Star Wars: This Time it Could be for Real; AF Pushes for Weapons in Space

[paineinthearse]

Star Wars: This Time it Could be for Real; Air Force Pushes for Weapons in Space; UCS Briefing on Space Weapons May 19 at U.N.

5/18/2005 4:35:00 PM


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor, U.N. Correspondents

Contact: Luke Warren, 202-331-5458, or Damon Moglen, 202-413-6593, both of the Union of Concerned Scientists

News Advisory:

Today's article in the New York Times confirms what experts at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) already knew. There are people in the Air Force and Washington policy circles who see space as the ultimate military high ground, and are pushing hard to develop weapons to exploit it.

"Visions of space weapons have floated around military circles for years," said Dr. David Wright, physicist and co-director of the Global Security Program at UCS. "What is different today is the presence of a powerful group of policymakers who share that vision and who are pushing these systems ahead with little regard for huge price tags, enormous technical difficulties, and potentially damaging effects on international relations."

To further discuss the problems of putting weapons in space, UCS will hold a press conference in New York tomorrow, Thursday, May 19, at the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty review conference. The press conference will take place immediately before a UCS briefing for NPT delegates on the new American Academy of Arts and Sciences' report, "The Physics of Space Security," which was authored by UCS physicists David Wright, Laura Grego, and Lisbeth Gronlund. Details of the press and delegate briefings follow.

WHAT: Union of Concerned Scientists Press Briefing and NPT Delegate Briefing on Space Weapons

WHEN: Thursday, May 19

Room 326 at the U.N.

Press Briefing on space weapons: 12:45 - 1:15

Delegate Briefing on AAAS report: 1:15 - 2:45

Conference Room E at the U.N.

WHO: Speakers:

-- David Wright, co-director and senior scientist, Global Security program, UCS

-- Laura Grego, staff scientist, Global Security program, UCS

-- Jonathan Dean, former ambassador and advisor on Global Security Issues, UCS

The AAAS report "The Physics of Space Security" can be found at http://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/space_weapons/page.cfm?pageID=1770.

http://www.usnewswire.com/

[Julius Civitatus]

1. I feel a great disturbance in The Force...

... and I have a very bad feeling about this!

Their hubris is enormous, indeed.

[paineinthearse]

2. hubris

I haven't seen that word used since Halberstam's "best and brightest".

[IndianaGreen]

4. Our Emperor wants to build the Death Star

to blast from space any country that gives him the finger.

[NJCher]

3. what a bunch of sick pups they are

Weapons in space. Good God almighty, there are enough to blow us to the moon and back and now they want to put some in space?

I am so sick of these people. Their aggression never ends. Why the hell can't they just do one decent thing in life? Just one thing.


Cher

[Zorra]

5. Another plan to make corporations rich and impoverish our country.

How many gazillions of dollars is that going to cost taxpayers?

Do you feel like cattle yet?

[G2099]

6. United States Space Command Vision for 2020

Vision for 2020

United States Space Command

» View PDF

http://www.gsinstitute.org/gsi/docs/vision_2020.pdf

[ngGale]

7. "The Death Star" these people are sick...

puppies. They are intent on blowing the whole world up. And, filling up the pockets of more private defense contractors.

[ticapnews]

8. Help us Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're our only hope.

[Must_B_Free]

9. War Pigs in Space

[LightningFlash]

10. Well this just isn't going away now...

I really question the conduct of space military operations done at this extreme.

[paineinthearse]

11. NYT: Air Force Seeks Bush's Approval for Space Weapons Programs

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/18/business/18space.html?ei=5065&en=60787fcf0b0f012c&ex=1116993600&adxnnl=1&partner=MYWAY&adxnnlx=1116389179-cuLSydFa9CCBN0MvzsfilA&pagewanted=print

May 18, 2005
Air Force Seeks Bush's Approval for Space Weapons Programs
By TIM WEINER

The Air Force, saying it must secure space to protect the nation from attack, is seeking President Bush's approval of a national-security directive that could move the United States closer to fielding offensive and defensive space weapons, according to White House and Air Force officials. The proposed change would be a substantial shift in American policy. It would almost certainly be opposed by many American allies and potential enemies, who have said it may create an arms race in space.

A senior administration official said that a new presidential directive would replace a 1996 Clinton administration policy that emphasized a more pacific use of space, including spy satellites' support for military operations, arms control and nonproliferation pacts. Any deployment of space weapons would face financial, technological, political and diplomatic hurdles, although no treaty or law bans Washington from putting weapons in space, barring weapons of mass destruction.

A presidential directive is expected within weeks, said the senior administration official, who is involved with space policy and insisted that he not be identified because the directive is still under final review and the White House has not disclosed its details.
Air Force officials said yesterday that the directive, which is still in draft form, did not call for militarizing space. "The focus of the process is not putting weapons in space," said Maj. Karen Finn, an Air Force spokeswoman, who said that the White House, not the Air Force, makes national policy. "The focus is having free access in space."

With little public debate, the Pentagon has already spent billions of dollars developing space weapons and preparing plans to deploy them. "We haven't reached the point of strafing and bombing from space," Pete Teets, who stepped down last month as the acting secretary of the Air Force, told a space warfare symposium last year. "Nonetheless, we are thinking about those possibilities."

more....

[BadNews]

12. Air force seeks Bush aproval for space arms

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/18/business/18space.html?ei=5065&en=60787fcf0b0f012c&ex=1116993600&adxnnl=1&partner=MYWAY&adxnnlx=1116389179-cuLSydFa9CCBN0MvzsfilA&pagewanted=print

Yeah, this is where we need to spend more resources.:sarcasm:

<snip>
The Air Force, saying it must secure space to protect the nation from attack, is seeking President Bush's approval of a national-security directive that could move the United States closer to fielding offensive and defensive space weapons, according to White House and Air Force officials.

The proposed change would be a substantial shift in American policy. It would almost certainly be opposed by many American allies and potential enemies, who have said it may create an arms race in space.

<snip>

With little public debate, the Pentagon has already spent billions of dollars developing space weapons and preparing plans to deploy them.

<snip>

In 2002, after weighing the report of the Rumsfeld space commission, President Bush withdrew from the 30-year-old Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which banned space-based weapons.

The Air Force believes "we must establish and maintain space superiority," Gen. Lance Lord, who leads the Air Force Space Command, told Congress recently. "Simply put, it's the American way of fighting." Air Force doctrine defines space superiority as "freedom to attack as well as freedom from attack" in space.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. Oh, boy. General Jack D. Ripper resurrected.

"Gentlemen, you can't fight here! This is the War Room!"

[Radical Activist]

14. When Dennis Kucinich talked about banning weapons in space

during the primary, people treated him like it was a kooky thing to talk about. assholes.

[bpilgrim]

30. DK, one of the few, who give voice to the millions of moderate Americans

who are agast at where our current leadership is taking us.

a prayer for america...
http://www.house.gov/kucinich/press/sp-020217-prayer.htm

peace

[Stephanie]

15. SEE, Rebuilding America's Defenses, PNAC

www.newamericancentury.org

It's all a part of the plan, kids! Space wars! Wooo hoooo!!!

[suffragette]

39. I kept expecting to see "US Space Army" in the article

since PNAC called for that. They didn't use the term, but it sure is the plan.

[alittlelark]

16. So the (AF)undamentalists want to own the heavens?

They wish to be able to blast (name the non-fundamentalists) off the face of the earth.... with weapons that we have thrown billions at and they still DON'T WORK????



OK, whatever.

[punpirate]

17. I find it very telling that this story...

... on military policy appears in the New York Times business section....

That pretty much says it all.

[LightningFlash]

18. This is absolute madness!!

It's almost too crazy to be true, yet it actually is true and that's what scares me. Donald Rumsfeld and the out of control fundamentalists engaging in space based military ops? Do they want to nuke countries off the planet who oppose CHRISTIANITY?

:wow:

[Nihil]

19. Only when seen from the sane side of insanity

How better to deliver the "Wrath of God" than with a blinding flash
of light from the heavens to destroy the cities of the heathens?

*ZAP* there goes Mecca - just like Sodom & Gomorrah in the old days eh?

Bearing in mind how Hiroshima & Nagasaki provided "a lesson" in the
power of the USA, it would only take one or maybe two cities to be hit
from space and the Theocratic States of America could carry on calling
the shots for decades.

(PS: Welcome to DU LightningFlash - appropriate name! :hi: )

[Ruffhowse]

20. Air Force Seeks Bush's Approval for Space Weapons Programs

The Air Force, saying it must secure space to protect the nation from attack, is seeking President Bush's approval of a national-security directive that could move the United States closer to fielding offensive and defensive space weapons, according to White House and Air Force officials.

The proposed change would be a substantial shift in American policy. It would almost certainly be opposed by many American allies and potential enemies, who have said it may create an arms race in space.

A senior administration official said that a new presidential directive would replace a 1996 Clinton administration policy that emphasized a more pacific use of space, including spy satellites' support for military operations, arms control and nonproliferation pacts.

Any deployment of space weapons would face financial, technological, political and diplomatic hurdles, although no treaty or law bans Washington from putting weapons in space, barring weapons of mass destruction.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/18/business/18space.html?ei=5094&en=47886e1ed89b329f&hp=&ex=1116388800&adxnnl=1&oref=login&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1116421356-ADvh/sXkH2mABOUDLJARrQ
_________________________________

Any resemblance between George Bush and Darth Vader is purely coincidental.

[benburch]

21. Some day, we will BE the Klingons!

When alien visitors finally do come here they will find us armed to the teeth and probably we will attack them by electronic reflex before we've even known they were there!

[Kool Kitty]

107. "Any resemblance between George Bush and

Darth Vader is purely coincidental." And insulting to Darth Vader. I like Darth Vader. I can't say the same for Bush.

[Bridget Burke]

22. Enough to awaken nostalgia for MAD

(Mutual Assured Destruction)

"General Lance Lord of the Air Force Space Command"? And all the "Christians" at the Academy...

[Massachusetts]

23. Here we go again.

[Gyre]

24. Hey, don't forget Mars!

Lying assholes.

[underpants]

25. BTW- Meyers was picked to be Joint Chief because he supported Star Wars

Just a reminder.

[RaleighNCDUer]

28. Not to mention that the guy Bush put in charge of NASA is a

weapons developer, not an explorer.

[Kitsune]

26. Secure space to protect the country from attack?

Don't these people watch sci-fi movies? The military is always completely useless against the overwhelming and incomprehensible power of the invaders from space, and only the wit and tenacity of a plucky scientist saves the day at the very end!

I mean, come on.

[Nothing Without Hope]

27. Air Force Seeks Bush’s Approval For SPACE WEAPONS PROGRAMS (NY Times)

Oh boy, here it comes: THE BEGINNING OF THE WEAPONIZATION OF SPACE. :scared: As if we needed ANOTHER neocon horror to fight right now. The “presidential directive is expected within weeks” and is “still under final review.” Naturally, “the White House has not disclosed its details.”

What this is REALLY about, of course, is the neocons' grand scheme for RULING THE WORLD. It's a cruel irony that they are casting themselves in the role of a James Bond evil-insane-dictator-wannabe. :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: But nobody's laughing except maybe Cheney.

http://tinyurl.com/76jfp

Air Force Seeks Bush's Approval for Space Weapons Programs

By TIM WEINER
Published: May 18, 2005

The Air Force, saying it must secure space to protect the nation from attack, is seeking President Bush's approval of a national-security directive that could move the United States closer to fielding offensive and defensive space weapons,

The proposed change would be a substantial shift in American policy. It would almost certainly be opposed by many American allies and potential enemies, who have said it may create an arms race in space.

A senior administration official said that a new presidential directive would replace a 1996 Clinton administration policy that emphasized a more pacific use of space, including spy satellites' support for military operations, arms control and nonproliferation pacts.

(snip)

A presidential directive is expected within weeks, said the senior administration official, who is involved with space policy and insisted that he not be identified because the directive is still under final review and the White House has not disclosed its details.

(snip)

Later today I will post links to earlier articles in this New York Times series, and I invite you all to post your own links to additional clarifying information, editorials and political activism plans. Let's make this thread a useful resource.

[bushisanidiot]

29. The repukes won't rest until they've killed everyone on the planet

they'd kill their own mothers for not following the party line as dictated.

[Nothing Without Hope]

33. Yes, just think how many people they've ALREADY killed, not only outside

the country but in New York on 9/11 and the miscellaneous singleton assassinations to keep their plans for the coup d'etat here and their plans to rule the world on track.

They will do absolutely ANYTHING. And have.

[sjdnb]

31. Where are?

Klaatu and Gort when you need them!

[Nothing Without Hope]

32. 2002 article and 1993 document: "The Plan is for the US to RULE THE WORLD"

THIS is what this is all about. It’s been in the process of hatching for a long time.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1544.htm

Dick Cheney’s Song of America

The Plan is for the United States to rule the world. The overt theme is unilateralism, but it is ultimately a story of domination. It calls for the United States to maintain its overwhelming military superiority and prevent new rivals from rising up to challenge it on the world stage. It calls for dominion over friends and enemies alike. It says not that the United States must be more powerful, or most powerful, but that it must be absolutely powerful.

By David Armstrong

Harper's Magazine, 0017789X, Oct 2002, Vol. 305, Issue 1829

Few writers are more ambitious than the writers of government policy papers, and few policy papers are more ambitious than Dick Cheney’s masterwork. It has taken several forms over the last decade and is in fact the product of several ghostwriters (notably Paul Wolfowitz and Colin Powell), but Cheney has been consistent in his dedication to the ideas in the documents that bear his name, and he has maintained a close association with the ideologues behind them. Let us, therefore, call Cheney the author, and this series of documents the Plan.

The Plan was published in unclassified form most recently under the title of Defense Strategy for the 1990s, (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1544.htm) as Cheney ended his term as secretary of defense under the elder George Bush in early 1993, but it is, like “Leaves of Grass,” a perpetually evolving work. It was the controversial Defense Planning Guidance draft of 1992 – from which Cheney, unconvincingly, tried to distance himself – and it was the somewhat less aggressive revised draft of that same year. This June it was a presidential lecture in the form of a commencement address at West Point, and in July it was leaked to the press as yet another Defense Planning Guidance (this time under the pen name of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld). It will take its ultimate form, though, as America’s new national security strategy – and Cheney et al. will experience what few writers have even dared dream: their words will become our reality.

(snip)

The Plan is disturbing in many ways, and ultimately unworkable. Yet it is being sold now as an answer to the “new realities” of the post-September 11 world, even as it was sold previously as the answer to the new realities of the post-Cold War world. For Cheney, the Plan has always been the right answer, no matter how different the questions.

(snip)

This is what is behind the space weaponization plans. Cheney will do anything, absolutely anything, to bring it to reality. Let's just hope ONE 9/11-type attack is deemed sufficient by these people. (If you have not yet seen or heard David Ray Griffin's historic lecture on the 9/11 attacks, you can find links to it and other related information here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=125x39690
Thrread title: "David Ray Griffin evidence Bush admin complicit in 9/11 - update & links")

[tabasco]

34. Another scheme to redistribute wealth upwards.

Just like Star Wars.

I suppose they'll just borrow more money to pay for these useless projects. Our national security will be decreased because of the waste of money, but many profiteering corporations will be enriched.

[Zerex71]

35. ...Because terrorists have a space program and not dollar-store boxcutters

[Redstone]

36. It's just a smokescreen. Does anyone REALLY think

the the AF actually terminated their ASAT program from the late 1980s? That one, unlike the "star wars" antimissile bullshit, did work.

Any questions they got other stuff they're not telling anybody about?

All public discussion is just a distraction. They're doing exactly what they want to, and looking for "approval" just in case something leaks about about what they have.

Redstone

[megatherium]

37. Orbiting laser battlestations are an excellent way of defeating

a popular insurgency. :sarcasm:

[suffragette]

38. "Rods from God"

I read that story in the Post Intelligencer this morning. Here's the link for that for those people who don't want to register with the NYT.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/224729_defense18.html

Each day, I hope it won't get any crazier and each day, unfortunately, it does. The following is from the article:

While the Missile Defense Agency struggles with new technology for a space-based laser, the Air Force already has a potential weapon in space. In April, the Air Force launched the XSS-11, an experimental microsatellite with the technical capability to disrupt other nations' military reconnaissance and communications satellites.

Another Air Force space program, nicknamed Rods From God, aims to hurl cylinders of tungsten, titanium or uranium from the edge of space to destroy targets on the ground, striking at speeds of about 7,200 mph with the force of a small nuclear weapon.

A third program would bounce laser beams off mirrors hung from space satellites or huge high-altitude blimps, redirecting the lethal rays down to targets around the world. A fourth seeks to turn radio waves into weapons whose powers could range "from tap on the shoulder to toast," in the words of an Air Force plan.

"Rods from God" being hurled from space to destroy?

This is insane.

[Conservativesux]

108. "Rods from God" . Thats what the right wing fundies call thier Johnsons!

:)

[Jack_DeLeon]

40. neat.

[Massacure]

41. This will only change the way America dies. Not prevent it.

I hear that death by 1000 cuts is a painful way to die.

[G2099]

42. vision_2020.pdf

http://www.gsinstitute.org/resources/extras/vision_2020.pdf

[Nothing Without Hope]

43. This is not only about offensive weapons, but control of ALL satellites

They could absolutely control access to communications and surveillance as well as everything else they fancied. And with the nuclear weapons capability, they could attack preemptively any nation not deemed sufficiently abased or obedient. This is about ruling the world in the style of a James Bond novel villain, make no mistake about it.

[MN ChimpH8R]

104. This is final proof that Cheney is actually

Ernst Stavro Blofeld (aka Dr Evil) and that Chimpy is merely his front man ala Emilio Largo. :scared:

[Nothing Without Hope]

105. Yeah, the blivet** isn't smart enough to be Mini-Me. n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

44. kick! Too bad this was never seen on the Greatest Page - it's important

with profound global consequences.

[GHOSTDANCER]

45. Air Force Seeks Bush's Approval for Space Weapons Programs

The Air Force, saying it must secure space to protect the nation from attack, is seeking President Bush's approval of a national-security directive that could move the United States closer to fielding offensive and defensive space weapons, according to White House and Air Force officials.

The proposed change would be a substantial shift in American policy. It would almost certainly be opposed by many American allies and potential enemies, who have said it may create an arms race in space.

A senior administration official said that a new presidential directive would replace a 1996 Clinton administration policy that emphasized a more pacific use of space, including spy satellites' support for military operations, arms control and nonproliferation pacts.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/18/business/18space.html?ei=5065&en=60787fcf0b0f012c&ex=1116993600&adxnnl=1&partner=MYWAY&adxnnlx=1116389179-cuLSydFa9CCBN0MvzsfilA&pagewanted=print>

When will the madness end?

[Nothing Without Hope]

46. dupe - here's the thread. Very, very scary stuff - glad you are giving

another headsup about it:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1481025

[FloridaPat]

47. It will end when the people of the world run the world, not the power

brokers and politicans. And when the USA is flat brok. What are they going to use for money? Iranian oil???

[MadisonProgressive]

48. Bush reportedly to OK space weapons order

NEW YORK - The U.S. Air Force is seeking President Bush’s approval of a national security directive that could move the United States closer to fielding offensive and defensive space weapons, the New York Times reported Tuesday, citing White House and Air Force officials.

A senior administration official said a new presidential directive would replace a 1996 Clinton administration policy that emphasized a less aggressive use of space, involving spy satellites’ support for military operations, arms control and nonproliferation pacts, the report said.

Any deployment of space weapons would face financial, technological, political and diplomatic hurdles, as well as almost surely opposition from U.S. allies and potential enemies alike, fearing an arms race in space.

With little public debate, the Pentagon has already spent billions of dollars developing space weapons and preparing plans to deploy them, the newspaper said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7896613/

Here we go!

[DemoTex]

49. Insane!

Totally insane bullshit!

[Deep13]

50. Been seduced by the dark side, he has.

[HereSince1628]

63. I think he was BORN on the Dark Side

I have always assumed space IS "militarized" with the capacity for military in the areas of communications/counter communications, electronic surveillance/counter surveillance and surveillance of both surface and air targets.

[Melodybe]

51. But I thought we were going to Mars, bitches.

[MadisonProgressive]

53. Yeah we're going to Mars alright

To establish a nuclear launch base that will be untouchable to our enemies.

[complain jane]

78. LOL

Not that it's funny, I mean, you're probably right on the money.

[Deep13]

75. The Mars thing ...

... an the proposal to develope nuclear propulsion are just funding vehicles for SDI.

[Selteri]

52. Funny, I thought that was something we've also promised not to do

under a treaty we entered.

[pie]

54. Others are sure to follow suit

We aren't the only country with the ability to make
space toys.

[MadisonProgressive]

56. treaty, schmeaty

[0007]

72. Ask the American Indians about treaties with the U.S. government, eh?

n/t

[pissed_American]

55. Let the building of the Death Star begin.. eom

[MadisonProgressive]

58. Now DICK can wear his Darth Vader outfit!

[Deep13]

76. heh, heh, Darth Cheney.

[Frederik]

71. Bingo!

[bushisanidiot]

57. Newsweek will be blamed when other nations get pissed off at Bush

for being such a war-mongering dickwad.

it's all the reporters' fault for printing the story.

[Up2Late]

59. This must be why NASA can no longer afford the Hubble.

But turn it into an instrument of Death...

I agree with the above posts, Total BS!

[sam sarrha]

60. chemical lazars................

[Baclava]

61. It's a cover-up for an Asteroid Blaster!!!

They know something they're not telling us!

We're DOOMED!

[MadisonProgressive]

64. We can only hope, at this point!

[JohnnyRingo]

62. Republicans have never seen a "defense" spending bill that they

didn't like. Plus it ensures we don't "waste" money on social programs designed to lift the poor.

In this case, they can't wait to proclaim US ownership of space, regardless of cost. They sure miss the Cold War and the "Evil Empire".

Maybe for a few extra bucks they can erect a huge satellite in the image of the American flag so the whole world can bask in our power and glory.

Of course, one "suitcase dirty nuke" renders the whole thing worthless for a fraction of the cost.

[Julius Civitatus]

65. I sense a disturbance in The Force...

and I have a very bad feeling about this!

:scared:

[K-W]

66. This the is the most obvious and dangerous play for world domination

in all of history. I hope everyones sees that.

[atreides1]

67. Just Great

We can't launch a shuttle, the space station only has enough oxygen for 140 days, unless it gets repaired, and the anti-missile system
doesn't work.

More money down a BLACK HOLE, and that's as close as we're going to come.

[rocktivity]

68. From a Star Trek-era force field to Star Wars-era space weapons

But they're both defense-contractor-buddy-rich-get-richer schemes. And SHOULDN'T there be public debate, especially since we're paying for it? Of course, but they know that if there were, they'd lose.

Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life here.

:headbang:
rocknation

[iamjoy]

69. Fear Leads To Anger...Anger Leads To Hatred

Hate leads to suffering.

They shouldn't play Hail To The Chief for Dubya, they should play the Imperial Death March.

Remember, you are either with him or you are his enemy.

[Frederik]

70. The PNACers

and the US space command have been planning this since 1997. Rumsfeld and Myers (chairman joint chiefs) have been preparing for this for a long time.

[complain jane]

77. Yeah. Just like they SAID THEY WOULD DO.

In the http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf document that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle signed.

Shocking.

[genieroze]

73. Oh what does * want to do now? Oh I know, put on a space suit

and play space cadet.

[Frederik]

74. In the words of another Republican president

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

(...)

Is there no other way the world may live?"

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

How disgusted wouldn't Ike have been with Commander Cuckoobananas!

[NightOwwl]

79. Man your hatches!

Incoming box-cutters ahead! Destroy all incoming box-cutters!

God, what absolute morans. :banghead:

[TNOE]

80. Pissing off the whole world is not enough

just wait until he pisses off the million year more advanced species in space - good - maybe they'll come save us from these madmen and FREE US!!!

[damntexdem]

81. Hey, he has to.

After all, it ignores treaty obligations, further militarizes space, involves developing expensive new weapons systems, and makes us all less secure. What could be a more-perfect program for his Administration?

[MadisonProgressive]

88. Yup, can't argue with you on that

[PittPoliSci]

82. maybe this is just me...

But I think we should be exploring space, not blowing it up.

[progressivebydesign]

83. Hey... our schools and health care facilities could use some help..

.. but that's just the crazy commie liberal pinko in me talkin', I guess.

[sakabatou]

84. So they want space-based laser satellites? or a death star?

[Darranar]

85. More money spent on ways to kill people...

And now the US is starting another arms race, which will funnel even MORE global money into building weapons.

The carnage that humanity brings expands its frontier once more....

[splat@14]

86. Makes sense. We gotta have weapons if we're goin to Mars....

They got oil there?

[FlyByNight]

87. Because one arms race wasn't enough...

thanks to the Cold War.

'Defensive' space weapons? Please. Potential global competition knows what 'space-based missile defense' means. It's essentially a first strike weapon. (Not to mention, an 'astronomical' waste of money - pun intended.)

[Voltaire99]

89. These people bespoil every plane of existence

If a fourth dimension is discovered, they'll shit in that, too.

[PA Democrat]

90. SPACE......the final "nukular" frontier

Hey, our kids are falling further and further behind in education, but we'll have nukes in space, by God!

Go! Go! Commander Cuckoo Bananas!

:mad:

[gulfcoastliberal]

91. This is the reason for shredding the ABM treaty

So the warfare state can expand to space without any annoying treaties in the way.

[okoboji]

92. when and which

country will be the first to pre-empt and strike the U.S. and attempt to stop the U.S. from building such space equipment?

After all, if the U.S. were to go ahead and build and install space killing technology, couldn't the U.S. be considered a terrorist threat against any other nation that does not have this capability?

[chlamor]

93. General Lance Lord Head of Space Command- Not Making this up Folks

From Article:

The new push to develop space weapons comes as the earth-based missile defence system, intended to hit an incoming missile with another missile and which was heavily promoted by the Bush administration, has been set back by technical problems and failed tests. The air force's intentions were spelt out last September by General Lance Lord, head of its space command, who said satellites had given US military power a decisive advantage with their spying, communications and targeting capacities. That advantage had to be maintained by "space superiority".

"It can be our destiny if we work it hard and continue to aggressively follow that," he said.

[Bridget Burke]

99. Yes, I noticed that name....

Evangelical Protectors of the Empire.

It's enough to make one miss General LeMay. (Almost!)

[Up2Late]

94. Here's the report from The Guardian

Bush likely to back weapons in space

Arms race feared over 'death stars' and 'rods from God'

Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday May 19, 2005
The Guardian

President George Bush is expected to issue a directive in the next few weeks giving the US air force a green light for the development of space weapons, potentially triggering a new global arms race, it was reported yesterday. The new weapons being studied range from hunter-killer satellites to orbiting weapons using lasers, radio waves, or even dense metal tubes dropped from space by a weapon known as "Rods from God" on ground targets.

The national security directive on space has been sought by the air force since last year. The New York Times yesterday quoted a senior administration official as saying a decision is expected within weeks. Neither the air force nor the White House returned calls seeking comment.

The directive will replace a 1996 directive signed by Bill Clinton which was vaguely worded but which emphasised the peaceful use of space, in line with almost unanimous global opinion. Plans for potential space weapons were vetoed by the Clinton White House.

Space warfare experts said they expected the Bush administration directive to be similarly vague but also to signal a shift in attitude towards exploring ways of affirming US dominance in space militarily. "Up to now, this has been a campaign by the air force to have the freedom to do what they want to do in space," said Theresa Hitchens, vice-president of the Centre for Defence Information. "This will, for the first time in US history, will give them the go-ahead."

(more at link above)

[BronxBoy]

96. OMG

Rods from God?????

Just had to work in a religious angle, didn't they?

<sigh>

[Up2Late]

102. Yeah, the Rods of God are going to Smite the "evil doers"

I AM OZzzzz...:evilgrin: :crazy:

[BronxBoy]

103. LOL

It's it blasphemous to talk about God's Rod?

:evilgrin:

[NightOwwl]

95. Obviously, they have never watched "The Day the Earth Stood Still"

"Your choice is simple. Join us and live in peace or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer. The decision rests with you."

Klaatu, from "The Day the Earth Stood Still", 1951

[paineinthearse]

97. "Earth to DC, Earth to DC, DC call home!!!!" - Dennis Kucinich

"Earth to DC, Earth to DC, DC call home!!!!" - Dennis Kucinich, live on the House floor, with regard to HR2420.

Brilliant!!!!!!!

According to DC, HR2420 has 28 co-sponsors. I cannot find it yet in Thomas.

Will provide link to discussion in POLITICS.

[paineinthearse]

101. See parallel thread in POLITICS

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1793590

[Robworld]

98. Lucas should sue again, like he did to the Reagan Administration.

He might win this time.

http://www.dumdumgoestothecircus.com /
Website updated

[paineinthearse]

100. Kucinich On US Space Weapons, Control Of The World

On a more serious note....

http://www.rense.com/general65/control.htm

Kucinich On US Space Weapons, Control Of The World
Institute for Cooperation in Space
[e-mail]
5-19-5

"The Administration is considering putting weapons in outer space, to give the United States the power to control the world. This astronomical arrogance pushes not simply aggression to new heights, but may well preclude our nation from spending money for anything other than weapons, which will cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

"The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 states that it is "the policy of the United States that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind." Space was envisioned as a place of cooperation, of confirming human unity, a place where we could aspire to build a new platform of peace, fulfilling the prophecy of the poet Browning who wrote: "but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"

"What has happened to our country? Why are we projecting fear and paranoia to such heights? Have we so lost our way and our faith that we are prepared to transform the heavens into hell? If the kingdom and the will of God is to be done on earth as it is in heaven, what is to happen when the United States takes nuclear fire up to the gates of heaven?

"Such an offense against humanity could bring the wrath of God upon this nation."

Representative Dennis Kucinich
U.S. Congress
Rep. Kucinich will soon be re-introducing the U.S.Space Preservation Act.....

ICIS - U.S. Space Preservation Act
http://www.peaceinspace.com/sp_act.shtml

[LWolf]

112. No suprise.

The fact that Dennis Kucinich is present, and will stand up for, and speak out for, sanity and integrity for our nation helps keep hope alive.

[paineinthearse]

106. Hot thread gone cold

:kick:

[In_The_Wind]

109. what goes up must come down

now * is promoting space garbage - in more ways than one

[DemBones DemBones]

110. Is anyone still laughing at Dennis Kucinich's bill banning space wars?

He's been concerned about this for years, with little or no support from others in Congress.

Even if you don't think Kucinich should be president, this is the time to support him and his bill to stop the neo-cons from screwing up the rest of the universe.

[LiberallyInclined]

111. wouldn't "space weapons" be particularly fragile?

anti-satellite weapons would seemingly be a lot easier and cheaper to build and deploy than the actual weapons themselves.

i can't decide if this administration is evil or insane...probably both- and that's a BAD combination.