Posted on 02/04/2007 11:25:13 AM PST by Clintonfatigued
They warn us of approaching storms. They allow us to make emergency phone calls on mobile phones. They're the digital conveyor belt for global commerce. They help police and ambulances reach their destinations when every minute counts. And the Pentagon relies on them to provide U.S. forces with intelligence, communications and targeting information.
Satellites, it seems, have become our lifelines.
Still, it's easy to take satellites for granted -- easy, that is, until the People's Liberation Army crashes a missile into one of China's aging meteorological satellites, as it did last month. It was a crude show of strength, which the PLA will do on occasion when it wants to make a point. In 1995, for example, Beijing sent a fusillade of missiles in Taiwan's direction, a blunt reminder to think twice about independence. This time around, the PLA's message seemed directed at the Bush administration and the Air Force, which has adopted a "space control" doctrine that endorses the use of weapons in, from and through space.
The debris from China's missile blast could travel in space for much more than a quarter-century before burning up in the Earth's atmosphere. That's a long time, but not longer than the debate over weapons in space has raged, beginning with the launch of Sputnik in 1957. Having prying eyes overhead is unsettling enough, but it is not nearly so worrisome as weapons circling overhead, ready to fire.
What the Air Force euphemistically calls "offensive counter-space" capabilities -- use of the terms "space weapons" and "space dominance" is verboten -- does not have a broad constituency of support in the Pentagon or on Capitol Hill. The notion of turning space into one more war zone offends many sensibilities, from those of devout believers who don't think the heavens should be sullied by
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
ping for future.
"What the Air Force euphemistically calls "offensive counter-space" capabilities -- use of the terms "space weapons" and "space dominance" is verboten -- does not have a broad constituency of support in the Pentagon or on Capitol Hill."
Well not until two weeks ago. Now I would make it a campaign issue.
That said, I want US to be dominant, not those who do not have our best interests at heart.
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." G. Santayana ([falsely] attributed to Plato)
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