(ANTIMEDIA) Washington, D.C. — Keeping in step with the latest bullet point from the mainstream narrative, the head of the U.S. Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris, told Congress Wednesday that the military buildup in East Asia is not intended for a proactive attack on North Korea. Rather, he claimed, it is to deter the nation’s rogue leader, Kim Jong-un.
Promising legislators that the U.S. would be ready to defend allies in the region “with the best technology” the military has to offer, Harris said the North Korean leader — who has ordered multiple missile tests of late, creating an international stir — will attack American cities as soon as he can.
“With every test [Mr] Kim grows closer to his goal, which is using nuclear weapons on US cities,” Harris said.
Despite the United States’ innocent intentions in Asia, however — the military hardware is there to bring Kim “to his senses, not to his knees,” says Harris — the admiral also reminded Congress that a first-strike move against North Korea is still a possibility.
“As [US President Donald] Trump and [Defense Secretary James] Mattis have said, all options are on the table,” Harris said.
Indeed, Harris seems to think it will, in fact, come to that.
“I don’t share your confidence that North Korea is not going to attack South Korea, Japan, or the United States…once they have the capability,” he told Congress.
As to that fancy technology the admiral referred to, some of it is currently upsetting a lot of South Koreans. From a Reuters report on Wednesday:
“The U.S. military moved parts of an anti-missile defense system to a deployment site in South Korea Wednesday amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programs, triggering protests from villagers and China.”
Like the situation in Japan, many South Koreans feel the U.S. presence in their country only exacerbates regional tensions. To them, the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system could potentially be viewed as an act of aggression.
Strangely, Harris also actually admitted to Congress that the military buildup in East Asia is overkill and that the carrier strike group currently making its way to the Korean Peninsula is far more powerful than anything Kim Jong-un could throw at it.
“The weapons that North Korea would put against the Carl Vinson strike group are easily defended by the capabilities resident in that strike group,” Harris said.
Getting lyrical, the admiral reassured Congress of U.S. military might.
“If it flies it will die, if it’s flying against the Carl Vinson strike group,” he said, referring to North Korean missiles.
Still, Harris insists, the threat is significant enough that the U.S. actually needs more firepower in the Pacific.
“The United States may need to strengthen its missile defense, particularly in Hawaii,” Reuters writes, “given the advancing threat from North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons programs, the top U.S. commander in the Pacific told Congress Wednesday.”
According to the U.S. military, the initial deployments of the THAAD system in South Korea will be operational within days, just about the time the Carl Vinson strike group is scheduled to arrive at the peninsula.
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