Bush Opens Outer Space To
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25.10.2006 fra Global Network <
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BUSH OPENS
OUTER SPACE TO COMBAT – by Karl Grossman
It was
issued quietly: 5 p.m. on the Friday before the long Columbus Day weekend, a
release seemingly designed to get little notice. But what it involved deserves
major attention: a new U.S. National Space Policy that could set the stage for
the heavens being turned into a battleground.
For
decades, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 has shaped how nations approach space. Developed
by the United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Unionand now ratified
essentially by all the world’s countriesthe landmark agreement sets space
aside for peaceful purposes.
But the
United States became uncomfortable with the treaty in the 1980s during
President Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” program. That discomfort was marked in
the 1990s by U.S. opposition to efforts (still ongoing) led by Canadaand
including Russia and Chinato ban all weapons in space; the treaty only bans
weapons of mass destruction.
There were
bellicose declarations in the 1990s, too, from the U.S. Space Command speaking
of “dominating the space dimension of military operations to protest U.S.
interests and investment.”
Moreover,
as George W. Bush took office, a commission chaired by his defense secretary-to-be,
Donald Rumsfeld, spoke of how “in the coming period the U.S. will conduct
operations to, from, in, and through space to support its national interests.”
Then the
Bush administration began revising the U.S. National Space Policy as issued by
President Bill Clinton. A front-page, lead article in “The New York Times” last
year reported that the U.S. Air Force was “seeking President Bush’s approval of
a national-security directive that could move the United States closer to
fielding offensive and defense space weapons.” It told of how one “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 miles an hour with the force of a small
nuclear weapon.”
The new
policy does not explicitly declare the United States will now move ahead with
such space weapons but it opens the door.
“Freedom of
action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea
power,” it asserts in its introduction. Under “National Security Space
Guidelines,” it says, “United States national security is critically dependent
upon space capabilities, and this dependence will grow.” So the United States
will “develop and deploy space capabilities that sustain U.S. advantage.”
Also, the
10-page policy says 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.”
Further,
the policy authorizes the use of nuclear power overhead to “enhance space
exploration or operational capabilities…The use of space nuclear power systems
shall be consistent with U.S. national and homeland security, and foreign
policy interests.”
Bruce
Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power
in Space, speaks of the document’s “very provocative language…This is the kind
of talk that will create a new arms race in space, clearly just what the
military-industrial complex wants.”
And, he says, “Bush's new space policy enshrines the rejection of an
international treaty to ban weapons in space.”
The vision
of the Outer Space Treatyto set aside space as a global commons and to prevent
the armed conflict that has marked human history on Earth from extending into
the heavenswould be altered by the new U.S. policy.
The United
States sees its potential military supremacy in spaceand seeks to take
advantage of this. But that’s similar to the U.S. attitude in 1945 when we had
the atomic bomb and no one else did. It will not take long if space is opened
up to war for other nations, notably Russia and China, to meet the United
States in kind. We still have an opportunity now to adhere to and strengthen
the Outer Space Treaty and, with verification, continue to keep space for
peaceful purposes.
Or we can
turn the heavens into a war zone and a place for nuclear activity. We are at a
crossroads. The policy must not be slipped through quietly. The people of the
United States must have a voice and there should be wide public discussion on
this fateful decision.
Karl
Grossman, journalism professor at the State University of New York/College at
Old Westbury, wrote and narrated the award-winning TV documentary: “Weapons in
Space: The Nuclearization and Weaponization of the Heavens” (www.envirovideo.com ) – A photo of Karl
Grossman is available CLICK HERE
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