That title is an attempt to be lighthearted, perhaps what someone would say when spotting two famous Aunties (Andy Griffith's in Mayberry, and Dorothy's in Kansas). But it's a failed attempt, because I'm not saying "I see Bee, Em" but rather I.C.B.M. -- a subject which is the polar opposite of "lighthearted."

An Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile is a rocket that can hit, literally, any place on Earth. It is powerful enough to carry a payload into orbit, or along any suborbital path the launcher chooses. North Korea is about to use one to launch a satellite. Iran used one a few months ago to launch what it claims is its third satellite into orbit.

The satellite isn't the point. The rocket is. The satellites are only a couple hundred pounds, at the most, and substituting a conventional warhead of explosives wouldn't be worth worrying about (America routinely drops bombs which are many times the mass of these satellites, for instance). Because, these days, a nuclear warhead doesn't weigh all that much.

Launching a satellite successfully is a very clear message to the world. It says: we are powerful enough to do this. If the country launching such a satellite also has what used to be called The Bomb, then it is a declaration that they now have the capability to deliver such a weapon anywhere they feel like on the planet (if they can make their Bomb small enough, which is really a separate subject).

What surprises me is that so little attention is paid to such events nowadays. Not to fear-monger or anything, but this is a rather large deal. Anyone who lived through the Cold War knows exactly what I am talking about. Anyone old enough to remember Sputnik really knows the significance.

The Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, in 1957. At the time, the United States could not manage this feat. We were falling behind on the Space Race, and we knew it each time that little beeping satellite flew over our country in orbit. The Russians put the satellite up to show off their technological superiority, and to make a military point: "We have perfected our I.C.B.M. launch system."

Now, in today's world, there are two very large differences with the Sputnik Era. Number one, we do now have vastly superior rocketry and weaponry than either North Korea or Iran. Our nuclear arsenal includes technology that neither country will be able to replicate for years (if not decades) to come. Cruise missiles, for instance, that are capable of delivering a nuke. Secondly, neither North Korea nor Iran now (or at any time in the foreseeable future) qualifies as an "existential threat" to the United States. No matter how much war-mongering is done over either one of them in domestic politics, I haven't heard a single person make the case (in this country -- Israel is obviously different) that North Korea or Iran could ever even hope to rise to becoming such a profound threat to us. The U.S.S.R. was, however.

I'm not writing this column today in any sort of effort to beat any war drums, either, I should point out. I'm not, in fact, advocating any course of action (or inaction) towards either Iran or North Korea. All I'm doing is pointing out a fact which often gets either missed or buried in what scanty reporting is done on the North Korean or Iranian satellite launches.

The satellite isn't the point. The rocket is. Because, much like the "nuclear club" of countries that have nuclear weapons, there is also an "I.C.B.M. club." That membership is what North Korea is striving for, at the moment. Let's not lose sight of that fact.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant