The weapons laden Il-76 jet transport seized last week turned out to be the third such aircraft to pass over Thailand recently. U.S. intelligence has been tracking cargo transports flying out of North Korea, and an increasing number of these flights take the southern route (rather than via China and Central Asia.) A more thorough inspection of the cargo on the seized Il-76 found components for North Korea's Taepodong-2 ballistic missile. This weapon has three times the 2,000 kilometer range of Iran's current largest missile. If Iran is building their version of the Taepodong-2, they will be able to hit targets throughout Europe.
I'm thinking that cancelling the Bush ballistic missile defense plans for Europe on the assumption that we'll face only shorter-range Iranian weapons that can be handled by defensive missiles designed just for those shorter ranged ballistic missiles might be obsolete already.
If you think we get little enough support from Europe now, wait until Iran can point atomic-tipped missiles at Europe.
