Posted on 01/30/2007 8:20:16 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - A Republican senator criticized the Bush administration Monday for failing to aggressively confront China over its test of a satellite-killing weapon, which he called a provocative militarization of space.
"Key policy makers seem oblivious to the nature and the urgency of the threat," Sen. Jon Kyl (news, bio, voting record), Ariz., told an audience at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "It's time to start speaking out about this."
The Jan. 11 test destroyed a defunct Chinese weather satellite by hitting it with a warhead launched from a ballistic missile.
A week later, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said: "The United States believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area. We and other countries have expressed our concern to the Chinese."
Kyl said the "muted response" in the United States has been due in part to the fierce congressional debate about the war in Iraq, which has drawn attention away from other foreign policy issues.
Kyl also linked the administration's silence to a "complicated relationship with China, which is difficult to manage under the best of circumstances. There is so much we want to engage with China."
He mentioned U.S.-Chinese trade interests, and the need to secure Chinese help in the United Nations to confront alleged illicit nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea. This, Kyl said, "inhibits our government from being as forthright as I think we should be in criticizing the Chinese when they do something as provocative as this."
The danger, he said, is that "China believes that it must develop space weapons for its own security, specifically for preparation for possible conflict with the United States over Taiwan."
Kyl called for congressional hearings to ensure that the Chinese program is not based on U.S. technology, "either shared or stolen."
Also Monday, the deputy director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said in a discussion of the missile program's capabilities that his agency had not been given the mandate to counteract the kind of technology that China demonstrated in its recent test. But he added that current technologies could be easily adapted to defend against an attack on U.S. satellites.
"That work would be straightforward if we were given that guidance or mandate," said Brig. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly.
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Associated Press writer Desmond Butler contributed to this report.
Jon Kyl is solid Presidential timber.Interesting his name is silent in suggestions.
Agreed ... I'd put Cornyn in with him as well,,
At least Arizona has one Senator.
Jon Kyl is his name!
only real drawback
In September 2006, working with former congressman Jim Leach, Jon Kyl was a major House supporter of Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 picking up on his father Jon Kyl's pet cause.
The Act was passed at midnight the day Congress adjourned before the 2006 elections.
Prior to it being added to the bill, the gambling provisions had not been debated by any Congressional committee.
I suggested him as a running mate for Duncan Hunter. Somebody said, well, great ticket (a Hunter supporter, like I am), but you could turn it around the other way and it would be just as good or even better. Kyl for Pres. with Hunter as VP. I agreed, except that Hunter is running and Kyl isn't. But most people would accept the VP if offered.
I hate gambling. Not just for myself but for society. However, people like me were overridden on that long ago. That aside, you find me any proposed candidate that doesn't have something wrong somewhere to somebody. It can't be done.
Come on folks, get real.
I've read you before Zarf...........run your stuff down the road from me..........TIA
China militarizing space. Duhh. This horse left the barn at a gallop in the Clinton adminisration.
Engage China. What benefit is that now, at this late date?
Best construct the backyoard bomb shelter.
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