And Not Just To Mars
Since the space race of the 1950s, the general consensus of the world was that space was to be neutral: all of humankind was to benefit from the science of exploration and space was not to be used as a military platform. Those days are gone, and probably have been for at least five years. An article in today's Washington Post confirms the latest blow to that neutrality, and, not to my surprise, that blow came from our very own Dear Leader.
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.
...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."
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."
...The Clinton policy also said that the United States would develop and operate "space control capabilities to ensure freedom of action in space" only when such steps would be "consistent with treaty obligations." The Bush policy accepts current international agreements but states: "The United States will oppose the development of new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space." [Emphasis added]
As is usual with the current crop of yahoos, the new policy was issued on a Friday night, this time the Friday night before the three day Columbus Day holiday weekend. That we're hearing about it even now is somewhat surprising.
What is especially disheartening about this change in direction is that it will only confirm the suspicions that the rest of the world has been harboring about the US at a time when we clearly are going to need some international help when it comes to extricating ourselves from the messes we've created in Afghanistan and Iraq and when it comes to cooling the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran.
Heckuva job, George!
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.
...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."
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."
...The Clinton policy also said that the United States would develop and operate "space control capabilities to ensure freedom of action in space" only when such steps would be "consistent with treaty obligations." The Bush policy accepts current international agreements but states: "The United States will oppose the development of new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space." [Emphasis added]
As is usual with the current crop of yahoos, the new policy was issued on a Friday night, this time the Friday night before the three day Columbus Day holiday weekend. That we're hearing about it even now is somewhat surprising.
What is especially disheartening about this change in direction is that it will only confirm the suspicions that the rest of the world has been harboring about the US at a time when we clearly are going to need some international help when it comes to extricating ourselves from the messes we've created in Afghanistan and Iraq and when it comes to cooling the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran.
Heckuva job, George!
posted by Diane at 5:42 AM
1 Comments:
thanks bush, this just gave China & our other enemies the reason to put up weapons up in space, overtly or covertly, without international discrimination. I'm not naiive to think weaponisation of space is not evitable, but there is a thing of capitalisation on our advantage in space technology, and hampering our competitors with diplomatic clout, which is called in military terms a diversion. Just because we know that other countries will not follow the rules, we don't need to give them a fecking reason. We talking about satellites here, the minute those baddies star shooting, i'm sure we will have some space defence up there, and when they do attack us we will have the advantage of having the international community behind us.
thanks GWB you just said yes to spending another gazillion dollars for another costly war in the future, (and sadly not that far, because of this)
Well, at leased it's going to be the first star wars, which is something to be proud of as an American, considering we made the first decent epic space-based war film.
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