Iraq war emboldens Bush space plans

Bruce Gagnon

Military victory in the Iraq war has emboldened the Pentagon in their claims that space technology gives the US total advantage in time of war. According to Peter Teets, under secretary of the Air Force and director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), American capability in space, "must remain ahead of our adversaries' capabilities, and our doctrine and capabilities must keep pace to meet that challenge".
"I think the recent military conflict hasshown us, without a doubt, how important the use of space is to national security andmilitary operations," Teets, a former Lockheed Martin executive, recently said.
    In order to accomplish the goal of technologically leapfrogging the space programto the point of global "control and domination" a new agreement has been signed byNASA, US Strategic Command, the NRO and the Air Force Space Command to fullymesh all their research and development efforts together. Thus, we witness thetakeover of the US space program by the military and the weapons corporations.
    One such example of this new emphasis on technology sharing is the Bushadministration announcement of Project Prometheus, a multi-billion dollar pro-gramme to create a nuclear rocket.
    NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe, whoclaims everything NASA does from now on will be "dual use" (meaning it will serveboth military and civilian purposes), has said, "propulsion power generationadvances that are so critical to the purposes of achieving our exploration and discoveryobjectives are the same technologies that national security seeks to utilise". It haslong been said by the Pentagon that they will require nuclear reactors in space topower space-based weapons.
    Another example of this new dual userelationship is the effort to replace the unstable space shuttle fleet. A $4.8 bil-lion development programme is now focusing on the "military space plane", with the Air Force playing a larger role incalling the shots.
    A fleet of space planes will be designedto attack and destroy future satellites of enemies and rivals. A prototype is expect-ed by 2005 with deployment envisioned around 2014.

Special relationships?

According to James Roche, the USAF Secretary, America's allies would have "noveto power" over projects like the military space plane that are designed to givethe US military control of space.
The NRO, the super secret spy agencywhich is responsible for US satellites, has been given the job to develop the strategyto ensure American allies or enemies never gain access to space without USpermission. European efforts to build the multi-billion dollar Galileo satellite navi-gational system are seen as a direct threat to US plans for space dominance.
In a computer wargame held at the Air Force's Space Warfare Center at Schrieverair force base in Colorado in spring 2003, the US practised such space "negation".The wargame, set in the year 2017, pitted the blue team (US) against the red team(China). Its scenario was fairly complex, incorporating several "opportunities forconflict in south-west and southern Asia". Unlike the last such game in 2001, thisyear's version urged participants not to get "bogged down in discussions aboutspace law and policies, which disrupted the game's military operations," reportedAviation Week & Space Technology. This time around the ABM Treaty with Russiawas no longer in existence.

A new arms race

Russia and China are renewing their call for a global ban on weapons in space. On31 July 2003 the two powers delivered their pleas at a session of the UN Confer-ence on Disarmament in Geneva. Both countries worry that Bush's call for earlydeployment of National Missile Defence (NMD) will create a new and costly armsrace in space that will be difficult to call back. So far the US refuses to discuss amoratorium or ban on weapons in space - saying there is no problem and thus noneed to begin negotiations.
Bush is calling for deployment of sixNMD missile interceptors in Alaska, and four in California, by 30 September 2004.Ten more are due in Fort Greely, Alaska, by 2005. The $500 million constructionproject is headed by Boeing and Bechtel corporations. The big problem for Bush'sdeployment plan, to be carried out just prior to the 2004 national elections, is thatthe testing programme of the interceptor missiles is not going well. In addition tothe fact that the hit-to-kill mechanisms are proving unreliable (trying to have a bullethit a bullet in deep space), the booster rockets that are supposed to launch the"kill vehicle" into space are months behind schedule in development. The Bush solu-tion to the problem has been to say that future testing will be done in secrecy.

Boeing, Bechtel, Lockheed...

Each of these Missile Defense Agency (MDA) tests cost over $100 million. Boe-ing was recently promised a $45 million bonus if it could carry out a successful test,but failed to do so. In fact Boeing has other troubles. Last January, two Boeingmanagers stationed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, were charged with conspiring tosteal Lockheed Martin trade secrets involving another Air Force rocket programme.
Despite such fraud, delays, cost overruns and technology problems the USHouse and Senate continue to grant the Pentagon virtually every penny theyrequest for Star Wars. In 2004, $9.1 billion will be awarded to the MDA forspace weapons research and development.
Bush has, in his first three years inoffice, created the largest budget deficit in US history. As money for education,health care, social security, environmental clean-up, and the like are cut, militaryspending now accounts for the majority of federal spending in nearly every state.The US now accounts for 43% of world military spending.

Co-opted through business

The US is anxious for Australia, Britain, India, Israel, Russia, and others tobecome international partners in Star Wars. The programme will be so expen-sive (some say the largest industrial project in the history of the planet) that eventhe US can't pay for it alone. By pulling in the aerospace sectors of other countries,Bush knows he can blunt international opposition to his goals of a new and veryexpensive arms race that will clearly benefit the aerospace industry and the politi-cians that get the kick-backs.
As we recall George W Bush's post 9-11 statement that, "It's going to be a long, long war", our eyes must turn to thelarger issue of US plans for global empire. Recent disclosures in US News (21 July2003) about Pentagon "Operations Plan 5030" reveal a new war plan for NorthKorea. One scenario calls for US surveillance flights bumping up alongside North Korean airspace in hopes of creating theright incident to spark the pretext for war.

Real motives

Expanding US military presence worldwide is intended to secure scarce resourceslike oil and water for US corporate control. Growing "global strike capability"means smaller but more manoeuvrable troop deployments to rapidly suppress anyopposition to US dominance. The people of the world are being told to submit toUS authority or pay the price. US space technology is intended to tie this globalmilitary package together and to ensure that no military competitor can emerge.
The global peace movement we witnessed prior to the recent US attacks andoccupation of Iraq is the other superpower in the world today. US ambitions forglobal control and domination in the end will fail because the people of the worldwill not allow any one nation to be the over-lord of the planet.
Between 4 and 11 October the Global Network will hold its annual Keep Spacefor Peace Week: International Days of Protest to Stop the Militarisation of Space. Localevents are expected to be held on virtually every continent of the world to show thegrowing consciousness within the peace movement about the current US plan forcontrol of space. We urge local groups to organise actions in solidarity with othergroups on this day. Check our website at www.space4peace.org for details. Let us all do what we can to nonviolently resist this frightening global strategy.

Bruce K Gagnon is the Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
GNAWPS, PO Box 652, Brunswick, ME 04011, USA (+1 207 729 0517; m +1 352 871 7554; email globalnet@mindspring.com; http://www.space4peace.org ).