CENTER OF THE SPECTRUM

A Place to
Discuss Issues,
Listen to the Other Side's Point of View,
& Think About Real Solutions to Our Nation's Problems.

18 August 2010

How the Presidents Stack Up

Is President Obama really the worst President ever?  The polls do not agree.  According to this Wall Street Journal report, the country thinks he is doing a better job than Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush.  I guess the President's detractors are going to have to come up with something more concrete than, "We just hate this guy because he is a Democrat that used to preach socialist doctrine."

24 May 2010

U.S., South Korea to Conduct Combined Military Exercises

U.S., South Korea to Conduct Combined Military Exercises


By Mike Mount CNN
May 24, 2010 3:23 p.m. EDT






Forty-six sailors died when the South Korean vessel sank on March 26.
Forty-six sailors died when the South Korean vessel sank on March 26.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • The U.S. military to conduct joint exercises with the South Korean military
  • South Korea says North Korea was behind March 26 warship sinking
  • U.S. military commanders directed to work with South Korean troops
  • North Korea denies responsibility for sinking
Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. military will conduct joint exercises with the South Korean military in response to that country's announcement that North Korea was behind the recent sinking of one of its warships, the Pentagon said Monday.
The United States and South Korea will conduct both anti-submarine and maritime interdiction training exercises in the future, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
Whitman would not discuss details or timelines on the two exercises, but noted that they are being planned in response to the March 26 sinking.
The South Korean government said its probe of the incident concluded that North Korea fired a torpedo responsible for sinking the vessel. Forty-six South Korean sailors were killed as a result.
Whitman said the maritime interdiction exercise will be conducted as part of the Proliferation Security Initiative, which is designed to prevent the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction and related technologies. North Korea is suspected of moving such material by sea.









The submarine exercises are designed to hone overall naval skills while testing South Korea's anti-submarine capability, Whitman said.








The Pentagon announcement came on the heels of a statement from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday that the U.S. government backs the conclusion of the South Korean probe into the incident. Clinton urged North Korea to reveal what it knows about the "act of aggression." She also said the United States' "support for South Korea's defense is unequivocal" and that North Korea should "stop its belligerence and threatening behavior."








President Obama on Monday directed U.S. military commanders to work with South Korean troops "to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression" from North Korea, according to a White House statement.







South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, meanwhile, announced Monday that his country was suspending trade with North Korea, closing its waters to North Korean ships and adopting a more aggressive military posture toward its neighbor.









Lee said his country was adopting a posture of "proactive deterrence" toward the North. He promised that "combat capabilities will be reinforced drastically" and that he will focus on improving national security readiness and military discipline.






CNN's Alan Silverleib contributed to this report.

20 May 2010

US vows punishment for North Korea over ship sinking

US Vows Punishment for North Korea Over Ship Sinking
The wreckage of the naval vessel Cheonan, 20 May, South KoreaThe shattered wreck of the Cheonan was winched to the surface in two pieces
The US state department says there "will definitely be consequences" for North Korea following the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.
The North is facing international condemnation after investigators blamed it for the sinking of the ship, in which 46 sailors died.
Pyongyang has rejected the claim as a "fabrication" and threatened war if sanctions were imposed.
China urged restraint and did not criticise the North.
The report - by a team including experts from the US, Australia, Britain and Sweden - concluded that a torpedo had sunk the Cheonan corvette.
The investigators said parts of the torpedo found on the sea floor had lettering that matched a North Korean design.

READ THE REPORT IN FULL


Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader
Excerpts: Ship sinking report
"Clearly this was a serious provocation by North Korea and there will definitely be consequences," said US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley.
The US has some 28,000 troops stationed in the South following the 1950-53 Korean War.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the US was in "close consultation" with South Korea, which would decide what action to take.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has pledged to take "stern action".
Britain, Australia and Japan also expressed anger at North Korea. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the report was "deeply troubling".
'All-out war'
Pyongyang has said it would send its own inspection team to the South, to "verify material evidence" behind the accusation.

NORTH KOREAN ATTACKS


  • Jan 1967 - attacks South Korean warship near border, killing 39 sailors
  • Jan 1968 - commandos storm presidential palace in Seoul in a failed attempt to kill President Park Chung-hee
  • Jan 1968 - captures USS Pueblo - one crew member dies and 82 held hostage for 11 months
  • Dec 1969 - hijacks South Korean airliner taking dozens of passengers hostage
  • Oct 1983 - bombs hotel in Rangoon, Burma in failed attempt to kill South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan - 21 people die
  • Nov 1987 - bombs South Korean airliner, killing 115
  • Sept 1996 - North Korean submarine crew land in South, sparking deadly manhunt
  • Mar 2010 - torpedoes Cheonan warship, 46 sailors killed
Attack leaves no easy optionsHow the ship was sunkTimeline: North Korean attacksQ&A: Cheonan sinkingSend us your comments
A North Korean defence spokesman said the country would "respond to reckless counter-measure with an all-out war of justice", the state KCNA news agency reported.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said Beijing had "noted" the report and would also make its own assessment, but called on both sides to exercise restraint.
South Korea's Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chun Young-woo, said Seoul was considering taking the matter to the UN Security Council.
"The Security Council will consider what is necessary as a response to North Korea's act of aggression," he told the BBC. "North Korea cannot get away from this."
The Cheonan went down near the disputed inter-Korean maritime border, raising tension between the two nations which technically remain at war.
Earlier, a number of explanations had been suggested for the sinking - including an accidental collision with an unexploded sea mine left over from the Korean War.
torpedoStories

Obama To Replace Intelligence Chief Dennis Blair


Obama To Replace Intelligence Chief Dennis Blair

Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, seen here in 2009, is expected to resign Friday.

Lauren Victoria Burke/AP
Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, seen here in 2009, could resign as early as Friday.

May 20, 2010
Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence, is resigning after a series of high-profile clashes with the CIA and a damaging report from Congress on intelligence failures, three sources told NPR News.
No official confirmation has emerged from the White House, but one U.S. official said an announcement could come Friday.
Blair, a retired admiral, has had troubled relations with CIA Director Leon Panetta about who has authority over U.S. intelligence operations. The two butted heads over the appointment of a CIA station chief, a battle Panetta ultimately won.
There's no word on who would replace Blair. The administration already has "been interviewing several strong candidates to be his replacement," the U.S. official said Thursday.
Congress created the DNI in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, expressly to help the intelligence community better share and analyze information about terrorist threats.
Word of Blair's departure comes the same week that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence issued a report that sharply criticized the Obama administration for intelligence lapses surrounding the botched Christmas Day bombing.
The report, signed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Sen. Christopher Bond (R-MO), cited 14 failures to connect the dots within U.S. intelligence circles. Some of the information would have prevented Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, from boarding an airplane bound for Detroit with explosives in his underwear, the lawmakers said.
Abdulmutallab was taken into custody and is cooperating with U.S. prosecutors. President Obama has said the episode could have cost the lives of 300 passengers and crew.
Blair told the Senate Homeland Security Committee in February that the administration should have sent a High Value Detainee Interrogation Group unit to Detroit to question Abdulmutallab. But at the time of his remarks, the group was not yet in operation -– the White House had not signed off on its charter.
Later that day, Blair issued a statement saying his remarks had been "misconstrued."
NPR's Tom Gjelten contributed to this report
 

Nuclear Factor Complicates Korean Standoff Over Sunken Ship


Nuclear Factor Complicates Korean Standoff Over Sunken Ship


Updated May 20, 2010 by FOXNews.com


The delicate standoff on the Korean peninsula over charges that North Korea sank a South Korean ship -- killing 46 sailors -- stands as a compelling example of why rogue states want nuclear weapons. 
Nobody wants to mess with them. 
"No other state their size on Earth has that kind of military capability," said Bruce Bechtol, author of "Red Rogue: The Persistent Challenge of North Korea." 
South Korean and U.S. officials are now weighing their options for how to handle the findings of an investigative report that formally blamed a North Korean torpedo attack for sinking the frigate Cheonan on March 26. Defense Secretary Robert Gates stressed Thursday that the South Koreans are calling the shots and "we will be consulting very closely with them as we move ahead." The State Department said there would be "consequences."
But the early response is almost certain to come in the form of public condemnation and economic sanctions rather than military action, observers say. Administration officials would not go so far as to label the attack an act of war -- White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he would not get into "hypotheticals" when asked if the dispute could lead to war. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States is focused on supporting its "strong ally" while at the same time considering "stability in that region." 
But Bechtol, a professor at the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College, said North Korea holds a major "deterrent" in its hands with its nuclear arsenal. While delivery methods are limited, he said the North is capable of using aircraft or ships to attack the South with a nuclear weapon and could also use a medium-range missile to hit countries as far away as Japan. The nuclear arsenal isn't necessarily the biggest worry, since the regime is incapable of delivering those weapons on a long-range missile that could hit, say, the United States. The country's sizable military and arsenal of conventional weapons -- which are well in range of Seoul -- make the prospect of all-out war on the peninsula terrifying. That's what North Korea is threatening as it accuses South Korea of fabricating evidence. 
All this inevitably factors in as South Korea and its allies consider a response. And it demonstrates why the Obama administration is so keen on halting the development of nuclear weapons. 
The administration has been on a high-profile campaign over the past several months to reduce nuclear arsenals around the world and keep nations like North Korea and Iran from developing them. The United Nations this week reviewed a proposal for new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, which the country's government insists is for peaceful purposes. 
Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, said it's unlikely Kim Jong Il would try to deploy a nuclear weapon, but the danger of the country's weapons getting loose should the regime fall apart in the throes of a military conflict is what worries officials. 
In the near-term, he said North Korea's ability to inflict major damage on South Korea with conventional weapons is what will lead nations like the United States to urge restraint. 
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a written statement Wednesday that the United States "strongly condemns the act of aggression," but left open the door to what options the United States is considering. 
"This attack constitutes a challenge to international peace and security," he said. "It reinforces the resolve of its neighbors to intensify their cooperation to safeguard peace and stability in the region against all provocations." 
But Bandow said that if the South Korean's investigative findings are correct, "This suggests the North committed an act of war." 
He said the challenge is to punish North Korea without triggering a military conflict. 
"To sink a South Korean ship is a major provocation," he said. "There are no good answers here." 
A U.S. official told FoxNews.com that the United States is waiting until South Korean President Lee Myung-bak meets with his government on Monday and will take its cues from there. 
"South Koreans have the lead on this issue. Obviously we support them," the official said. 
Bechtol said that while South Korea has probably not taken military action off the table, such a response is unlikely. 
He added: "If North Korea conducts another provocation then all bets are off."

18 May 2010

South Korea: North Responsible for Torpedo Attack on Warship


South Korea: North responsible for torpedo attack on warship



Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 18, 2010; 2:47 PM


South Korea will formally blame North Korea on Thursday for launching a torpedo at one of its warships in March, causing an explosion that killed 46 sailors and heightened tensions in one of the world's most perilous regions, U.S. and East Asian officials said.
South Korea reached its conclusion that North Korea was responsible for the attack after investigators from Australia, Britain, Sweden and the United States pieced together portions of the ship at the port of Pyongtaek, 40 miles southwest of Seoul. The Cheonan sank on March 26, following an explosion that rocked the vessel as it sailed in the Yellow Sea off South Korea's west coast.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because South Korea has yet to disclose the findings of the investigation, said that subsequent analysis determined that the torpedo was identical to a North Korean torpedo that had previously been obtained by South Korea.
South Korea's conclusion underscores the continuing threat posed by North Korea and the intractable nature of the dispute between the two Koreas. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak must respond forcefully to the attack, analysts said, but not in a way that would risk further violence from North Korea, whose artillery could -- within minutes -- devastate greater Seoul, which has a population of 20.5 million.
South Korea's report will also present a challenge toChina and other nations. China waited almost a month to express its condolences to South Korea for the loss of life, and, analysts and officials said, has seemed at pains to protect North Korea from criticism.
South Korea will request that the U.N. Security Council take up the issue and is looking to tighten sanctions on North Korea, the officials said. The United States has indicated it would support such an action, U.S. officials said. Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada told his South Korean counterpart on Monday that Japan would do the same, the Japanese news media reported Tuesday.
Another consequence of the report, experts predicted, is that Lee will request that the United States delay for several years a plan to pass operational control of all forces in South Korea from the United States to the South Korean military. Approximately 28,500 U.S. forces are stationed in South Korea.
South Korea's conclusion that North Korea was responsible for the sinking of the Cheonan also means it is unlikely that talks will resume anytime soon over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. North Korea has twice tested what is believed to be a nuclear weapon. China has pushed for an early resumption of those talks, but South Korean officials said they will return to the table only after there is a full accounting for the attack against the Cheonan and a policy response.
The sinking -- and the reluctance of the South to respond with an in-kind attack -- is the latest example of the raw military intimidation that North Korea has practiced for decades. With 1.19 million troops on active duty, the Korean People's Army has positioned about 70 percent of its fighting forces and firepower within 60 miles of the border with the South.
David Straub, a former director of the State Department's Korea desk who is now at Stanford University, said that while the Cheonan's sinking was horrendous, it marked more of a return to "normal" behavior for North Korea than a new direction.
"We tend to look at this as shocking because things have been relatively quiet for a decade or two," he said. But North Korea killed 30 sailors aboard a South Korean warship in the 1970s; in 1983, its agents are believed to have been behind a fatal bombing in Rangoon that narrowly missed then-South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan.
What has changed, Straub said, is the Western view of North Korea. In the past, North Korean misbehavior was often rewarded with Western attention and aid from Japan and South Korea. But after North Korea conducted its second nuclear test in May 2009, "opinion changed in a fundamental way," he said.
"Before there was a tendency of government officials to say, 'Well, maybe if we try hard enough to persuade the North Koreans to give up the bomb, they will,' " he said. "Now the conclusion of most people, including in the Obama administration, is that they can't see the North Koreans giving up their nuclear weapons on terms that would be acceptable to anyone."
Harden reported from Tokyo.