Letting the So San drop off its SCUD missiles in Yemen is not the end of the world. It is not a diplomatic, military, or intelligence failure. It is not a setback in the Current War, nor is it a sign of wobbling in the White House.
You carpers — and I’m speaking directly to certain bloggers here — are either using rhetoric to whore for hits or, at best, just aren’t seeing the whole picture.
First off, let’s be frank: The SCUD is a perfectly shitty missile. Under ideal conditions, even the SCUD-D variant has difficulty hitting the major metropolitan area it’s aimed at — assuming it doesn’t break up in flight.
As a terror weapon, however, you could always argue that. . .well, you could only argue that it’s even worse. Sure, Saddam launched some into Israel back in ’91, accomplishing zip. But those were conventional warheads, you say? So what. Would Saddam, even if he managed to build a nuke, risk losing (er, using) it on a missile unlikely to hit its target, even if it got there? Chemicals, then? Notoriously overrated.
But, what’s that, some of you are griping, what if. . . ohmygod, what if al Qaeda got one? Or a dozen! Let the kids sleep and don’t phone the neighbors. Ever seen a SCUD launcher? It’s like trying to hide an oversized semi-truck. A big, green, military-looking semi. With — duh! — a hulking missile strapped on it.
So what happened yesterday? The Alliance showed that even smaller players like Spain have some teeth. The United States showed that it won’t needlessly embarrass a mostly-cooperative ally over a piddling point. Most importantly, American intelligence showed North Korea that we know much more about their goings on than the Dear Leader should really be comfortable with.
Take a deep breath, wipe the spittle off your monitor, and write about something important, OK?
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