Reply #93: How About Them Star Wars™?

[Octafish]

Those with long memories may recall how leaders of the MI-complex have repeated a certain, unsettling theme: How the world would unite if attacked from outer space.

General Douglas MacArthur, 1955:

“The Soviets and the democracies will adopt the best characteristics of each other and, in the process of many years, there will not be a strict line of demarcation between their ideals; therefore no causes for war between them...because of the developments of science all the countries on earth will have to unite to survive and make a common front against attack by people from other planets.”

President Pruneface Reagan told Mikhail Gorbachev:

“I couldn't help but say to him, just how easy his task and mine might be in these meetings that we held if suddenly there was a threat to this world from another species from another planet outside in the universe. We’d forget all the little local differences that we have between our countries and we would find out once and for all that we really are all human beings here on the Earth together.”

Henry Kissinger, 1991:

"Today America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing that man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the world government

WHY? BECAUSE THERE’S MONEY TO BE MADE IN STAR WARS (If the aliens were going to destroy us, they probably could get around any weapons the likes of Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith could envision.)

Space weaponry



The Bush Administration and space weapons

by Taylor Dinerman
Monday, May 9, 2005

One of the great mysteries of the Bush Administration’s military space policy was recently cleared up—sort of. Since January 2001, activists on both side of the missile defense debate have been waiting for the Pentagon to announce that it is going to restart the Brilliant Pebbles space-based interceptor program that Bill Clinton’s first Secretary of Defense, Les Aspin, canceled in 1993 with the words, “I’m taking the stars out of Star Wars.”

In 1992, the previous Bush Administration came up with a concept called G-PALS, for Global Protection Against Limited Strikes. Most of America’s allies, and even Yeltsin’s Russia, agreed to go along with this. The centerpiece was to be 2000 orbiting Brilliant Pebbles. The technology had been developed and was being tested. Europe was even talking about an E-PALS to complement the US system. Saddam’s Scud launches against Saudi Arabia and Israel during the first Gulf War were still fresh in people’s memories. No one wanted to repeat the experience.

In the four years since taking office, this administration has withdrawn from the ABM treaty, begun the installation of an national missile defense system, and continued work on both a sea-based interceptor (SM-3) and on an airborne laser installed in a 747 (YAL-1). None of these projects have been cheap or easy, and the process of integrating them into an effective system of systems has been slowed up not only by the inevitable software problems but by political debates, both inside the Pentagon and internationally.

It seems that foes of “space weaponization” inside the administration have been able to divert policy in ways that make effective military use of space less and less likely.
Curiously, Bush has had to take all the political pain involved in withdrawing from the ABM Treaty and building an operational missile defense system without being willing to go all the way and make that system fully effective, or at least as effective as possible given the limits of today’s technology. On this issue it is striking how much more conservative and bold his father’s administration was.

It seems that foes of “space weaponization” inside the administration have been able to divert policy in ways that make effective military use of space less and less likely. They are sincere people who believe that it is in America’s interest to keep weapons out of space, or at least for some other nation to be the first to deploy and use these weapons. Unfortunately in such a scenario the first target would be America’s military space assets.

CONTINUED...

http://www.thespacereview.com/article/368/1

“I hate bugs.” – K, Men in Black



PS: Thanks for the kick to the pants of the BFEE, Karenina! They deserve it.