«If they fire at the United States, it could escalate into war very quickly»…
Less than a day after Joseph Dunford, the commander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told South Korean President Moon Jae-in that the US is ready to use “the full range of military capabilities to defend our allies and the U. S. homeland, ” Defense Secretary and retired Gen. James Mattis told reporters that the situation with North Korea “could escalate into war” if the isolated country fires a missile at the US.
«If they fire at the United States, it could escalate into war very quickly, » Mattis said, according to Reuters.
Mattis also assured reporters that the US would destroy any missiles fired at the US by the North Korean regime, saying the US would know the trajectory of the missile “within moments.”
If a missile is assessed to be headed toward Guam — North Korea has repeatedly threatened the territory – Mattis said “we will take it out.”
Though it’s unclear how, exactly, the US would be able to guarantee the neutralization of an incoming missile.
While the US THAAD missile shield, which has been deployed around the world, has a solid testing record, it’s designed to target intermediate range missiles, not ICBMs. While the US has completed successful tests of ground-based anti-ICBM capabilities, its testing record for those, and for sea-based interceptors, is shaky. Some experts have compared shooting down an ICBM to “hitting a bullet with a bullet.”
In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal late Sunday, Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson argued that the era of “strategic patience” was over, and the era of “strategic accountability” had begun.
