Editor,
You may recall the U.S. Navy successfully shooting down a disabled spy satellite over the Pacific Ocean a week ago.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said publicly that this test proved our country's missile defense system works, and that the operation "speaks for itself."
I knew this would happen. Sorry to contradict Gates, but as I'm sure the Russians and the Chinese will be happy to point out, this target was a sitting duck, crippled, unable to use any countermeasures and moving quite slowly on an easily trackable trajectory.
In real life, an attacker would be using multiple warheads, including undetectable decoys, would be moving a lot faster and wouldn't be giving us several weeks notice of the impending attack, either.
You think this might make things a wee bit more complicated? Anyone who claims this test proves that missile defense works is either lying or a moron, or both.
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The so-called missile defense system is the biggest boondoggle of modern times, and there is no credible scientific evidence of it ever working.
Yet, we continue to give trillions of dollars to corrupt defense contractors who routinely bilk the government for so-called "Star Wars" technology that has never and will never work.
The government's dream of militarizing space is not only contrary to the will of the rest of the planet, but it's totally insane. It is also virtually impossible with current technology.
Not only that, but advocates of missile defense such as Gates ignore the fact that any conflict in orbit would have seriously detrimental consequences for everyone, not just our enemies.
As UC-Santa Cruz professor of physics Joel Primack states in Chalmers Johnson's excellent book Nemesis, "Weaponizing of space would make the debris problem much worse, and even one war in space could encase the entire planet in a shell of whizzing debris that would thereafter make space near the Earth highly hazardous for peaceful as well as military purposes ... (and) will jeopardize the possibility of space exploration."
The globe would be surrounded by so much floating debris that normal satellite communications would be impossible. That means no cell phones, no cable TV, no GPS or any other technology that relies on satellite communication.
The rest of the world is not fooled by this test. The international community rightfully considers this to be the first shot in the U.S. military's race to turn Earth orbit into a war zone.
As responsible citizens, we cannot allow this to happen. We need to demand that our country comply with the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which President Bush unilaterally withdrew from in 2001.
Jason Darensburg
UNM staff
