Welcome to the Cold War for the 21st Century. Yes, Virginia, we can shoot down a failing satellite just like those mean old Chinese did. I can almost hear the television commercial in my head, a'la Monster Truck Rally:"friday, Friday, FRIDAY! Coming to a theater of operations near you - its the big, bad nation-builder herself the old U-S-of-A against that prolific up-and-comer China! Get your tickets now for the rootenest-shootenest-who can outspend the other contest since Reagan bitch slapped the old USSR..."
Seriously, though. The Hawks in Washington weren't going to let this opportunity go by were they? All of the fur that ruffled when the Chinese shot down their errant weather satellite last year can be smoothed nicely by us performing the same magic trick. Take a moment to read the article and notice how, "Why yes! By simply tweaking the software and adding a touch more fuel (and a kiss for good luck!) this simple surface-to-air missle can take down a sattelite." Who needs an umbrella missle defense when you can just jazz up a rocket you already have?
The latter statement begs the question, "Why have we spent billions upon billions on Star Wars and 'missle defense shields' when we can just jury-rig something the Navy totes around every day?" Don't ask that one too loudly though, or the fine folks at McDonnel-Douglas or Boeing might help you take an extended vacation to a very, very quiet spot somewhere.
At any rate, dig deeply into your news sources over the coming weeks to watch this unfold. It should be chock full of posturing goodness!
CNN.com Story Here
The Cost of this Fiasco
1 comment:
"The latter statement begs the question, "Why have we spent billions upon billions on Star Wars and 'missle defense shields' when we can just jury-rig something the Navy totes around every day?""
Ummm I'm not one to defend the Reagan's Star Wars Redux program, but there is one thing that you do need to remember. It's a hell of a lot easier to hit a satellite whose trajectory is predictable than it is to hit an ICBM whose trajectory, though it can be estimated, is essentially unknown.
Is this a military pissing contest? Absolutely. Is it kind of stupid? Undoubtedly. Is it the plot of several awful sci-fi movies starring Ben Affleck? HELL YES IT IS! It's a good thing that the writers' strike is over, the Bush administration needs some fresh material (though rumor has it Cheney will be costarring in the sequel to Hottie or the Nottie).
Not to mention the possibility of that much more smallish space junk waiting to punch a hole in those big mac boxes that they have covering the space shuttle's fuselage.
That being said, this line from the article is absolute gold:
"After further review of this option and, in particular, consideration of the question of saving or reducing injury to human life, the president, on the recommendation of his national and homeland teams, directed the Department of Defense to carry out the intercept"
What was really said was:
"All right y'all. This is seereoos business. Can't y'all just shoot that sat... satell... space thingy down? (insert Slim Pickens missile whoop here)."
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