Wednesday, October 11, 2006

War in Heaven


Defense Tech discusses the Project for a New American Solar System:

While the Clinton policy aimed to highlight international cooperation and collective security in space, the Bush NSP takes a go–it-alone stance, using strong language that asserts U.S. unilateral rights in space while possibly also being intended to "negate" the rights of other space-faring nations. In ominous tones, the document threatens in one section to "dissuade or deter others from either impeding [U.S.] rights or developing capabilities intended to do so" – raising the specter of preemptive action against other nations’ dual-use space technology.
The NSP also specifies that no international laws will be allowed to restrict "the rights of the United States to conduce research, development, testing and operations or other activities in space for U.S. national interests."

In a recent interview with Katie Couric, Ming the Merciless was dismissive of BushCo's plans:
Pathetic earthlings. Hurling your bodies out into the void, without the slightest inkling of who or what is out here. If you had known anything about the true nature of the universe, anything at all, you would've hidden from it in terror.
In an entirely unrelated story, the first civilian death has been attributed to the malfunction of a UAV:
As if things weren't enough of a Hobbesian nightmare in the Democratic Republic of Congo, comes this horrible news: a Belgian drone fell from the skies over the Congolese capital city of Kinshasa, "killing one woman and injuring [at least] two others," according to Flight International. It's "believed to be the world's first case of a civilian being killed by a crashing military UAV," or unmanned aerial vehicle.
Last time I checked, 32 nations were developing 250 varieties of drones. They're also attractive to terrorists, who view them as "carbombs with wings."

Apparently, you can apparently bring a drone down with a lucky shot, but Serious People prefer to develop anti-drone drones (which will be subject to their own malfunctions, and will inevitably find their way into the hands of "evildoers").

In other words, everything's under control.

7 comments:

melior said...

More harsh rhetoric, backed up with zero action. This supposed "stern" policy isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

Case in point: the Chinese began blinding our spy satellites when over their territory with ground-based lasers this month (although you have to read world news to see the story, Google it).

Did Chimpy insist they back down? Not a peep.

Anonymous said...

it would be naive to assume that the chinese, et al aren't developing some sort of technology to knock out our spy satellites - and that there isn't some soviet-era junk floating about already designed for that purpose.

sigh - an arms race in space. that's encouraging.

Phila said...

More harsh rhetoric, backed up with zero action. This supposed "stern" policy isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

Well, "harsh rhetoric" can have dangerous effects, and set bad precedents. And while BushCo may not want to stare China down, there are smaller countries who could conceivably find themselves "threatening U.S. national interests," advertently or otherwise. Restrictions on "dual-use technology" are always a warning flag for me.

Still, the main point of this post is simply that these people are batshit crazy.

Phila said...

"Project for a New American Solar System", lol.

Also known to its friends as "P-NASS."

Phila said...

Too good a laugh not to share.

Oy.

juniper pearl said...

bushco? go it alone? unilateral rights? this is all sounding pretty out of character to me.

if human beings are so intent on destroying one another and themselves and everything else that they're willing to go to such manic lengths to accomplish it, well, then, they can have at it. i've lost all interest in trying to stop them or save them. it'll be sad if i'm killed by military space shrapnel as it crashes through my ceiling, but something has to do me in.

Phila said...

if human beings are so intent on destroying one another and themselves and everything else that they're willing to go to such manic lengths to accomplish it, well, then, they can have at it. i've lost all interest in trying to stop them or save them.

Understandable. But things can always improve, so one always ought to be working in that direction, IMO.