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U.S. MILITARY MOVES TO CONTROL SPACE AND
BE ENFORCEMENT ARM FOR THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
Presentation at Technology and Globalization Teach-In
New York City, February 24, 2001
by Karl Grossman
The United States is seeking to control space and from space
dominate the Earth below and "control" and "dominate" are words used
repeatedly in U.S. military documents. The U.S. military, further, would
like to base weapons in space. The new Bush administration is gung-ho for
U.S. projection of space military power. As last month's 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. And a key rationale for Star Wars now, U.S. military
documents acknowledge, 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: "US Space Command dominating the
space dimension of military operations to protect US interests and
investment. Integrating Space Forces into warfighting 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
United States will remain a global power and exert global leadership," it
says. "The United States 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 multi-national 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
put it at the international conference last year of the Global Network
Against Weapons and Nuclear Power 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 Harbor," 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 United Nations last November 20, 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 specifically its provision
that space be set-aside for "peaceful purposes." The United States
abstained.
A country leading in the international effort to stop the U.S.
plans by strengthening the Outer Space Treaty and barring all weapons from
space is Canadano potential rival.
As Marc Vidricaire, representing Canada, said at the UN last
year: "It has been suggested that our proposal is not relevant because the
assessment on which it rests is either premature or alarmist. In our
view, it is neither. One need only look at what is happening right now."
Moreover, stressed the Canadian statement, "There is no question that the
technology can be developed to place weapons in outer space. There is
also no question that no state can expect to maintain a monopoly on such
knowledge -- or such capabilities -- for all time. If one state actively
pursues the weaponization of space, we can be sure others will follow."
But the rogue state called the United States is blocking the Canadian
initiative. For the U.S. thinks it can be as the motto of the Air Force
Space Command terms it "Master of Space." "Master of Space." It appears
as a Space Command uniform patch and is in three-foot high 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. Working closely
with the U.S. military in achieving this goal are major aerospace
corporations. Indeed, the "Long Range Plan starts out by explaining how it
has been U.S. Space Command's" #1 priority, investing nearly 20 man-years
to make it a reality" and: "The development and production process, by
design, involved hundreds of people including about 75 corporations." The
"Long Range Plan" goes on to list those 75 corporations beginning with
Aerojet and going through Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Sparta
Corp. to TRW and Vista Technologies. President Dwight Eisenhower warned in
his "farewell address" in 1959 of the influence of a "military-industrial
complex." Now, the U.S. military boasts about how giant corporations are
helping set U.S. military doctrine. Star Wars, with its powerful backers,
never, in fact, 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, Clinton's Department of Defense
cleared the way for development of the "Space Based Laser Readiness
Demonstrator" a project of Lockheed Martin, Boeing and TRW with a
"lifecycle budget" of $20 to $30 billion. A second space-based laser
weapon on which development continued through the Clinton years is the
"Alpha High-Energy Laser," now test-fired more than 20 times.
It was Clinton's Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force for
Space Keith Hall who said: "With regard to space dominance, we have it, we
like it, and we're going to keep it." And 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. The new administration is pushing hard and fast to make space a new
arena of war. Last month'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. As the man whose legislation got
the Rumsfeld "Space Commission" established, Senator Bob Smith of New
Hampshire, said in an interview just taped with him to be part of my
forthcoming "Star Wars Returns" video documentary, involved is the new
"manifest destiny" of the U.S. "It is our manifest destiny," said Senator
Smith. "You know we went from the East Coast to the West Coast of the
United States 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."
The book, "The Future of War: Power, Technology and American World
Dominance in the 2lst Century," by think-tankers George and Meredith
Friedman, concludes: "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 United States is expanding war and its
power into space. Just as Europe shaped the world for half a millennium,
so too the United States 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, deploys weapons in space, other nations China and
Russia right off will meet the U.S. in kind. 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," he stated, "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. However, China is, for now, holding
off and, paralleling Canada's initiative, also seeking an international
ban on weapons in space. But the U.S. has rebuffed the Chinese
initiative, too. Incidentally, the weapons the U.S. military wants to
deploy in space especially lasers will need large amounts of power. And
nuclear energy is seen by the U.S. military as the "natural" power source
for them.
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 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," asserts "New World Vistas."
The Outer Space Treaty is a visionary document. It is a pact to
keep war out of space. The U.S., incidentally, was a leader in getting it
enacted. It is now signed now 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. What a legacy to be left for our
children and their children at the dawn of this new century, this new
millennium, 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 and Raytheon and TRW, and so on.
We have a narrow window to keep space for peace, to strengthen the
Outer Space Treaty and ban all weapons in space. We must join with peoples
from around the world and stop this move by the United States to turn the
heavens into a war zone.
Getting and spreading the information about what is going on is
critical. And then: action, action, action. I urge you to join with the
Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power In Space and move against
what is happening. We must challenge the anti-environmental,
anti-democratic global economy and we must challenge its would-be
"enforcement arm" the new U.S. space military establishment.
***
Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at the State University of New
York/College at Old Westbury, has specialized in investigative reporting
for more than 30 years. His books include "The Wrong Stuff: The Space
Program's Nuclear Threat To Our Planet" (Common Courage Press) and his
video documentaries include "Nukes In Space: The Nuclearization and
Weaponization of the Heavens" (EnviroVideo). His new video documentary,
"Star Wars Returns," is forthcoming from EnviroVideo (1-800-ECO-TV46 or
http://www.envirovideo.com) and new book, "Weapons In Space," soon to be
published by Seven Stories Press (http:[EMAIL PROTECTED] or
212-226-8760). Grossman is a charter member of the Commission on
Disarmament Education, Conflict Resolution and Peace of the International
Association of University Presidents and the United Nations. He is
convenor of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power In Space
(352-337-9274 or http://www.space4peace.org or E-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Its address is PO Box 90083, Gainesville, Florida 32607.
Grossman's home address: Box 1680, Sag Harbor, New York 11963.
Telephone: 631-725-2858. Fax: 631-725-9338. E-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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