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
