Because what’s more important than appeasing a rogue nation about to directly violate international law? Collecting precise data that could be important to the national security of the United States? This is what happens when you idolize Jimmy Carter’s policies.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates denied permission for the U.S. Northern Command to use the Pentagon’s most powerful sea-based radar to monitor North Korea’s recent missile launch, precluding officials from collecting finely detailed launch data or testing the radar in a real-time crisis, current and former defense officials said.

Just how powerful was the radar system?

SBX, deployed in 2005, can track and identify warheads, decoys and debris in space with very high precision. Officials said the radar is so powerful it could detect a baseball hit out of a ballpark from more than 3,000 miles away, and that other radars used by the U.S. would not be able to provide the same level of detail about North Korea’s missile capabilities.

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, who until recently headed the Missile Defense Agency, said the SBX would have gathered data other U.S. systems could not.

“The sea-based X-band radar is clearly without a doubt the most powerful and capable sensor in all of our missile defense inventory,” he said. “It is three or four more times powerful than other radars” in Asia, including Aegis-equipped ships, a Cobra Dane early warning radar in Alaska and a small X-band radar in northern Japan, he said.

Gen. Obering noted that the SBX was used by the U.S. Strategic Command to track a falling satellite and guide U.S. sea-based missile interceptors that destroyed it in February 2008.

The request was made by Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, commander of Northcom. And why was General Renuart’s request denied?

One current and two former specialists in strategic defenses said the [Obama] administration rejected the request because it feared that moving the huge floating radar system would be viewed by North Korea as provocative and upset diplomatic efforts aimed at restarting six-nation nuclear talks.

So we denied the request for data collection by the commander of Northcom just so that North Korea wouldn’t be offended and walk away from the six-party talks. And how did the DPRK respond simply to the watered-down UNSC resolution? By ordering international inspectors out and…vowing to never return to the six-party talks. 

We put the hopes of continuing negotiations with Kim Jong-Il over collecting data necessary to our nation’s defense. And Kim walked away anyway. Smart power.

More: Hot Air.