
“The ICBM test launch program demonstrates the operational capability of the Minuteman III and ensures the United States’ ability to maintain a strong, credible nuclear deterrent as a key element of US national security and the security of US allies and partners,” it added.
While I’m reluctant to disagree with the United States Air Force (for reasons mentioned above) I would say that this statement might be somewhat misleading.
I once heard about a calculus teacher who asked his class how many of them had taken pre-calculus. A number of the students raised their hands, but many did not. The teacher told those who didn’t raise their hands that they were actually wrong because according to him, everything that they’d ever learned up to that day was their pre-calculus. They would use every bit of knowledge they’d ever acquired to get the most out of their calculus experience.
It’s the same with our military; maybe we don’t have an action date for when we will deal with the petty dictators of the world, but everything that we learn and practice now, will be used to rain down retribution on the heads of those who intend to do us harm. So yes, this may have been a scheduled test, but no, I wouldn’t get any comfort from that if I were North Korea.
This is the equivalent of target practice; we may not be shooting at you now, but we are still working on our aim.
(Source: Red State Watcher)