Flight Risk

A flurry of activity on our northern border--no, it wasn't a stray Nork missile, or a goose or two, but a small plane:

A pilot who allegedly stole a Cessna plane from a Canadian flight school and was pursued for hours across the Midwest by fighter jets, was taken into custody after he landed on a Missouri highway late today and took off running, an FBI spokesman said. [snip]

The pilot was identified as Yavuz Berke, formerly known as Adam Leon, a 31-year-old naturalized Canadian citizen who was born in Turkey, Kolko said.

The UP was probably not perturbed, but in Madison:

At one point, the Wisconsin state capitol building in Madison was evacuated as a precaution as the plane flew over the city.

Hmm, maybe they will rethink their nuclear free zone stance.

And how about that missile defense the president wants to chop? Alaska is vulnerable, and our President Barack Obama's beloved Hawaii. No joke. As Condi used to say, we have to be vigilant all the time, they only have to succeed once.

And even though presumably this incident had nothing to do with the war on terror, oh excuse me, the overseas contingency operation, it underscores the need to defend ourselves.

P.S. I would imagine Mayor Daley was upset just a bit as well, given his aversion to small planes around downtown.

More: Trib editorial, "Obama's Missile Crisis". WSJ, "The Nuclear Illusionist".

More: Sen. Joe Lieberman:

“Cooperation on missile defense is now a critical component of many of our closest security partnerships around the world,” Lieberman wrote in a letter to the president. “We fear that cuts to the budget for missile defense could inadvertently undermine these relationships and foster the impression that the United States is an unreliable ally.

“Moreover, sharp cuts would leave us and our friends around the world less capable of responding to the growing ballistic missile threat.”

HotAir. The Politico, Newt Gingrich:

“There was amazing symbolism in North Korea deciding to launch a missile the very day President Obama was speaking to Europeans about his fantasy of nuclear disarmament. The West has talked with North Korea for over 15 years and they just keep building nuclear weapons and missiles. We have been talking with the Iranians for a decade and they continue to build nuclear capability and missiles.

“Pakistan has a lot of nuclear weapons. Russia, India and China have nuclear weapons. Hamas in Gaza fires missiles into Israel virtually every day. In this reality, our president proposes we have a big meeting in Washington to discuss nuclear disarmament.”

More: We had a world without nukes--in 1939. Bill Kristol.