Pentagon chief says US looking to put intermediate-range missiles in Asia

[babylonsister]

Pentagon chief says US looking to put intermediate-range missiles in Asia
By Ellen Mitchell - 08/03/19 07:12 AM EDT


SYDNEY, Australia — Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Saturday he hoped to soon place ground-launched, intermediate-range missiles in Asia, a day after the United States pulled itself from a Cold War era arms control pact.

“Yes, I would like to,” Esper told reporters traveling with him to Sydney when asked whether he was considering deploying such missiles in Asia.

“I would prefer [in] months, I just don’t have the latest state of play on timelines for either a cruise missile or long-range missile ... but these things tend to take longer than you expect.”

He also said such a missile would be “important” to have in the Asia-Pacific region, but could not speculate on where it would be placed as discussions with allies would need to take place, among other factors.

Esper brushed aside a likely tense reaction from China to such a U.S. deployment, saying that more than 80 percent of Beijing’s inventory “is intermediate range systems, so that shouldn’t surprise them that we would want to have a like capability.”

more...

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/456032-pentagon-chief-says-us-looking-to-put-intermediate-range-missiles-in-asia

[SHRED]

1. Feeding the MIC

Sickening.

[pangaia]

2. BREAKING BREAKING ::: on sunday chinese military leaders said they are considering

deploying intermediate range missiles in and central and south america and several caribbean islands..

[ProudLib72]

3. That sounds vaguely familiar

From the history books.

I don't think that the Rump would handle the situation as well as JFK did. I think, instead, we would be in a "one-tweet-over-the-line" emergency.

[GeorgeGist]

4. I'm old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis ...

apparently Esper isn't.

[pangaia]

5. me too..... hour by hour....