Here's another war whose temperature is being heated up by the Bush administration.
Isn't it the job of managers to solve problems not to make them worse? Bush is a pi^% poor manager.
bayarea.com
U.S. puts 24 bombers on alert for N. Korea
MOVE GIVES BUSH MILITARY OPTIONS
By David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker
New York Times
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has put 24 long-range bombers on alert for possible deployment within range of North Korea, to deter ``opportunism'' while Washington is focused on Iraq, and to give President Bush military options if diplomacy fails to halt North Korea's effort to produce nuclear weapons, officials said Monday.
The White House insisted Monday that Bush was still committed to a diplomatic solution to the crisis. Any decision to bolster the considerable U.S. military presence near North Korea was simply what Ari Fleischer, the president's press secretary, called making ``certain our contingencies are viable.''
Both White House and Pentagon officials said there are no current plans to attack the Yongbyon nuclear facility, the center of North Korea's plutonium project.
But the bomber deployment to Guam would cut their flying time to a possible crisis on the Korean Peninsula, and consideration of the move suggests the Pentagon and the White House may be concerned about the possible need for more forces on short notice. Many forces ordinarily based in the Pacific have been sent to the Middle East.
The White House has never publicly discussed the possibility of attacking the processing plant at Yongbyon, and Bush has repeatedly said the United States ``has no intention of invading North Korea.''
Leaving options open
But that is a carefully formulated statement, leaving open the possibility that a move to produce nuclear weapons might prompt Bush to consider the advice of several leading national security experts, who have argued that Bush cannot permit North Korea to have a significant nuclear arsenal.
``It's fair to say that there is a broad assumption in the administration now that Kim Jong Il is out to produce his weapons as fast as he can,'' said one senior official involved in the debate. ``We hope they can be dissuaded by diplomacy, pressure from us and from China and from Russia. But there are no guarantees any of that will work.''
Rumsfeld, who Pentagon officials stressed has not yet made a decision to send the bombers, was acting on a request for additional forces from Adm. Thomas B. Fargo, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific. Fargo has concluded that the North's nuclear weapons program had significantly worsened the risks on the Korean Peninsula.
``This puts them on a short string,'' said a senior Pentagon official, who explained that the aircraft and crews are now ready to move out within a set number of hours should they receive a deployment order.
The bomber force, along with surveillance planes, would be sent to Guam from bases in the United States. The deployment would bring a potent capability to the region should Bush decide that he cannot allow North Korea to begin reprocessing its spent nuclear fuel into weapons-grade plutonium for as many as a half-dozen weapons.
In addition, the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk based in Yokosuka, Japan, is currently on station off the Japanese coast and remains available to Fargo.
Carrier assignments
However, even before the current nuclear crisis with North Korea, the Kitty Hawk had been mentioned as the likely candidate should a fifth aircraft carrier be assigned to waters off Iraq. In that event, officials said the Carl Vinson, which is on exercises in Hawaii, or the Nimitz, which is in port in San Diego, could take the place of the Kitty Hawk so that one aircraft carrier would always be in the region.
The Pentagon's new alert came as the International Atomic Energy Agency said it would meet Feb. 12 in an emergency session to declare North Korea in breach of its commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and refer the issue to the U.N. Security Council. Administration officials said Monday they would seek a resolution there condemning North Korea, but that they would not take the next step -- asking for economic sanctions or isolation of the country.
At the same time, administration officials, in private briefings to members of Congress, have confirmed that North Korea appears to be moving spent nuclear fuel rods that have been in storage since 1994.
If processed into plutonium, those spent nuclear fuel rods could provide the material for upward of a half dozen nuclear weapons -- about one a month once the processing plant is in full operation, experts said. That gives Bush a window of what one senior official said Monday was ``a few weeks to a few months to decide if he wants to do something about Yongbyon'' before the plutonium production is under way, when any military strike would risk spreading radioactive pollution around the Korean peninsula.
``We are clearly engaged in a discussion about what is appropriate should we find ourselves engaged in executing a military operation in Iraq,'' said one senior Defense Department official. ``We want to make sure we have sufficient forces in place in the Korean peninsula area to deter any opportunism.''
A dozen B-52 bombers and another dozen B-1 bombers could certainly help the 37,000 American troops defending South Korea deter an attack from the North across the demilitarized zone. But American commanders in South Korea have long said they already have sufficient forces to deter such an attack, or at least fend it off until reinforcements could arrive.
No additional troops
There was no discussion, senior Pentagon officials said, about significant additions to the number of U.S. troops now defending South Korea.
Fargo is considering repositioning some fighter jets within the Pacific Command to bases closer to Korea, Pentagon officials said. The bombers under consideration for deployment would be a large addition to the available Pacific Command forces.
Each B-1 bomber can carry up to two-dozen of the 1-ton, satellite-guided bombs called Joint Direct Action Munitions. Mercury News wire services contributed to this report.
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