Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space (http://www.space4peace.org/), says: "While the specifics are yet to be fully known about Trump and Republican Congress plans for space weapons, there are some very disturbing initial recommendations that have been surfacing." For 25 years, the Maine-based network has been THE organization working internationally on these space issues.
Gagnon continued: "Suggestions to increase Pentagon spending to put ASAT (anti-satellite) weapons in space are probably the most disturbing because these systems indicate the mindset that a full-blown war in space is in the thinking of some now coming to power. This not only could lead to total global war but the devastation in space would seal the fate for future generations as massive fields of space debris would destroy any hopes for space travel or exploration.
"Republican leaders are suggesting that expanding so-called 'missile defense' (MD) systems, currently being used to encircle Russia and China, are in order including a massive increase in Navy Aegis destroyers outfitted with MD interceptors. MD is a key element in Pentagon first-strike attack planning and would obviously lead to counter measures by Moscow and Beijing.
"The world does not need a new arms race in space -- especially when we should be using our resources to deal with the real problems of climate change and growing poverty due to increasing economic divide," said Gagnon.
"The enormous cost of a Trump-led arms race in space is certainly causing the aerospace industry and their investors to salivate at the thought of increased profits. But the real issue to be considered is how a Trump administration would pay for what the Pentagon once described as the most expensive industrial project in human history. Trump has already declared that he intends to reduce taxes on corporations. Would this mean that Medicare and Social Security would be on the chopping block in order to pay for war in space?"
"Russia and China for years have gone to the UN pleading with the U.S. to seriously enter negotiations for a treaty to ban weapons in space -- the idea being to close the door to the barn before the horse gets out," Gagnon said. "During Republican and Democrat administrations the U.S. has blocked the development of such a forward-thinking treaty maintaining that there is 'no problem.' The military-industrial complex, which views space as a new profits arena, has ensured that the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space treaty negotiations were dead on arrival.
"Russia and China will be left with only one option -- they will have to respond in kind as the US attempts to 'control and dominate space' as is called for in the U.S. Space Command's planning document Vision for 2020," Gagnon went on. "The world can't afford a new arms race nor can the public allow the Trump administration to squander the national treasury on the foolish notion that the U.S. will be the 'Master of Space.'" ["Master of Space" is the motto of the 50th Space Wing of the U.S. Air Force Space Command.] "The time to speak out against war in space is now -- before more money is wasted and the shooting starts."
I've been writing for many years about space weaponry (including in my book Weapons in Space) and on television (including writing and narrating the documentaries Nukes in Space: the Nuclearization and Weaponization of the Heavens and also Star Wars Returns. I've given talks across the U.S. and world.
In Weapons in Space, I relate a 1999 presentation I gave at the UN in Geneva. The next day, a vote was to be held there on the PAROS treaty. On my way to observe the vote, I saw a U.S. diplomat who had been at my presentation and had not been happy with it. We approached each other and he said he would like to talk to me, anonymously. He said, on the street in front of the UN buildings, that the U.S has trouble with its citizenry in fielding a large number of troops on the ground. But the U.S military believes "we can project power from space" and that was why the military was moving in this direction. I questioned him on whether, if the U.S. moved ahead with weapons in space, other nations would meet the U.S. kind igniting an arms race in space. He replied that the U.S. military had done analyses and determined that China was "30 years behind" in competing with the U.S. militarily in space and Russia "doesn't have the money."
Then he went to vote and I watched as again there was overwhelming international support for the PAROS treaty -- but the U.S. balked. And because a consensus was needed for the passage of the treaty, it was blocked once more.
And this was during the Clinton administration.
Through the PAROS treaty, the goal is to have "all states, in particular those with major space capabilities, contribute actively to the objective of the peaceful use of outer space and of the prevention of an arms race in outer space and to refrain from actions contrary to that objective," as the UN General Assembly stated in 1996. http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/51/a51r044.htm
In 2001, with the election of George W. Bush, space weaponization was again on high-boil rather than the low-boil it was during the Clinton time.
That's when I began work on the TV documentary Star Wars Returns, which can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bdMzE3N5iw
And that year, too, I gave a presentation before members of the British Parliament in London. In it I outlined the just-released plan of the Space Commission led by then U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. I noted how it asserted: "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." I pointed out how it urged the U.S. president to "have the option to deploy weapons in space."
I quoted from the U.S. Space Command's Vision for 2020 report's speaking of "dominating the space dimension of military operations to protect U.S. interests and investment. Integrating Space Forces into warfighting capabilities across the full spectrum of conflict."
Gagnon continued: "Suggestions to increase Pentagon spending to put ASAT (anti-satellite) weapons in space are probably the most disturbing because these systems indicate the mindset that a full-blown war in space is in the thinking of some now coming to power. This not only could lead to total global war but the devastation in space would seal the fate for future generations as massive fields of space debris would destroy any hopes for space travel or exploration.
"Republican leaders are suggesting that expanding so-called 'missile defense' (MD) systems, currently being used to encircle Russia and China, are in order including a massive increase in Navy Aegis destroyers outfitted with MD interceptors. MD is a key element in Pentagon first-strike attack planning and would obviously lead to counter measures by Moscow and Beijing.
"The world does not need a new arms race in space -- especially when we should be using our resources to deal with the real problems of climate change and growing poverty due to increasing economic divide," said Gagnon.
"Russia and China for years have gone to the UN pleading with the U.S. to seriously enter negotiations for a treaty to ban weapons in space -- the idea being to close the door to the barn before the horse gets out," Gagnon said. "During Republican and Democrat administrations the U.S. has blocked the development of such a forward-thinking treaty maintaining that there is 'no problem.' The military-industrial complex, which views space as a new profits arena, has ensured that the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space treaty negotiations were dead on arrival.
"Russia and China will be left with only one option -- they will have to respond in kind as the US attempts to 'control and dominate space' as is called for in the U.S. Space Command's planning document Vision for 2020," Gagnon went on. "The world can't afford a new arms race nor can the public allow the Trump administration to squander the national treasury on the foolish notion that the U.S. will be the 'Master of Space.'" ["Master of Space" is the motto of the 50th Space Wing of the U.S. Air Force Space Command.] "The time to speak out against war in space is now -- before more money is wasted and the shooting starts."
I've been writing for many years about space weaponry (including in my book Weapons in Space) and on television (including writing and narrating the documentaries Nukes in Space: the Nuclearization and Weaponization of the Heavens and also Star Wars Returns. I've given talks across the U.S. and world.
In Weapons in Space, I relate a 1999 presentation I gave at the UN in Geneva. The next day, a vote was to be held there on the PAROS treaty. On my way to observe the vote, I saw a U.S. diplomat who had been at my presentation and had not been happy with it. We approached each other and he said he would like to talk to me, anonymously. He said, on the street in front of the UN buildings, that the U.S has trouble with its citizenry in fielding a large number of troops on the ground. But the U.S military believes "we can project power from space" and that was why the military was moving in this direction. I questioned him on whether, if the U.S. moved ahead with weapons in space, other nations would meet the U.S. kind igniting an arms race in space. He replied that the U.S. military had done analyses and determined that China was "30 years behind" in competing with the U.S. militarily in space and Russia "doesn't have the money."
Then he went to vote and I watched as again there was overwhelming international support for the PAROS treaty -- but the U.S. balked. And because a consensus was needed for the passage of the treaty, it was blocked once more.
And this was during the Clinton administration.
Through the PAROS treaty, the goal is to have "all states, in particular those with major space capabilities, contribute actively to the objective of the peaceful use of outer space and of the prevention of an arms race in outer space and to refrain from actions contrary to that objective," as the UN General Assembly stated in 1996. http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/51/a51r044.htm
In 2001, with the election of George W. Bush, space weaponization was again on high-boil rather than the low-boil it was during the Clinton time.
That's when I began work on the TV documentary Star Wars Returns, which can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bdMzE3N5iw
And that year, too, I gave a presentation before members of the British Parliament in London. In it I outlined the just-released plan of the Space Commission led by then U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. I noted how it asserted: "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." I pointed out how it urged the U.S. president to "have the option to deploy weapons in space."
I quoted from the U.S. Space Command's Vision for 2020 report's speaking of "dominating the space dimension of military operations to protect U.S. interests and investment. Integrating Space Forces into warfighting capabilities across the full spectrum of conflict."
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