Rumsfeld's ''Full-Spectrum Dominance'' goal dominate earth from Space

[ElsewheresDaughter]

http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/edits/seang.htm

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''Full-Spectrum Dominance'' comes right out of U.S. military doctrine as outlined in documents such as ''Full Spectrum Dominance and Air Force Space Command Strategic Master Plan FY06,'' which states that the U.S. military goal is to fight war ''in, from and through'' space, based on the Rumsfeld logic that whoever controls space will dominate earth.


This week's phrase - ''full spectrum dominance'' - came to me thanks to Nobel-prize winner Helen Caldicott, who now heads the Nuclear Policy Research Institute.

She invited me to a bipartisan seminar on the militarization of space at the Airlie Conference Center in Warrenton, Va., about 45 minutes outside of the nation's capital. The conference was attended by top defense experts, scholars, diplomats and a handful of reporters. (Disclosure: The research institute, an anti-nuclear advocacy group, partially funded Gonsalves' attendance.)

''Full-Spectrum Dominance'' comes right out of U.S. military doctrine as outlined in documents such as ''Full Spectrum Dominance and Air Force Space Command Strategic Master Plan FY06,'' which states that the U.S. military goal is to fight war ''in, from and through'' space, based on the Rumsfeld logic that whoever controls space will dominate earth.

Dr. Craig Eisendrath, who helped write the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and is now a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, gave an overview on the history of ballistic missile defense. The U.S. actually deployed a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in North Dakota in 1976, which cost $6 billion. Four months after it was set up, it was dismantled because it didn't work.

Dr. Theodore Postol, professor of science, technology and national security at MIT, talked about why we're barking up the wrong circuit-tree, having spent about $130 billion on BMD research and technology to date. Postol, probably the best-known expert critic of BMD, began his talk by saying ''I like weapons that work.'' He explained, in technical detail, why scientists can't make a viable BMD system. He called it the ''problem of discrimination.''

''Imagine looking for a bomb in a suitcase but you can't look inside the suitcase, even though it's the contents that need to identified...if multiple objects have the same appearance, then discrimination is impossible.''

Simple decoys like aluminum balloons look like missiles or light-seeking warheads. And even when a ballistic missile is targeted by the ''eyes'' of interceptors, their sight is analogous to looking at a target ''through a drinking straw.''

A half-dozen distinguished scientists agreed, including two Nobel prize winners, Dr. John Polyanni, chemistry professor at the University of Toronto, and Dr. Steven Weinberg, director of Theory Research Group at the University of Texas in Austin.

In fact, Weinberg went so far as to say that manned space exploration has far less scientific value than do unmanned space exploration, which has all but gone down the tubes with the decommissioning of the Hubble.

President Bush announced manned-space exploration as a goal of his administration, which would cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Wasting money on a costly, unworkable system that offers the illusion of absolute security; taxpayer money that could be better spent on public needs like health care, he said, is ''criminal.''

As you read this, defense officials are developing plans to put weapons in space, things like hypervelocity rod bundles, which insiders call ''Rods from God,'' whose purpose is to penetrate subterranean targets.

Our policy planners and so-called leaders are provoking China and Russia in their pursuit of God-like powers to dominate the earth, which is the most dangerous form of idolatry imaginable.

Meanwhile, most Americans have never heard of this stuff, even from the ''liberal'' media, as conservative Christians, who seem to be hogging the national microphone, debate about same-sex marriage and stem-cell research.

If it's ''the kids'' and future generations we're really concerned about, we had better get more acquainted with ''full-spectrum dominance'' and re-acquaint ourselves with words like proportionality, priorities and moral discernment.

[Crunchy Frog]

1. Is something like this the general idea?

[LaurenG]

2. The problem with this rummy boy

Is that if those who exist outside of our atmosphere don't want you to do this you won't.

I wonder if most people still don't believe in extraterrestrial life and so they make evil grand plans that will come to nothing.

[bennywhale]

3. American Primacy in all areas since the end of the Cold War has been

the accepted Doctrine of American Foreign Policy. It was pursued by Clinton also, it was just done with a bit of subtelty.

This is the goal/accepted aim of ALL people in ALL areas of US politics.

[Flavin]

4. This idea was originated by Jerry Pournell, SF Writer

Snippage
As you read this, defense officials are developing plans to put weapons in space, things like hypervelocity rod bundles, which insiders call ''Rods from God,'' whose purpose is to penetrate subterranean targets.
Un snippage

Way back in the early 1980's when Ronnie ray-gun was pimping his star wars program a large group of SF writers meet with the DARPA people and a select group of retired military-types in a group brain-mushing. Both types mixed it up in little groups, brainstorming ideas on the uses of technology and the future of warfare.

Out of this came a series of short stories anthologized in the "there will be War" series of Paperbacks. Besides short stories, there were more than a few essays. One essay was written by Jerry Pournell (I'm pretty sure he was the author), known for his hard-science science Fiction.

The Thor System
The Norse god of thunder (and lightning)

He postulated a dirt cheap defense system which consisted of a simple computer The mental equivilent of your desk top pc, shielded from orbital radiation, controlling targeting thrusters and a system of release clamps. Each of these units held a grouping of simple iron rods, 6 - 10 ft long.
These would all be enveloped in an expanded foam shell and colored to blend into their surroundings. They could be strewn "by the dozens" with each space shuttle flight in geo sync orbits over trouble spots such as the middle east (Syria was mentioned in the essay as an example).

Say country X sends an armoured column into say, country Israel (the examople). The order goes to unit 13451a to target the lead vehicle in the column.
A single iron rod drops from the bundle.
It accelerates to an incredible sped as it enters the atmosphere, as it does so, it heats and turn to a near plasma state.
It strikes either the lead vehicle or close enough to halt the column, for as it impacts this 100lbs or less of iron gives you a near-nuclear yield.
The essay goes on to talk about targeting individuals (country X's leadership)in neighborhoods.

I have very mixed emotions about this.

Chris

[applegrove]

5. I take it their propaganda no longer works on earth. So they move

to a place where we cannot test the truth. Pathetic!