That’s a good thing. But now we need to do something about it. This may be like the continued statement by the president that we’re committed to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. Uh, yeah. Today the president set space as a defense priority by signing a new National Space Policy. Among other things, the policy asserts our right to deny space access to anyone hostile to our interests. And these days, that’s just about everyone.
Now just because, it seems, everyone is against us doesn’t mean we’re the bad guy. Look at the world situation as you would the film High Noon. All the bad guys are against Gary Cooper, but that doesn’t make him in the wrong. And none of the towns people have the courage to back him up. This also is not an indication that Cooper is the negative character, it simply highlights how being right does not necessarily mean always being in the majority.
That said, while we have been bogged down in the U.N. trying to get “the world” to stand with us against terrorism and tyranny, China and Russia continue to block us, keeping us bogged down around the world. In the meantime, as we work to save the planet from itself and from oppressive tyrannical governments like Russia and China, they spend their time formulating a joint project to go to the moon and Mars.
This is now why the president must place us in a defensive posture regarding space.
Bush Sets Defense As Space Priority
President Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone “hostile to U.S. interests.”
The document, the first full revision of overall space policy in 10 years, emphasizes security issues, encourages private enterprise in space, and characterizes the role of U.S. space diplomacy largely in terms of persuading other nations to support U.S. policy.
“Freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power,” the policy asserts in its introduction.
Think about what’s at stake here; what would make the world safer: China being in control of the moon, or the U.S. being in control of the moon? I would suggest you ask all the students who were demonstrating for democracy in Tiananmen Square. Oh yeah, you can’t because they’re all dead.
Now imagine Earth being one big fat Tiananmen Square. The Chinese students only had a Statue of Liberty made of tin foil. We have the actual one. How long, exactly, do you think that would last if China and Russia controlled outer space? Ask Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya what she thinks. Oh yeah, we can’t. She’s dead, too.
Declaring we control space, of course, is one thing. Actually doing something about it is quite another. My concern is, if we can’t keep control of our own country’s Earth border, how exactly do we expect to control who goes into space?
The other “concern” about this new policy is that it means we’re going to “weaponize” space. I hope so. Someone’s going to do it and it better be us.
…Nevertheless, Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a nonpartisan think tank that follows the space-weaponry issue, said the policy changes will reinforce international suspicions that the United States may seek to develop, test and deploy space weapons. The concerns are amplified, he said, by the administration’s refusal to enter negotiations or even less formal discussions on the subject.
“The Clinton policy opened the door to developing space weapons, but that administration never did anything about it,” Krepon said. “The Bush policy now goes further.”
That’s a newsflash! President Clinton doing nothing and President Bush actually implementing a plan. And another Big Thinker has this concern:
Theresa Hitchens, director of the nonpartisan Center for Defense Information in Washington, said that the new policy “kicks the door a little more open to a space-war fighting strategy” and has a “very unilateral tone to it.”
Theresa, honey, it sounds unilateral to you because the dictatorial regimes of Russia and China haven’t clued you in to their space weapons programs. Yeah, I know it’s hard to believe that tyrants keep secrets from you, but they do. Unilateral. Sheesh.
With perhaps the exception of Great Britain (and with their increasing Dhimmitude, this could change) we are the only nation that can be trusted with control of space. It’s that simple.
…just because …everyone is against us doesn’t mean we’re the bad guy.
….we are the only nation that can be trusted with control of space. It’s that simple.
A brilliant post, Tammy. As I’ve declared to anyone careless-enough to broach the subject in my presence: this screwed-up planet couldn’t ask for a better “police chief”. Certainly not perfect — but relatively fair-handed and corruption-free (internationally), and the best alternative by a long shot.
Neil Armstrong should have said: “I hereby claim this satellite for the United States of America” when he landed on the moon. Because he didn’t we have wasted nearly 40 years dinking around with the most inefficient system ever designed, the Shuttle that goes nowhere,for the sole purpose of keeping a government bureauacracy alive. Man will not keep all his eggs in one basket, and he will go into space and on to other planets. The question is whether the US will be part of the adventure, or just a spectator.
While our Senators and Representatives are quibbling about what how to divy up the tax war chest to fund their pet projects, China and Russia are marching inexorably closer to the moon. While illegal immigrants benefit from Social Security, we sit on our hands and don’t aggressively push back to the moon.
I feel like we’re fiddling while Rome (America) is being covered in gasoline from cans held by China and Russia.
Tammy, I wish you would run for office. Saying you have more sense than all the politicians in Washington combined would be a disservice to your abilities.