By Killing Satellite, US Would Send Ominous Message

[IndianaGreen]

Published on Sunday, February 17, 2008 by The Cleveland Plain Dealer
By Killing Satellite, US Would Send Ominous Message
by Elizabeth Sullivan

The debris fallout may be less wor risome than the diplomatic fall out. U.S. space and defense planners say they’re putting safety first in trying to shoot apart a falling spy satellite and its tank full of toxic fuel before either come to ground next month and hit a town.But countries around the world instead see another notch on the belt of America’s aggressive space-weapons research. A multibillion-dollar anti-missile program that has yet to prove itself in a full, real-world test - and that many physicists say can never be an impermeable shield against cheap decoys - is either openly supported or not clearly rejected by the leading presidential candidates.

John McCain strongly favors the missile defense system. Hillary Clinton doesn’t directly address the issue on her Web site. It was her husband’s administration that made the decision to move forward more aggressively with the underlying research.

Barack Obama opposes weapons in outer space, but, according to the Polish press, his chief foreign policy adviser, Anthony Lake, told Polish Americans in Cleveland last month that the shield project should not be abandoned in light of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Yet to many overseas, nothing says American hegemony as clearly as this single-minded pursuit of technological dominance over outer space.

The United States has sunk nearly $100 billion since 1980 into missile defenses and proposes to spend $49 billion more over the next five years. Yet so many missile intercept tests have failed that the Missile Defense Agency now classifies some technical failures as “no-tests” so they don’t count.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/15/7107/

[MADem]

1. I have been saying since they announced this; the decision they have taken to shoot

down the satellite is a response to the buzzing of the NIMITZ by those Russkie bombers. This is a "Fuck YOU, Pootie-Poot!"

Meet the New Cold War, same as the Old Cold War.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. As it seems to have been planned before the buzzaing

which buzzing, by the way, is fairly routine, it is unlikely to have been a result of that incident. The buzzing was of course a response to the egregious behavior of the Bush regime in unilaterally pulling out of the anti-missile treaty, arranging to deploy their destabilizing missile defense shield on Russia's borders, and openly messing around in central asia with the 'stans that used to be part of the USSR. There is simply nothing equivalent on the Russian side.

[MADem]

8. Those "plans to shoot down a satellite in low earth orbit" are boiler plate.

Those plans have been around since Reagan was in office, when the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) offices were running full-bore at the Pentagon, the SDI manpower allocations created a giant sucking sound that impacted all branches of service AND the civilian sector, and they had HUGE acres of offices in prime DOD real estate, and were included in every key briefing that took place over there!!!

It was fucking asinine, but they didn't throw all that bullshit paperwork they generated out. They just dusted it off, added a few jazzy graphics, put a new plastic cover on it, and ginned up a new Power Point presentation to 'go with.' Yes, We CAN shoot down a satellite!!

Buzzing isn't uncommon in the BIG picture, over the course of, say, decades-- but buzzing with bombers doesn't happen every day and cannot be regarded, these days, as "routine" at all. In fact, it has been RARE since "Tear Down These Walls" and very rare in recent years.

It's been almost FOUR YEARS since we've seen this kind of shit play out. Therefore, it can only be regarded as a "raise the stakes" play.

The way that went down it was regarded as a slap, and USN and DOD are annoyed.

I cite, because I don't assert without proof: http://www.local6.com/news/15274421/detail.html?rss=orlpn&psp=news

The official said there were no verbal communications between the U.S. and the Russians, and the Pentagon has not heard of any protests being filed by the United States. Historically, diplomatic protests were not filed in such incidents because they were so common during the Cold War era.

This is the first time Russian Tupolevs have flown over or interacted with a U.S. carrier since 2004.

[acmavm]

7. And you've been right. It's sort of like Hiroshima and Nagasaki (only not

as catastrophic for humanity). They didn't have to bomb either city. The war was lost. BUT we had to deal with an uppity Stalin and the coming cold war (which by that time was inevitable) so we decided to give him a nice little warning of what we could do.

This is just business as usual.

[cornermouse]

3. I expect them to report that they hit it.

I expect the public to believe them.
I expect them to miss it by a country mile. The last I heard they haven't hit anything that didn't have a homing signal attached to it. I don't see this as being something they will succeed at.

Oops. That was supposed to be didn't not did. :blush:

[IndianaGreen]

5. The Navy has 2 back up missiles to the one they are launching

How's that for a confidence level? In a real war situation, an attacker would have hundreds of warheads including many dummies to confuse our radar.

[lovuian]

4. I wonder if they are testing Anti Satellite

weaponry like the Russian are saying

[melody]

6. George just wants one last chance to use a light sabre

And we all know what he thinks that is.

Actually, since hearing it will probably strike the US, he's probably just hoping to kill as many Democrats
as possible.