In a statement yesterday about N. Korea’s missile test, Gov. Sarah Palin called for a missile defense system located in Alaska to protect the United States. Was Palin warning us that Alaska could be a target for a N. Korean missile attack?
In a statement Palin said, “I am deeply concerned with North Korea’s development and testing program which has clear potential of impacting Alaska, a sovereign state of the United States, with a potentially nuclear armed warhead,” Governor Palin said. “I can’t emphasize enough how important it is that we continue to develop and perfect the global missile defense network. Alaska’s strategic location and the system in place here have proven invaluable in defending the nation.”
She advocated a missile defense system for her state to help defend the Pacific, “Our early opposition to reduced funding for the Missile Defense Agency is proving to be well-founded during this turbulent time. I continue to support the development and implementation of a defensive missile shield based in Alaska. We are strategically placed to defend the critical assets of the United States and our allies in the Pacific Theater.”
Ok, now Gov. Palin is just being silly. I understand how desperate she is to inflate her role as governor of Alaska to a position of national political significance, but the N. Koreans aren’t targeting America, much less Alaska for an attack. Wouldn’t Japan or S. Korea be a better home for a missile defense system? Of course, my question is assuming that we can devise a missile defense system that actually is effective more than 10%-30% of the time. The truth is that no matter how much the GOP touts missile defense, the current system has only worked in rigged climate and geography neutral testing.
Palin’s statement is a pathetic attempt to put a new spin on the old national security credentials that she claimed to have during the 2008 presidential campaign. I don’t believe that Alaska has ever played a valuable role defending the United States from N. Korea. The whole idea that N. Korea wants to attack the U.S. is a bit of neo-con fantasy. S. Korea and Japan especially should be worried about N. Korea. Republicans like Sarah Palin are only trying to whip up fear, in that hope of winning elections in 2010 and 2012.
Palin is the gift that keeps on giving, when did Alaska become a sovereign state, the girl is a gaff machine!
[Reply]
and her train wreck family
[Reply]
“Sovereign State” is not misused in this context. Though it is often a synonym for sovereign nation, it also refers to our federalist vs. state government. For example, this is an excerpt from a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States, Petitioner v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative and Jeffrey Jones:
The overbroad language of the Court’s opinion is especially unfortunate given the importance of showing respect for the *** sovereign States *** that comprise our Federal Union. That respect imposes a duty on federal courts, whenever possible, to avoid or minimize conflict between federal and state law, particularly in situations in which the citizens of a State have chosen to “serve as a laboratory” in the trial of “novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.”
[Reply]
I agree with your theory…I think she just wants publicity as usual. Maybe she should concentrate on the real problems going on in her state.
[Reply]