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War in Heaven - Book Review

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The end results are several, but mainly "it impoverishes the nation, and does little or nothing for U.S. security." The scenario of space wars, if applied, would "sacrifice precious peaceful uses" to achieve "a nerve wracking state; space would be unstable, punctuated by challenges to U.S. dominance and a worldwide state of tension [terror for the average citizen]." The authors' final statement of the chapter leaves me uncomfortable, either through bad wording, but also perhaps revealing another bias of U.S. exceptionalism, that "Now, when it has military supremacy, is the time to work out the agreements that will ensure its future." Its future as what? Global hegemon? Militarized star wars scenarios are scary, but continuing military supremacy, and continuing political/financial supremacy are also scary, not quite so dramatic and direct, but in the long term, still quite devastating to millions of global citizens.



In "Alternatives to Weapons in Outer Space" the authors look at the problems associated with a "continuous undefined war on terror," the gathering of power into an imperial presidency, and proceeds with laying out arguments and ideas that would lead to an international treaty on the de-weaponization of outer space. The conclusion is that "That tools for this effort are already in place....The United States must with urgency move away from its unilateral position, and join its co-habitants on this planet." Certainly the tools are there, they always have been, but the statements coming from the presidential candidates only indicate that the same old plans will continue in effect under a new administration.



In a society as highly militarized as the U.S. supports, a change of direction will only come on the heels of some other catastrophe. Even that might not be enough, as the whole economic system of capitalism has long been symbiotic with the military support that guards the markets and resources required to fuel the wealth of the homeland. I would hope that Caldicott's and Eisendrath's call that it will happen if we demand it would be true, but more pessimistically, the dead weight of economic, military, political, and economic forces will not readily be turned astray without some final death throes inflicted either on the world, or the American populace (witness the current financial meltdown and the new political controls established by the war on terror)...or both.

 

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Jim Miles is a Canadian educator and analyst who examines the world through a syncretic lens. His analysis of international and domestic geopolitical ideas and actions incorporates a lifetime of interest in current events, a desire to (more...)
 

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