U.S. Military Plans to Fight Wars from Space
By Karl Grossman, professor of journalism, State University of New York/College
at Old Westbury; author
of The Wrong Stuff: The Space Program's Nuclear Threat to our Planet; convener,
Global Network
Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.
The U.S. is seeking to "control space" in order to
"dominate" the Earth below. The Bush
administration is gung-ho for U.S. projection of space military power. As
the January 2001 report of the
"Space Commission" chaired by incoming Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld puts it: "In the coming
period, the U.S. will conduct operations to, from, in and through space in
support of its national interests
both on the Earth and in space." Star Wars is back.
But there's a difference since Star Wars first emerged under Ronald Reagan in
1983. Then, it was
purportedly needed to fend off what Reagan called the "evil empire,"
the Soviet Union. There is no Soviet
Union any longer. A key rationale for Star Wars now is the global economy
of which the U.S. is the
engine. The U.S. would, from the "ultimate high ground" of
space, "dominate" the planet below in part to
keep the global economy on track. Says the U.S. Space Command's
"Vision for 2020" report, its cover
depicting a laser weapon shooting a beam down from space zapping a target below:
"The globalization of
the world economy will also continue with a widening between 'haves' and
'have-nots.'" From space, the
U.S. would keep those 'have-nots' in line.
The U.S. Space Command, set up by the Pentagon in 1985, describes itself in
"Vision for 2020"
this way: "U.S. Space Command dominating the space dimension of military
operations to protect U.S.
interests and investment. Integrating Space Forces into war fighting
capabilities across the full spectrum of
conflict."
"Vision for 2020" compares the U.S. effort to "control
space" and Earth below to how centuries
ago "nations built navies to protect and enhance their commercial
interests," referring to the great empires
of Europe that ruled the waves and thus the Earth to maintain their imperial
economies. Consider the
"Long Range Plan" of the U.S. Space Command. "The U.S. will
remain a global power and exert global
leadership," it says.
"The U.S. won't always be able to forward base its forces. Widespread
communications will
highlight disparities in resources and quality of life contributing to unrest in
developing countries. The
global economy will continue to become more interdependent. Economic
alliances, as well as the growth
and influence of multinational corporations, will blur security agreements.
The gap between `have' and
`have-not' nations will widen creating regional unrest. One of the long
acknowledged and commonly
understood advantages of space-based platforms is no restriction or country
clearances to overfly a nation
from space."
The U.S. Space Command seeks to become "the
enforcement arm for the global economy," as
Bill Sulzman, director of Citizens for Peace in Space. U.S. citizens are
not aware of the broad military
plans of the U.S. for space because of the PR spin of the new Star Wars pitch
(it's about protecting against
a "Space Pearl Harbour," as the Rumsfeld Commission puts it,
"just" about "missile defense") and due to
communications media that are lazy and worse.
But other nations of the world do
understand. That's why, at the UN last November, a resolution was
introduced on which 163 nations voted yes for "Prevention of an Arms Race
in Outer Space." It reaffirmed
the basic international law on space - the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 - and its
provision that space be
set aside for "peaceful purposes."
The U.S. abstained. The rogue state called the
U.S. thinks it can be "Master of Space." This motto
appears on the U.S. Air Force Space Command uniform and is in three-foot letters
over the entrance of the
Air Force's 50th Space Wing. It pretty well sums up the attitude toward
space of the U.S. power structure.
Major aerospace corporations are working closely with the
U.S. military to achieve this goal.
The "Long Range Plan starts by explaining how it has been U.S. Space
Command's number one priority....
The development and production process, by design... including about 75
corporations." These
corporations include Aerojet, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Ray-theon, Sparta Corp.,
TRW and Vista
Technologies.
Star Wars, with its powerful backers, never went away. Funding at $6
billion-a-year plus monies
in the "black" or secret for U.S. space military activities continued
through the Clinton administration. Last
December, the Department of Defense cleared the way to development the
"Space Based Laser Readiness
Demonstrator," a project of Lockheed Martin, Boeing and TRW with a
"life cycle budget" of US$20-$30
billion. A second space-based laser weapon, on which development continued
through the Clinton years, is
the "Alpha High-Energy Laser." Clinton's Assistant Secretary of
the U.S. Air Force for Space, Keith Hall,
said: "With regard to space dominance, we have it, we like it, and we're
going to keep it." Things are far
worse now with Bush and Cheney, their administration intimately linked to the
aerospace companies
Cheney himself a former member of the TRW board, his wife Lynn a member of the
Lockheed Martin
board and tied to the ultra right-wing "think tanks" that, with the
U.S. military, have been promoting Star
Wars.
January's report by the Rumsfeld "Space Commission" calls for U.S.
"power projection in, from
and through space." It seeks U.S. "superior space capabilities."
It says the U.S. president should "have the
option to deploy weapons in space." It emphasizes that it is "possible
to project power through and from
space in response to events anywhere in the world. Unlike weapons from
aircraft, land forces or ships,
space missions initiated from earth or space could be carried out with little
transit, information or weather
delay. Having this capability would give the U.S. a much stronger
deterrent and, in a conflict, an
extraordinary military advantage." It proposes the U.S. Space Command
become the nucleus of a U.S.
Space Corps, to be like the Marine Corps and possibly "transition" to
a fully separate Space Force or
"Space Department" on par with the Army, Navy and Air Force several
years hence.
Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire - whose legislation established the Rumsfeld
"Space
Commission" - said "It is our manifest destiny.... we went from
the East Coast to the West Coast of the
U.S. of America settling the continent and they call that manifest destiny and
the next continent if you will,
the next frontier, is space and it goes on forever." Now it's U.S.
cosmic "manifest destiny."
In The Future of War: Power, Technology and American World Dominance in the 2lst
Century,
George and Meredith Friedman, conclude: "Just as by the year 1500 it was
apparent that the European
experience of power would be its domination of the global seas, it does not take
much to see that the
American experience of power will rest on the domination of space.... Just as
Europe expanded war and its
power to the global oceans, the U.S. is expanding war and its power into space.
Just as Europe shaped the
world for half a millennium, so too the U.S. will shape the world for at least
that length of time.For better
or worse, America has seized hold of the future of war, and with it for a time
the future of humanity."
The rest of the world will not sit back and accept U.S. "world
dominance" from space. If the U.S.
moves ahead on its program of astro-imperialism, there will be an arms race and
inevitably war in space.
As First Secretary of China's UN delegation, Wang Xiaoyu, has declared:
"Outer space is the common
heritage of human beings. It should be used entirely for peaceful purposes
and for the economic, scientific
and cultural development of all countries as well as the well-being of mankind.
It must not be weaponized
and become another arena of the arms race.... Space domination, is a
hegemonic concept. Its essence is
monopoly of space and denial of others access to it." If the U.S.
pushes ahead, "other countries would in
response launch their own" space military programs, China vowed.
China is, for now, holding off and
seeking an international ban on weapons in space. But the U.S. has
rebuffed the Chinese initiative, too.
As "New World Vistas: Air and Space Power for the 2lst Century," a
U.S. Air Force board report,
states: "In the next two decades, new technologies will allow the fielding
of space-based weapons of
devastating effectiveness to be used to deliver energy and mass as force
projection in tactical and strategic
conflict. These advances will enable lasers with reasonable mass and cost
to effect very many kills." But
"power limitations impose restrictions" on such-based weapons systems
making them "relatively
unfeasible. A natural technology to enable high power," it goes on,
"is nuclear power in space. Setting the
emotional issues of nuclear power aside, this technology offers a viable
alternative for large amounts of
power in space."
The Outer Space Treaty is a visionary document. It is a pact to keep war
out of space. The U.S.
was a leader in getting it enacted. It has been signed by most nations of
the world. Based on the Antarctic
Treaty, it calls for the "exploration and use of outer space [to] the
benefit and in the interests of all
countries" and prohibits the "placement in orbit around the Earth any
objects carrying nuclear weapons or
any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction." For nearly four
decades, it has kept space war-free. If
the U.S. succeeds in trashing the Outer Space Treaty and makes space a new place
for war. No one will
profit but Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, TRW, and so on. We must join
with peoples from around
the world and stop this move by the U.S. to turn the heavens into a war zone.
For more information, contact: Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power
in Space, P.O. Box
90083, Gainesville, Florida 32607, USA. Tel.: 352-337-9274; E-mail: <globalnet@mindspring.com>
Web
site: <www. space4peace.org> Grossman has produced documentaries,
including "Nukes In Space" and
"Star Wars Returns." To order, call: 800-ECO-TV46 or see
<www. envirovideo.com>
Source: Presentation at Technology and Globalization Teach-In, New York City,
February 24, 2001.