With the nuclear test and the missile launch and Kim Jong-Un's insane statements about "breaking waists," things are obviously heating up with North Korea. It's cool, though, because the Pentagon is ready with buckets of water to throw on this fire. Fox News reports that the military "is beefing up the nation's missile defense in the wake of provocative nuclear threats from North Korea and is set to deploy 14 additional ground-based interceptors at missile silos in Alaska and California." The brass isn't exactly lighting the fuses yet, but they're definitely pointing our rockets in North Korea's direction. (Those are their missiles above, by the way.)

Not everybody is happy about this. The Pentagon has actually been downplaying North Korea's recent provocative statements, no doubt to ease the fears of the average American and send a message to Kim Jong-Un that we're not intimidated by his crazy talk. So it seems a little hypocritical to start scrambling our missile defense systems, even if the military tries to keep it a secret. (Obviously, the Pentagon wasn't trying hard enough, since the news leaked to Fox.) It's also very, very expensive to get these missiles online. We're not talking millions of taxpayer dollars but rather hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, all while sequester cuts slash through budgets and put people out of jobs. 

Forgive the cliché, but you can't put a price on safety. Or national security. Kim Jong-Un's North Korea is a loose cannon, after all, and if that cannon is pointed in this direction, it sure doesn't hurt to have a shield ready.

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Adam Clark Estes